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Keeping Warm?
Fifth graders explore conductors and heat loss in different materials. In this Physical Science lesson plan, 5th graders will be measuring the temperature drop of water in four containers. The class will then discuss what an...
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Was Goldilocks Telling the Truth?
Sixth graders explore the movement of heat between objects. In this heat lesson, 6th graders use the scientific method to conduct guided experiments regarding conduction, convection, and radiation.
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Bing! Bang! Boom!
Sixth graders investigate heat energy, conduction, convection, and radiation.
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Sunlight and Warm Air
Students discuss radiant energy from the sun, performing a simple experiment with sun glasses and bright light to demonstrate the concept. Students further participate in simple in-class experiments to demonstrate: air density as it...
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Solar Box Cooker
Learners explore solar power. In this solar power instructional activity, students build simple solar cookers after they study convection, conduction, and radiation. Learners transfer their knowledge of how the solar cooker works to...
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Driving Currents
High schoolers conduct a variety of investigations to see how water, heat, and salinity affect the flow of the world's ocean currents,as well as, explore many factors that affect the flow of the world's ocean currents. They also describe...
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Measuring Thermal Energy Transfer
Students conduct an experiment to calculate and quantify heat transfer. They conduct the experiment, and complete a data and lab conclusion sheet.
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Warm and Toasty
Students are introduced to the concepts of specific heat and heat capacity. In groups, they design an experiment to test these two topics on various fabrics. They compare and contrast the amount of heat loss on the different materials...
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Insulators
Students design and carry out an investigation to test which materials is the best insulator: they predict which way heat energy flows in a system and analyze the flow of energy in a system from one point to another and from one form to...
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Ice Melting
Students design investigations to test various materials to prevent heat gain in frozen water. The task assess students' knowledge of scientific inquiry including the following skills: observation, data collection, measurement,...
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Hot Stuff
Young scholars investigate mechanical and electrical machines in the classroom and school, and identify which produce heat while operating.
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Calorimetry Lab
For this calorimetry lab, students apply the information read about a calorimeter to conduct a scientific investigation. Students record their data in a chart. Students use the information from the chart to calculate specific heat of...
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Melts in Your Bag, Not in Your Hands
Students study how the sun transfers heat to the earth through radiation. They examine how animals absorb energy from the sun to warm their bodies by experiment with chocolate melting. They examine sun safety.
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It's Gettin' Hot In Here, So Transfer Energy
Pupils study the means by which energy is transferred from the sun through the Earth's atmosphere. They examine radiation, conduction, and convection. They complete a lab to determine how the different transfers affect the atmosphere and...
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The Captain And Lake Wilmar
Tenth graders examine the ecosystem of Lake Wilmar through three coordinated performance tasks. They first investigate the effects of pH on freshwater animals by comparing the zooplankton counts from three different areas. They then...
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Shrinking Air
In this science investigation worksheet, students follow the listed procedures to find out how temperature affects air pressure as they heat and cool balloons.
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Insulators, Conductors, and Energy Transfer
Third graders conduct experiments to determine what types of material make good insulators. They prepare a graph of time vs. temperature for their sample. They choose a graph using each kind of material to display for class analysis and...
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How Hot and How Big?
Students explore star color and size. In this space science activity, students conduct various inquiry activities to explore how the color of a star affects the amount of heat produced. They also investigate how the color of stars...
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Gallery Walk Questions on Earth's Radiation Balance
Questions that can be used in a lesson on Earth's radiation balance are suggested in this resource. It is not a lesson plan, per se, but it is a list of questions for stations within a "Gallery Walk" lesson. The link to how Gallery Walks...
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Environmental Studies: The Power of Wind
Investigate the prospect of wind as a renewable resource. Second and third graders make a pinwheel, answer critical thinking questions, and then attempt to use wind power to wind string. I would be more apt to use this lesson in a 1st or...
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Insulator Lab
Students explore insulators. In this science lesson, students conduct an experiment in which they determine materials that insulate. Students graph their results using a line graph.
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Maintaining Body Heat
Learners observe and compare heat loss in various objects with surface area-to-volume ratios and transfer this comparison to the physical characteristics of animals in their environment. In small groups they conduct an experiment...
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Computer Science: Temperature
Students conduct an experiment on heat transfer and how it works. They record the temperature in whatever environment is surrounding the container and run experiments that use at least two different ambient temperatures. Students...
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Thermal Energy Transfer - Conduction
Students examine how heat passes through a pane glass window. In this energy transfer instructional activity students complete a lab activity.