Insulator Design Challenge

The students are presented with a problem: If you have a hot or cold drink, it will get hotter or colder over time, depending on the environment. How can you prevent this, so you can enjoy your drink longer? Students design, engineer, and test an insulator to try to solve this problem. Students collect time and temperature data and then evaluate whether their insulator was successful compared to others in their class.

After this activity, students should be able to:

• Design, construct, and test an insulator with a partner to prevent thermal energy loss or gain.
• Identify materials with high and low relative thermal conductivities.
• Compare and contrast their insulator product with at least one other group by answering guiding questions.
• Evaluate the success of their insulator by analyzing data they collected and discussing that data with their lab group.

Students should be able to make observations, make predictions, and add and subtract double-digit numbers. Students should also have an understanding that heat transfers from hotter areas to colder areas, and can happen via convection, conduction, or radiation. Students should have already studied kinetic and potential energy, energy subtypes, energy transformation, energy transfer, and the types of heat transfer (conduction, convection, and radiation).

(Prepare to show students the Insulator Design Challenge Presentation (PPTX). Slides 1-5 are used in the Introduction.)

Today, we are going to do a project that applies our skills and understanding about heat transfer. This is an engineering project, so you will be learning and practicing new skills too! (Show Slide 2.) Imagine you have a cup of hot chocolate on a cold winter day. Draw a diagram and show where there would be heat transfer. Then, add something to the cup to show what you would do to keep your drink warm. (Have students work and share ideas with class).

(Review heat transfer concepts as represented in students’ diagrams.) Now that we have reviewed and practiced heat transfer, we need to talk about engineering! What words or pictures come to mind when you think about engineers or engineering? Draw a picture or write two sentences. (Have students share different ideas with the class out loud. Show Slide 3).

You are going to take on an engineering design challenge! Your challenge is to design and build an insulator with a paper cup and other materials to keep water or an ice cube colder than the other groups in your class! This is similar to what you thought about with your cup of hot chocolate. Heat transfer happens in cold drinks too! (Show Slide 4.) We will watch a five-minute video as a class to learn about the process of engineering. Answer these questions as you watch: What is the problem we are trying to solve? Which steps will we be using in this project? (Have students share answers with the class, and highlight the design, testing, troubleshooting, and evaluating parts of the process.)

(Show Slide 5.) Before you begin to design your insulator, here are some examples of what your insulator can look like:

Examples of insulators that students can use to help them design their own.CopyrightCopyright Bradley Agostinelli, 2021

An example of an insulator that students can use as a starting point in designing their own.CopyrightCopyright Bradley Agostinelli, 2021

You and your partner will start with a paper cup, and you will have access to materials like aluminum foil, cardboard, plastic wrap, cotton balls, and tape. You will have one day to design and plan, one day to build and test, and one day to run and collect data.

Background

The three types of heat transfer are conduction, convection and radiation. When thermal energy is being transferred, it always goes from the state of higher energy to lower energy. When a cup of ice is sitting in a warm room, the thermal energy is transferred to the ice through conduction via the ice touching the cup, through convection via the movement of water as the ice melts and changes phase, and through radiation via electromagnetic waves (e.g., light) that shine on the ice. Insulators slow the process of heat transfer. A cup with a thick outer layer, a lid, or a reflective surface can be an effective insulator.

Before the Activity

• Arrange students in partners based on their lab table.
• Distribute the Insulator Design Challenge Worksheet (PDF) to each student.
• Have room-temperature water ready that has been sitting out to ensure that it’s as close to the same temperature as possible, and have ice cubes in the freezer.
• • Or have pitchers of cold water (36°F) in the refrigerator (enough for all groups) if you do not want to use ice cubes.
• Set up building materials in a common space for the students to pick up what they need.
• Review the cleanup procedure.

