Heat transfer is an important concept that is a part of everyday life yet often misunderstood by students. In this lesson, students learn the scientific concepts of temperature, heat and the transfer of heat through conduction, convection and radiation. These scientific concepts are illustrated by comparison to magical spells used in the Harry Potter stories.

Students learn the purpose of a fever in the body's immune system and how it protects the body against germs. The students continue to explore temperature by creating a model thermometer and completing a temperature conversion worksheet. They come to see how engineers are involved in designing helpful medical instruments such as thermometers.

Students explore materials engineering by modifying the material properties of water. Specifically, they use salt to lower the freezing point of water and test it by making ice cream. Using either a simple thermometer or a mechatronic temperature sensor, students learn about the lower temperature limit at which liquid water can exist such that even if placed in contact with a material much colder than 0 degrees Celsius, liquid water does not get colder than 0 °C. This provides students with an example of how materials can be modified (engineered) to change their equilibrium properties. They observe that when mixed with salt, liquid water's lower temperature limit can be dropped. Using salt-ice mixtures to cool the ice cream mixes to temperatures lower than 0 °C works better than ice alone.

This video is the second lesson in the How Cold Is Cold? BLOSSOMS series and examines the properties of materials under low temperature conditions. The video consists of a series of fascinating demonstrations with liquid nitrogen, which boils at 77K (-196 C -321 F). These demonstrations include the following: What goes up, may not come down; Is that supposed to be cold? - thermal insulation; Some properties of liquid nitrogen; Making ice cream - the slow way and the fast way; Try not to explode: expansion of liquid nitrogen and the ideal gas law; Making the air cold: phase changes and the affect on volume; No frozen fingers: the changes in mechanical properties; Resistivity at 77K; The magic magnet: the Meissner Effect; Cautions in using liquid nitrogen

This video lesson is part of a two-part series and introduces the concept of temperature. Temperature can be a challenging concept to convey since our perception is tied to words that are relative to our own experience, which varies quite a lot. A short activity to be performed in the classroom shows the need for a temperature scale since qualitative descriptions are not adequate. Temperatures that vary from the hottest to coldest recorded temperatures on earth are shown in advance of introducing the boiling temperatures of a number of cryogenic liquids.

The aim of this lesson is to introduce the concepts of heat and temperature, which many students find confusing. During the lesson, students will be asked to explore and discuss situations where even though the same amount of heat is absorbed by several substances, the increase in temperature of the substances is different. This video lesson presents a series of stories relating to heat and temperature, beginning with a visit to a factory where gamat oil is produced. In the video, a man dips his finger into boiling gamat oil yet feels no pain. The scene will draw students’ attention and raise their curiosity about how this is possible. Students will also carry out several experiments to compare and relate the situations where the same amount of heat absorbed by substances will result in different temperatures. By the end of this lesson, students will understand the term “specific heat capacity” and will recognize the difference between a high or low specific heat capacity. They will also understand the term “thermal diffusivity” and how this relates to the topic of the lesson. This lesson offers some authentic learning experiences where students will have the opportunity to relate the concept of heat and temperature to everyday situations. It will take about 50 minutes to complete - however, you may want to divide the lesson into two classes if the activities require more time.

Students learn about the nature of thermal energy, temperature and how materials store thermal energy. They discuss the difference between conduction, convection and radiation of thermal energy, and complete activities in which they investigate the difference between temperature, thermal energy and the heat capacity of different materials. Students also learn how some engineering requires an understanding of thermal energy.

This classroom activity allows students to use water surface temperature, bathymetric data and weather data to look at trends in the water temperature of the Great Lakes. The exercise asks students to make predictions, and then use the data to answer questions. The site contains everything that is needed for the exercise, including student handouts, maps, links to data sources, and background information and questions for discussion.

