Coffee, Tea, and Insulators

Project #1503 on iSENSEProject.org

Insulators – Material Science

https://isenseproject.org/projects/1503

Materials: Ceramic mug, Styrofoam cup, hot water, 2 temperature probes, 2 Chromebooks.

Standard: NGSS MS-PS3-3: Apply scientific principles of energy and heat transfer to design, construct, and test a devise to minimize or maximize thermal energy transfer.

Objective: This lab is a demonstration/introduction to thermal properties of heat transfer and insulation.

Procedure: Students will pour 200 mL of boiling water carefully into a ceramic mug and a Styrofoam cup. The temperature sensors will be used to measure the temperature of the water in the two containers over a period of time until the liquids reach room temperature. Students will then analyze the data and answer questions based on their information.

Guiding Questions:

1. Why do fast food restaurants use Styrofoam cups to serve hot beverages? What do they use to serve cold beverages? Why do they use different materials?

2. What are the results of your experiment? Which container held the temperature the highest for the longest time?

3. Styrofoam is not good for the environment. Why? (http://www.earthresource.org/campaigns/capp/capp-styrofoam.html)

4. If you were to design a new material for hot beverages, what would you take into consideration? Why? How would you design, test and use your material?