Primary Teacher Resource Centre - Forum

talulabell · Joined: 27 Oct 2008 Posts: 913

We r having ofsted style observations next week at any time. I have faffed around with geog and re and dont think it will work. So have gone for science the WALT is understand that temperature is a measure of how hot or cold something for Year 4 QCA keeping warm. Any ideas greatly appreciared thankyou

redredrobin · Joined: 01 Nov 2008 Posts: 1336

It's definitely worth looking at why we need thermometers at the start of this lesson. Have 3 bowls of water - 1 warm, 1 cold, 1 between. Child keeps 1 hand in the cold and 1 in the warm. Then put both hands into the middle one - it will feel hot with 1 hand and cold with the other.
Then I might get them measuring different temperatures and ordering. A plenary could be matching pictures with possible temperatures. This is a good site to look at different temperatures: http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/whatisweather/aboutweather/temp.shtml

talulabell · Joined: 27 Oct 2008 Posts: 913

I have that on the plan but not sure what they will get from it? the 3 bowls bit

Knightrider · Posted: Tue Nov 03, 2009 7:25 pm Post subject:

Presumably that our perception of temperature can be subjective, therefore to be scientific we need to use the correct equipment - fair test and all that!!

talulabell · Joined: 27 Oct 2008 Posts: 913

true thanks. Thought could start with matching activity maybe where children match the pictures of heat transferal, water and ice cube etc. Then do this. Then not sure from there some kind of exploration for learning or a puzzle linked to how to measure temp

sweepings · Joined: 26 Oct 2008 Posts: 694

You could start with some odd one out activities - have some pictures of things at different temperatures e.g. ice, snow, glass of water

What can they tell you about them? You could do this with a variety of pictures.

talulabell · Joined: 27 Oct 2008 Posts: 913

thanks like that idea. Any ideas for main activity

queenlit · Joined: 28 Oct 2008 Posts: 1027

Anything here:
http://www.fossweb.com/modules3-6/WaterPlanet/index.html
or

http://www.fossweb.com/modulesK-2/SolidsandLiquids/index.html

queenlit · Joined: 28 Oct 2008 Posts: 1027

Quiz here:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/scienceclips/ages/8_9/keeping_warm.shtml

talulabell · Joined: 27 Oct 2008 Posts: 913

thanks for links. Will take a look if i do odd one out and move on to what they already know about temp. Then bowls of water. Need to move on to themometers me thinks.

