Heat Transfer

Grade Level: 7th grade

Lesson Title/Number: Heat Transfer
I.

Related Unit Essential Question(s):

What is heat transfer?
What is the amount of thermal energy an object has?

II.

Standard(s):
Ohio Learning Standard - 7th grade Physical Science Conservation of Mass and
Energy Energy can be transferred through a variety of ways.

III.

Learning Target(s):
-I can compare the temperature of different materials to determine which are better at
preventing heat transfer.
-I can explain how the heat transfer process works.

IV.

Materials:
-Pencil
-Thermometers
-6 soda cans, 1 wrapped in aluminum foil, 1 with paper towel, 1 with plastic wrap, 1 with
wool sock, 1 with cotton sock
-Heat Transfer Activity Sheet
-Heat Transfer Graph

V.

Procedures:
a. Beginning:
-Teacher asks questions: What is heat? What is thermal energy? What are some
examples of sources that provide us with heat?
-State learning targets: I can compare the temperature of different materials to
determine which are better at preventing heat transfer. I can explain how heat
transfer works.
-Introduce Heat Transfer Activity
-Review heat, thermal energy, temperature, kinetic energy
-Students will be discovering the concepts of conduction and insulation through
the pop can activity that they will complete. Teacher will conduct
demonstrations for students. The soda can wrap demonstration will require
students to first make a prediction of what would happen to the temperature of a
soda can when it is wrapped in a given material. Students will then be given the
actual temperature of the can read earlier in the day.
b. Middle:
-Students will be separated into 5 groups of 3 with 1 group of 2. Students will be
grouped according to their ability level. Higher level learners will be paired with
lower level learners.
-Students will be given the scenario that they are going on a field trip on a hot day

and want to take a cold pop in their lunch. However, they want this pop can to
remain cold until they go to drink it. They need to determine the best way to keep
it cold. Students will be asked for suggestions and reasons to why their particular
method would work. It is expected that students will suggest that the materials
will keep the cold in however, the teacher will challenge the students to think
about whether cold transfers or if heat just transfers.
- Students will be instructed on how to complete the activity. Students will find
that there are 6 different stations with a pop can at each station. Each pop can will
be open and will have a thermometer in it and a different type of material to cover
the can. The different stations will be: wool sock, paper towel, aluminum, plastic
wrap, cotton sock, and nothing. The students will measure the initial temperature
of the pop cans with their group. Each group will be assigned one specific pop can
to which they will measure the temperature of the pop liquid inside the can.
Students will record this initial temperature on their Heat Transfer Activity Sheet
located in the column titled Temperature at Time 1. The teacher will then
instruct the students on how to construct their graphs. Students will be shown an
example of a graph constructed by the teacher on the projector. Students can use
this example to help them to set up their graphs. Once students have their graphs
set up they will graph their temperature at time 1 values. Students will be asked to
use a colored pencil color of their choice to graph temperature at time 1 values
and a different color to graph their temperature at time 2 values so that they can
easily see the difference between the two when looking at their graphs. After
about 20 minutes, students will then be required to find the temperature of each
can currently. Students will approach the can that they measured the temperature
initially to start there. This time each group will measure the temperature of each
pop can. Students will write this current temperature in the column on their Heat
Transfer Activity Sheet titled Temperature at Time 2. Students will spend 2
minutes at each station. The teacher will notify the students when it is time to
change stations. Students will follow a path of rotating stations to complete their
data table. While students are visiting the different stations and recording their
temperatures they should be able to notice a difference in temperatures between
the different materials at the different stations. It is important for students to
realize that the initial temperature will be different from the final temperature.
When groups have finished all stations, students will return to their original seats.
The class will be instructed to now use the temperature readings from
Temperature at Time 2 to complete the rest of their bar graph on their graph
paper. Graphing Temperature at Time 2 will allow them to see a visual
representation of the difference in the temperatures.
-Students will discuss with their groups whether their initial predictions were
correct or not. They will then discuss why their initial predictions may have been
different than the actual results and discuss anything that they have learned.
Concepts discussed will include why the wool sock and paper towel were the best
insulators and why the plastic wrap and nothing were the best conductors.

c. End:
-Students will be brought back together as a whole group for groups to share the
results that they received from the activity. Groups will be asked to identify what
their predictions were versus what results they received from completing the
activity. Students will also be asked to explain what they have learned from the
activity. If students have not mentioned the terms conduction and insulation the
teacher will introduce them to the students. Students will be told that a conductor
is one that transfers heat well and an insulator is one that does not allow heat
transfer to pass through as much as a conductor; it allows heat to transfer at a
much slower rate. Students will be asked to explain what materials may be
insulators and what materials may be conductors.
- Students will complete an exit slip, in the last 10 minutes, which will
demonstrate their understanding of the concepts learned through the lesson
activity. Students will turn in this exit slip in a stack on the front table. Students
will be required to remain quiet until everyone is finished with their exit slip.

Assessment:
-Students will be assessed informally by the teacher walking around to listen to student
discussions regarding the pop can activity. The teacher will be looking to hear that the students
are able to explain how the heat transfer process works and why some materials were better at
reducing heat transfer than others.
-Students will be given a formative assessment in the form of an exit slip to determine student
understanding of the concepts of heat transfer. Students will be asked to explain how the heat
transfer process works including the use of the terms insulation and conduction if they can. The
teacher will use this assessment data to determine the students current understanding of the
concept of heat transfer. The teacher plans to further explain the concepts of conduction and
insulation in the lesson for the following day. Therefore, the teacher will be mostly concerned
with students being able to properly explain how the heat transfer process works. If a majority of
the students do not understand the heat transfer process, the teacher will provide an additional
lesson the following day that will explain the heat transfer process. The teacher will begin by
discussing the results of the pop can activity and then will show a short video on heat transfer
that will allow the students to get more instruction of the concept of heat transfer in a different
manner.