Heat Transfer Inquiry

The materials that I used for this experiment are the following; four mugs, 4 rubber bands, a measuring cup, scissors, a ruler, a tea kettle,  a candy thermometer, plastic wrap, aluminum foil, one dish towel, a piece of  card stock paper,  and a kitchen timer.  I first filled the tea kettle with tap water and turned the burner on high heat.  Then as the water was heating up, I got all my materials ready for the experiment.  I cut the plastic wrap, aluminum foil, and dish towel using scissors and a ruler to a 11.5 inch by 8 inch piece so it would match the size of the card stock.  I then found four rubber bands and four mugs that were exactly the same.  I got four measuring cups and got them ready to fill to the half cup line.  Once my tea kettle was whistling, I first poured the water into one of the mugs and measured the water temperature.  It measured 210° F the first trial, 208° F the second trial, and 211° F on the third trial.  I did this because I wanted to know the starting temperature before covering the hot water with various materials.  I filled each measuring cup to the half cup mark and poured the hot water  into the mug and then covered the top with a material and put a rubber band around it to hold the material on top.  Once all four were covered and held down with the rubber band, I then set the kitchen timer for thirty minutes.  After the thirty minutes were up, the timer went off, and I quickly removed each rubber band and the material, and then took the temperature of the water using the candy thermometer.  I repeated this process for all the mugs and then recorded the temperatures of the water.  I then did the experiment two more times to complete two more trials.  Here is the data that I recorded.

aluminum foil	plastic wrap	card stock	towel
120° F	110° F	105° F	110° F
122° F	112° F	105° F	111° F
123° F	111° F	104° F	112° F

        

There were some challenges that I experienced during my heat transfer guided inquiry experience.  What didn't go so well was that it was a long and difficult process to get a thermometer that worked well for the experiment.  I took the temperature of the water for each trial before I covered the mugs with the various materials.  The first time I went to take the temperature of the hot water, it broke the thermometer that came in our science kit for this class.  I think it was due to the drastic change of temperature and the heat expanded the liquid and broke the glass of the thermometer.  It also could have been that it had a crack in it already.  I had my daughter go to the store and pick up a thermometer at the grocery store.  She came home with a digital thermometer.  This one didn’t work because it did not measure temperatures that high.  The next step was to go the grocery store myself and look at various food thermometers and see if one of those would work.  I knew the thermometer needed to be able to measure high temperatures as well as show specific temperatures so my data would be accurate.  I thought the candy thermometer would work the best and when I got back to my house to conduct the trials, I knew that it was the right choice. 

To extend this experiment, I would challenge students to come up with a container that would keep the food warm for the longest amount of time.  After the containers were made, I would pop some popcorn and have students test their containers.