This resource is a video abstract of a research paper created by Research Square on behalf of its authors. It provides a synopsis that's easy to understand, and can be used to introduce the topics it covers to students, researchers, and the general public. The video's transcript is also provided in full, with a portion provided below for preview:

"Climate change may negatively impact cold-water fish while benefiting their parasites. That is the finding of a new study conducted by researchers at the University of Münster. An important biological question regarding climate change is how ecological and evolutionary dynamics will be altered in the face of temperature shifts. Climate change is expected to impact many species -- and parasites are no exception. But few studies have conducted empirical tests to determine precisely how environmental changes will affect host-parasite dynamics. To provide insights into this, a team of researchers conducted an experiment involving three-spined sticklebacks, a tapeworm parasite, and varying water temperatures. Sticklebacks -- and the tapeworms that infect them -- occupy a wide environmental range, making this an ideal system for studying such interactions..."

The rest of the transcript, along with a link to the research itself, is available on the resource itself.

In this activity, learners investigate the speed of chemical reactions with light sticks. Learners discover that reactions can be sped up or slowed down due to temperature changes.

Students test the insulation properties of different materials by timing how long it takes ice cubes to melt in the presence of various insulating materials. Students learn about the role that thermal insulation materials can play in reducing heat transfer by conduction, convection and radiation, as well as the design and implementation of insulating materials in construction and engineering.

Students will record the temperature daily, using a bar graph, color coded bars. this monthly bar graph helps students understand phenology and interpreting graphs.

This article highlights seven science lessons that teach elementary students about seasonal change. Suggestions for integrating literacy and science include two lessons that use informational text and cause and effect relationships.

This article assembles free resources from the Keeping Warm issue of the Beyond Penguins and Polar Bears cyberzine into a unit outline based on the 5E learning cycle framework. Outlines are provided for grades K-2 and 3-5.

This article features children's literature about heat, temperature, and adaptations and behaviors that allow animals and people to survive in the polar regions.

Consistent housing is a continual issue for our community, evidence of this is readily observable in the neighborhoods surrounding our classrooms. Over the course of 15 classroom hours, students will be exploring how they can insulate structures to protect from extreme hot and extreme cold using recycled and/or repurposed materials.

Students will make observations and collect data related to temperature. Student findings will be communicated through science journals, student generated models (charts, 3D structures, drawings, etc.).

¡Aprende sobre las propiedades del sólido, líquido y gas bailando junta al famoso grupo de música Los Hermanos Gregory!

Para ayudar a entender cómo el agua cambia los estados de la materia, el científico Sam trae al grupo musical Los Hermanos Gregory para ayudar a enseñar sobre los estados de la materia a través de una danza interactiva. El espectador baila como un sólido, líquido y gas y aprende que el agua puede cambiar los estados de la materia cuando las temperaturas son inferiores a 0 grados centígrados o superiores a 100 grados centígrados.

Objetivo de Aprendizaje:
Clasificar la materia por sus propiedades físicas, incluida la forma, la masa relativa, la temperatura relativa, la textura, la flexibilidad y si el material es sólido o líquido.

Concepts underlying the first of the Essential Principles of the Climate Sciences are aligned with topics typically taught in the elementary grades. This article identifies lessons that will help elementary students develop an understanding of how Sun's light warms Earth and how variations in daylight hours are associated with seasonal change. This article appears in the free, online magazine Beyond Weather and the Water Cycle.

With the assistance of a few teacher demonstrations (online animation, using a radiometer and rubbing hands), students review the concept of heat transfer through convection, conduction and radiation. Then they apply an understanding of these ideas as they use wireless temperature probes to investigate the heating capacity of different materials sand and water under heat lamps (or outside in full sunshine). The experiment models how radiant energy drives convection within the atmosphere and oceans, thus producing winds and weather conditions, while giving students the hands-on opportunity to understand the value of remote-sensing capabilities designed by engineers. Students collect and record temperature data on how fast sand and water heat and cool. Then they create multi-line graphs to display and compare their data, and discuss the need for efficient and reliable engineer-designed tools like wireless sensors in real-world applications.

Students learn about the difference between temperature and thermal energy. They build a thermometer using simple materials and develop their own scale for measuring temperature. They compare their thermometer to a commercial thermometer, and get a sense for why engineers need to understand the properties of thermal energy.