With the Students

Session 1: Design

1. Lead students through the Introduction/Motivation (summary below):

• • Watch this 5:16-minute video and share thoughts about the engineering design process.
• 1. • Ask students to talk to partners to identify examples of things that have been engineered and what problem they were trying to solve. (Example: An air conditioner solves problem of being too hot inside.)

1. 1. • Ask students to talk to a partner about which parts of the engineering design process they will be doing. (Answer: Identifying a problem, designing a solution, building a prototype, testing prototype, comparing prototypes.)
   1. Introduce the background and details of the engineering project.
   2. • Have students identify the problem we are trying to solve first. (Answer: A cold drink will eventually warm up on a warm day, so we are trying to keep it cold.)
      • Discuss the guidelines, grading, and goal of the activity. (Answer: Students can only use a limited number of materials (at teacher’s discretion) to keep the cup of water cold.)
1. Students answer introductory questions #1-4 with a lab partner in the Insulator Design Challenge Worksheet (PDF) (5 minutes) and then review answers as a class.
2. Students individually design how they will build their insulator by drawing a diagram with labels on question #5 (5 minutes).Prior to building, a student designs an insulator by drawing a diagram that includes types of materials and structures to be used.CopyrightCopyright Bradley Agostinelli, 2021
3. Students write down their explanation of why they chose to design their insulator like that in question #6 (3 minutes).

Session 2: Build and test

1. Students share their design with their partners and discuss which design and which parts they would like to use when they start building (2 minutes).
2. Students build their insulator.Two students work together to build their insulator based on their design from materials provided to them for the activity.CopyrightCopyright Bradley Agostinelli, 2021

Students work together to build their insulator based on their design from materials provided to them for the activity. A student shows progress made during the building part of the lesson.CopyrightCopyright Bradley Agostinelli, 2021

Students work together to build their insulator based on their design from materials provided to them for the activity. A student shows progress made during the building part of the lesson.CopyrightCopyright Bradley Agostinelli, 2021

• • Working with their partners, they discuss, decide, and use materials to build their design (30 minutes).
  • The teacher walks around the classroom to ask guiding questions and observe students.

3. As students build, they can test their insulators by requesting water and a thermometer. They can have access to a scale or granulated cylinder to measure the amount of ice left (if using ice).When students think they are finished, they can ask for a thermometer to test whether it can fit in their cup to measure the temperature of the water. It is required that a thermometer be able to fit into their cup. A student shows how a thermometer will be able to fit into her cup to measure water temperature.CopyrightCopyright Bradley Agostinelli, 2021
4. As students test, they should write in their testing data in the “Testing” section in the Insulator Design Challenge Worksheet (PDF).

• • Students record how long their test was, how much the temperature changed, and (if using ice) the amount of ice left.

5. Before the end of the session, the students should have a completed insulator and have written notes about solving a problem they had with their insulator in the “Troubleshooting and Redesign Notes” section.

• • Ask students: What issues did you come across when you were building, and what did you do to try to fix them? This is what they write in this “Troubleshooting” section.

Session 3: Run and collect data

1. All students test their insulator with (1) one ice cube in a cup, or (2) one ice cube in water in a cup, or (3) only cold water at 36°F (teacher’s choice). In the following session, the students will run their insulator for 15 minutes to measure the temperature change of the water and use that to assess the success of their design. In this case, all students started with cold water (approximately 36°F). A student observes the finished insulator and works on the “Results,” “Conclusions,” and “Reflection” sections of the lab packet.CopyrightCopyright Bradley Agostinelli, 2021

In the following session, students will run their insulator for 15 minutes to measure the temperature change of the water and use that to assess the success of their design. In this case, all students started with cold water (approximately 36°F). A student observes the finished insulator and works on the “Results,” “Conclusions,” and “Reflection” sections of the lab packet.CopyrightCopyright Bradley Agostinelli, 2021

• 1. As soon as the teacher pours the water in, the students begin keeping track of the time.
  2. If using water, students insert a thermometer and read the temperature over time and write data in the “Challenge Results” section.
  3. Remind students that if they touch the cup too much, they are adding thermal energy to their cup and their temperature will not reflect how effective their insulator is.
  4. If using just one ice cube, students observe the ice cube to see how quickly it completely melts and write data in the “Challenge Results” section.

