It’s almost Science Week 2017!
There are lots of ideas to link with a heat and insulation on the Science Week website.
Other ways to explore heat and insulation for all classes include:
Which spoon will melt the ice first.
For this experiment you will need different spoons, metal, wooden and plastic. Give each group a set of spoons and ask the children to describe them using as many words as they can. Place an ice cube on each spoon and ask the children to guess what ice cube will melt first. Observe and record the results. For older classes you can discuss which spoon was a conductor of heat energy.
Snowman’s Coat
This idea is from a concept cartoon. Use the concept cartoon to encourage discussion in the class and predict what they think will happen.
Give each group two small tubs and some kitchen roll. Give the groups four ice cubes. Get the group to wrap two ice cubes in the kitchen roll and leave the other two unwrapped and predict which one will melt first. Again with older classes you can explore insulators and conductors of heat energy.
Keeping the Damp Out.
You may be familiar with this experiment from Primary Science.
Give each group sugar cubes, small dish with coloured water and a selection of materials. Ask the children to place one cube in the dish, then place one of the materials over the cube and place another sugar cube on top. Repeat with the other materials. The first sugar cube will absorb the water, but ask the children to predict which material will prevent the second sugar cube from absorbing the water too.
These are some ideas to link with the heat and insulation ideas on Science Week Website.
Thanks to Una Leader for some of these ideas which I got on her Summer Course last year.
A.M.
Aistear Múinteoir 