Instill the concept of adaptation with the help of Blubber Gloves—ziplock bags, shortening, and duct tape. Scholars discuss how animals and plants keep warm in polar regions, record their predictions, and try on their Blubber Gloves to...

Knead a resource on electric circuits? A fun activity teaches future scientists about conductors and insulators. They prepare conducting and insulating dough and use them to make creatures that light up.

It's all about the material. Learners experiment with different substances as they try to keep an ice cube from melting. They draw conclusions by answering a set of questions about the types and amount of material that had the best result.

Groups of two to four work collaboratively to engineer a birdhouse that will stay cool in the summer heat. Teams examine several different-colored roofs, testing the efficiency of each with a heat lamp. Then, groups sketch their ideas,...

When you think electric circuits, your pencil probably isn't the thing that comes to mind. A simple experiment lets learners test whether the graphene in pencil lead is a conductor or an insulator. If the LED bulb lights up, a conductor...

It's a race to the finish! Which ice cube will melt the fastest? Scholars discover the effect thermal energy has on melting ice. They experiment with melting ice cubes on different materials and learn that even at a consistent...

Make electricity flow through Play-Doh. Individuals create animals or other creatures using Play-Doh. The engineering aspect? Eyes that light up and Play-Doh that conducts electricity.

Adjust the melting time of ice without varying the temperature! Learners experiment with different materials to decide how the materials affect the rate an ice cube melts. They then connect their findings to the conductivity of each...

Using gloves, shortening, tape, and a lot of ice, participants experience the feeling of having blubber. The experiment's eight steps follow an informative page about blubber and animals that have it.

In this heat worksheet, students complete experiments with heat and answer short answer questions about the transfer of thermal energy. Students complete 4 questions, one chart, and one bar graph.

Students make a simple conductivity tester using a battery and light bulb. They learn the difference between conductors and insulators of electrical energy as they test a variety of materials for their ability to conduct electricity.

PBS offers an experiment that kids can do at home to learn more about heat conduction and how it works.

Student teams design insulated beverage bottles in this challenge, and test them to determine which materials work best at insulating hot water to keep it warm for as long as possible.

Students learn the importance of heat transfer and heat conductance. Using hot plates, student groups measure the temperature change of a liquid over a set time period and use the gathered data to calculate the heat transfer that occurs....

Students test the insulation properties of different materials by timing how long it takes ice cubes to melt in the presence of various insulating materials. Students learn about the role that thermal insulation materials can play in...

Students build their own simple conductivity tester and explore whether given solid materials and solutions are good conductors of electricity.

Students learn about using renewable energy from the Sun for heating and cooking as they build and compare the performance of four solar cooker designs. They explore the concepts of insulation, reflection, absorption, conduction and...

Instructions on how to build an instrument that can be used to test which materials are conductors and which are insulators, in order to bridge a gap in an electrical circuit.

This simple demonstration helps students understand the concept of conduction. Site includes background information, images, and lesson plans outlining the demonstration of conduction.

An excellent page from the Colorado State University with a heavy mathematical emphasis. Each form of heat transfer--conduction, convection, and radiation--is defined, compared, and contrasted. Mathematical equations governing the rates...

This site from the Colorado State University discusses the tranfer of heat by conduction and convection. Discussion centers around the application of these two heat transfer mechanisms to engines. The variables that effect the resistance...

This activity will teach you how it is even possible to bake ice cream in a hot oven and have it come out frozen.

For this activity, students will be given a set of materials: cardboard, a set of insulating materials (i.e. foam, newspaper, etc.), aluminum foil, and Plexiglas. Students will then become engineers in building a solar oven from the...

There are two main types of materials when it comes to electricity, conductors, and insulators. What are they made of? Find out by testing different materials in a circuit to see which ones conduct the most electricity.