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TE Curricular Unit: Conduction, Convection, and Radiation

Grade: 6 (6-8)

Time Required: 2.5 hours

Summary

With the help of simple, teacher-led demonstration activities, students learn the basic concepts of heat transfer by means of conduction, convection, and radiation. Students then apply these concepts as they work in teams to solve two problems. One problem requires that they maintain the warm temperature of one soda can filled with water at approximately body temperature, and the other problem is to cause an identical soda can of warm water to cool as much as possible during the same thirty-minute time interval. Students design their solutions using only common, everyday materials. They record the water temperatures in their two soda cans every five minutes, and prepare line graphs in order to visually compare their results to the temperature of an unaltered control can of water.

Engineering Connection

Engineers encounter problems of warming and cooling liquids in a number of situations. For soda, this usually involves maintaining a cold temperature, but the principles described here are the same. Students approach the problems presented in this activity as engineers, using heat transfer principles to accomplish a goal.

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