2. Halfway through the session (after ~20 minutes), students stop testing and share their results with the class.

• 1. Do a poll to see which students had the lowest temperature change.
  2. Identify the winning group and carry their insulator around so others can see and compare their insulator to the winning one.

3. Students complete the “Challenge Results” and “Conclusion” sections to compare and assess the performance of their insulator and different groups’ insulators.

• 1. Students write the details of the winning group and their group in the “Challenge Results” section and compare them.
  2. Then they conclude why they got a different result than the winning group based on which structures they built and which materials they used.

4. Students write in the “Reflection” section about their engineering experience.

• 1. There are guiding questions and sentence starters in the questions to assist the students.

Pre-Activity Assessment

Engineering Design Video: Students will watch a video about the engineering design process and answer questions, which allows them to show what they know about engineering.

Activity Embedded (Formative) Assessment

Insulator Design: On the Insulator Design Challenge Worksheet (PDF), the students design their insulator and justify why they designed their insulator a certain way.

Guiding Questions: The teacher checks in with groups while students are building, testing, and running their insulators. The teacher asks questions to help students think about what part of the engineering process they are in and which step might be next. This helps students think about what changes they can make in their insulator based on their tests.

Post-Activity (Summative) Assessment

Evaluation and Reflection: Students evaluate the success of their insulator compared to others as a final step of this engineering design challenge. The teacher can use the “Reflection” part of the Insulator Design Challenge Worksheet (PDF) as a post-activity assessment for how the engineering process went for the students and what they learned. Optional: The teacher can also create a rubric to assess differently.

• Do not consume any ice cubes or water used as lab materials.
• Slowly cut or tear materials for the insulator (such as cardboard or aluminum foil) using scissors or hands.
• If there is a water spill, use paper towels to clean it immediately to prevent anyone from slipping.

• In this activity, the students used cold water to run their insulators (not ice cubes). It was a moderate success as long as there was enough cold water around the same temperature (36°F from the refrigerator) for all groups. This activity was tested with ice cubes alone, ice cubes and cold water, and just cold water, and the cold water alone yielded the quickest temperature change. Have the students use only cold water and no ice cubes so they have enough time to read a temperature change and compare it with other groups' insulators.
• More adults in the classroom would make it easier to monitor and distribute materials (such as water and ice cubes) for the students to test and run their insulator, but this should be able to be done with just one adult as well. Testing how fast the ice cube melts in the cup or with water in the cup will give the students an example to try to surpass with their design.
• A mini lesson on how to read the thermometer was important because a student did not know how to do that well. Each group needed to read their thermometer for their data after they ran their insulator, so this was necessary.
• If short on time, students may not have enough time to test the insulator multiple times and they may need to cross out the “Testing” and “Conclusion” sections. But if the activity extends longer, have students test their insulator multiple times and use both sections.
• While waiting for the thermometer to read the temperature change of the water (about 15 minutes), the students can work on the “Reflection” section of their packet, including anything else they may have been missing.

Lexico.com. Lexico. Accessed July 22, 2021. (Source of a vocabulary definition with some adaptation). https://www.lexico.com/en/definition/troubleshoot

Nationalgeographic.org. National Geographic Society. Accessed July 22, 2021. (Source of some vocabulary definitions). https://www.nationalgeographic.org/glossary/

StemScopes. Thermal Energy Transfer Explore 3: Engineering Solution - Build a Medicine Container. 2021. Accelerate Learning, Inc, https://app.acceleratelearning.com/scopes/17544/elements/775772.

The Engineering Process: Crash Course Kids #12.2. May 29, 2015. Crash Course Kids, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fxJWin195kU.