Center Science Education
Feeling the Heat
What is an urban heat island? Middle school meteorologists find out by comparing temperatures at different locations on campus. They relate their findings to what might be happening in a concrete jungle and how it impacts local weather....
Space Awareness
Water is a Heat Sink
One of the key objectives of Europe's Copernicus Earth program is to monitor the temperatures of the oceans and seas on Earth. Young scholars learn the effects of different heat capacities through two experiments. These experiments...
Kenan Fellows
What Is Heat?
If objects have no heat, how do they can gain and lose it? Scholars experiment with heat, temperature, and specific heat of various substances. They create definitions for these terms based on their own conclusions to complete the fourth...
Curated OER
Heat Energy - Energy Transfer
Here's a great selection of slides for a class being introduced to heat transfer. Types of materials that are good conductors or insulators are covered and the diagrams that accompany the information should make understanding more...
Exploratorium
Give and Take
Heat-sensitive liquid crystal sheets are available in a variety of sizes and temperature ranges. Purchase a class set of hand-held sheets and color half of each with a silver permanent marking pen. Learners of light can hold them under a...
Colorado State University
What Does Color Have to Do with Cooling?
Study the rate of cooling for objects of different colors. Learners focus on the reflection and absorption of infrared light. Your classes may be surprised to learn objects that heat the slowest also cool the slowest.
Curated OER
Heat Loss and Gain in Physical Changes and Chemical Reactions
Students measure the heat of physical and chemical changes in reactions. In this chemistry lesson students determine at what extent changes emit or absorb heat.
Curated OER
How is heat transferred through conduction?
Fifth graders observe different types of conductors. They answer orally about the conduction of heat energy with 100% accuracy. Students investigate some materials that conduct heat much better than others, and poor conductors can...
Colorado State University
What Makes a Gas, a Greenhouse Gas?—The Carbon Dioxide Dance
Investigate a heated topic in environmental science. Scholars team up to play the parts of gas molecules in the atmosphere. As the teacher moves about, acting as the electromagnetic wave, learners react as their molecules would to the...
Curated OER
Weather and Oceans: Uneven Heating of the Earth
Students investigate what causes the heat on Earth. In this Earth heating instructional activity, students experiment with different heat sources and determine where the Earth gathers the most heat. Students explore vocabulary words...
Curated OER
Ice Cream Lab
I scream, you scream, we all scream for ice cream! Even high schoolers enjoy making ice cream. This laboratory exercise has them record the temperature changes throughout the process of liquid becoming solid, graph the results, and...
Center for Learning in Action
Water – Changing States (Part 2)
Here is part two of a two-part lesson in which scholars investigate the changing states of water—liquid, solid, and gas—and how energy from heat changes its molecules. With grand conversation, two demonstrations, and one hands-on...
Center Science Education
Looking Into Surface Albedo
How does the color of a surface affect the heating of the earth? Middle school science classes experiment with color and surface albedo to determine the relationship. The website has tabs for an overview, teacher's instructions,...
Curated OER
Light Can Heat Too!
Third graders explore absorption and reflection of light energy. In this solar energy instructional activity, 3rd graders explore how light energy transfers to heat energy through the construction of a solar water heater. Students will...
Curated OER
Melted Paintings
Another in the amazing series of lesson plans which use unique mediums! Students execute artwork on a non-traditional painting surface. They theorize what happen to their artwork if it is exposed to heat, then see what happens when they...
Curated OER
Identifying Materials by their Reflectivity
In this reflectivity worksheet, students read about the absorption and reflectivity of light by different materials. Students solve 4 problems and determine the composition of given materials based on the amount of light reflected. They...
Curated OER
Elementary Concepts in Heat
Third graders read a thermometer with accuracy, record observations and data, and infer conceptual meaning. They integrate mathematical charting and graphing skills to organize their data. They explore what happens when they touch or use...
Curated OER
What Makes Good Long Undies?
Students examine a variety of different types of fabrics and discuss what characteristics would make a good pair of long underwear for a journey to Antarctica. They investigate the properties of various fabrics and determine how they...
Chicago Botanic Garden
Albedo, Reflectivity, and Absorption
What is reflectivity, and what does it have to do with the Earth's climate? As reflectivity is measured by albedo, scientists can gather information on Earth's energy balances that relate to global warming or climate change. Budding...
Colorado State University
How Can I Turn a Solar Oven into a Refrigerator?
Whether you want to heat things up in science class or cool things down a bit, an intriguing lab's got you covered! Science scholars explore the principles of thermodynamics using a solar oven, then change the conditions to turn their...
Curated OER
What things let Light Pass Through?
Second graders classify objects according to how well light can pass through them and predict how well objects will transmit light. They experiment with objects to verify predictions while collecting, recording, and interpreting data...
Curated OER
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.
Curated OER
Taking In The Heat
Students discover that different textured materials can absorb more heat than others. Students work with thermometers, clocks, and graphs.
Curated OER
Heating Up: Direct and Indirect Sunlight
Young scholars, by conducting simulations, explore the effects of direct and indirect sunlight on heating of the Earth.