Insulation lesson created by Sam Stewart

1. Retaining Heat Energy (teacher demo)

a. Obtain a 2 Styrofoam cups , a beaker , hot water, thermometer
b. Wrap sheets of paper as tight!y as you can around " of the Styrofoam
cups (shou!d a!! be about the same si#e)
c. Students predict which item wi!! ho!d heat the best as we!! as a reason$
d. %i!! the containers with the same &o!ume of hot water
e. '!ace a thermometer in each cup and secure p!astic wrap o&er the top
of each container$
i. (easure and record the temperature of the water in each
container$
ii. (easure the temperature in each container e&ery minute o&er
") min$ period$
f. E*p!ain how your resu!ts compared to your prediction$
2. +se data to graph resu!ts
a. ,oes this e&idence support your prediction and the reason you ga&e
for it-
b. What does this te!! you about retaining heat energy-
Retaining Energy Part 2
Focus Question: Does adding extra layers to materials make them
better insulators?
Hypothesis: I think that the __________________ (metal can/Styrofoam
cup will hold heat the best because
________________________________________________________________!
Table 2: "emperature of #ater $%er "ime
Materi
al
Minutes
& ' ( ) * + , - . / '& '' '( ') '*
Styrofoam
0etal
1ooking at the table abo%e2 what claims can you make about the
material used for insulation and the a3ect the added paper had?
4laims 5%idence
'! _________________ was a better at
holding heat than
_____________________!
(!
)!
'!
(!
)!
Graphing
6ou will now use the data
that you collected in data
table ( to create a graph!
7emember to use a
di3erent color to represent
each material!
7emember to number and
label your x and y axis8
Conclusion
#hich material is best for insulating? (9se the data tables and
the graph as e%idence to explain!
#hat does this tell you about retaining energy?