queenlit · Joined: 28 Oct 2008 Posts: 1027

http://www.kented.org.uk/ngfl/subjects/science/qca/keepingwarm.htm

queenlit · Joined: 28 Oct 2008 Posts: 1027

Keeping Warm or Cool
Introduction
Children investigate whether the colour of a container (black or white) has a bearing on its ability to keep contents warm or cool. You can adapt the activity to investigate the suitability of different types of materials as thermal insulators. The children use the Detector feature of RM Number Magic to make the collection and interpretation of data much easier to manage. There is no sample file for this activity, as everything you require is already available within Number Magic.
Age Range
810 years
Program
• RM Number Magic
Number Magic enables you to attach sensors and monitor temperature and light using the Detector feature. The readings are automatically graphed.
Lesson Plan
Learning objectives
After completing this activity, most children should be able to:
• Recognise that temperature is a measure of how hot or cold objects are
• Demonstrate an understanding of a “fair test”, by suggesting appropriate ways of ensuring that the investigation is fair
• Correctly interpret the line-graphs produced by the sensor data and draw sensible conclusions from these results
• State which colour(s) make good insulators, and which make poor ones
• Recognise that the same properties which keep cold objects cold also keep warm objects warm
Technical preparation
If the Detector equipment has not already been set up and configured, you will need to do this before starting the activity. You first need to connect and configure the sensors. Full instructions are given in your Number Magic Online Help files.
To access the instructions:
1. Click Help, Contents, then Advanced Help to view the Teacher’s Help Index.
2. Select the pages Activities Menu Commands, then Detector.
3. Follow the instructions for Connecting the Sensors and Configuring the Joysticks. This process is a little complicated, but stick with itonce it has been done once, it will never need to be done again!
Note: You may need to resize the help window so you can see both the instructions and the control panel and the configuration dialog box.
See also Setting up the sensors below
Resources
• Two identical containers (one painted white, one painted black)
• A desk or spot lamp (preferably the kind with a clamp, to enable it to be clamped to the table-top)
• Cool or cold tap water
• Hot tap water
• Ice, if possible
• Red and Blue Window Box temperature sensors
The activity
Setting up the sensors
Once Detector has been set up and configured, you are ready to set up the sensors for your experiment. You may choose to do this with the children as part of the activity – some will then be able to set up the sensors independently for future experiments. You may find it useful to have a cup of warm water and one of cold handy for this process.
1. Open Number Magic.
2. Open the sensor function by clicking Activities, Detector, or the Detector toolbar button (with a picture of a meter on it).
3. Click the orange bar underneath the red meter and to the left of the sensor panel. The Sensor Set-up dialog box opens.
4. Set the sensor type to temperature and the display type to meter or bar as you wish.
5. Click the Calibrate button and follow the on-screen instructions to calibrate the sensors.
6. Repeat steps 3–5 for the blue sensor, this time clicking underneath the blue meter.
7. Next, click on Time Lapse so that the red arrow to the left points to that function and click Set-up.
8. On the Time Lapse Set-up dialog box, set the total time period to 5 minutes (or 10, if you wish to carry on measuring for longer) and the Take a Reading Every… setting to between 10 and 30 seconds.
9. Start Detector and switch on the lamp. A table and graph showing the readings taken should appear on the screen.
The Experiment
When you (or the children) have successfully prepared the computer to take the readings, you could then:
• Discuss with the children what effect they think the colour of a container will have on how well it can keep its contents cool.
• Show them the two identical containers, one black and one white. Explain that they are going to find out whether the colour of the container makes any difference, using the lamp as a heat source and the computer to monitor the temperature in each container.
• Ask the children to suggest ways in which they can make sure that the investigation is fair.
You are now ready to begin the experiment:
1. Fill both containers with the same amount of water, ensuring that the water in both containers starts at the same temperature. Cold tap water works well.
2. Place the blue sensor in one container and the red sensor in the other.
3. Position the lamp so that the containers are both the same distance from the bulb (approximately 15-30 centimetres, depending on the size and strength of the lamp you are using).
4. Monitor the temperature for 5 or 10 minutes and discuss with the children what they find. As this investigation is not time consuming, you could remind the children that, to be sure their results are accurate, they really ought to repeat experiments when it’s practical to do so. Rinse the containers in cold water to return them to a similar temperature, fill them with the same amount of cold water, and repeat the investigation. What conclusion can be drawn from this? You might want to discuss parallels in real life with the children (for example, wearing white clothing to keep cool when it’s hot or cricket and tennis whites.)
5. Ask the children which colour they think would be best at keeping hot water hot. Many of them may quite logically decide that the black container, which got hotter so much more quickly, would be best at keeping things hot. Explain that they are now going to investigate it in the same way.
6. If you are fortunate enough to have a bucket of ice available, the experiment can be repeated by pouring equal amounts of hot water into each container, placing the sensors in each, switching on Detector, and placing the containers in the bucket of ice for 5 minutes. Which container kept the water hotter?
Alternatively:
• Pour hot water into the containers, place the sensors in each, and set the computer to read the temperature every 5 minutes for the next hour. The computer can be left to “get on with” the investigation.
• Once the investigation has been completed, you can discuss with the children what they have discoveredand stress the finding that the same properties that keep hot things hot also keep cold things cold.
Classroom management
This activity works very well as a whole-class, teacher-led activity, with children being selected to help set it up. However it could also be tackled in small groups of 46, if this better suits your way of teaching. You may decide to carry out the slower investigation (starting with hot water) as a whole class activity first. Then, as the children have seen how to use the Detector sensors and view the results, they could be set to investigate the experiment with the spot lamp, independently, in small groups.
Bear safety issues in mind spot lamps can get dangerously hot.
One problem with this approach might be the difficulty in stopping children from telling others who have not yet done the experiment what their findings were!
Duration
The spot lamp investigation should take approximately 15-20 minutes of computer time, including analysis of the results.
The keeping water hot investigation should take approximately 15 minutes of computer time, if a bucket of ice is available. Otherwise, it will take 10 minutes to set up properly; the children can then be working on other things before returning an hour later to view the findings and discuss the results.
Differentiation
This activity should be appropriate for all abilities at this age within mainstream schools. Differentiation can be achieved by carefully phrasing and selecting appropriate questions to ask of different individuals. Questions can be as simple as “did the water in the containers get hotter or colder when the light was switched on?” for some children.
Adapting the Activity
You could use the same activity to compare different materials wrapped around the containers to insulate them. In this case, you would have to use two containers of the same colour, to ensure fairness.
Extending the Activity
Example 1: You may want to ask some children to set up the Detector feature fully and independently, so that they will then be able to use this feature of Number Magic for future investigations without requiring support.
Example 2: Some children could be asked to set up Detector with identical containers, one filled with ice (or very cold water) and the other with hot water. The Time Lapse function should be set up to take automatic readings every 15 minutes or half an hour overnight. This should result in the temperature levels ending up much the same. The children should then be able to draw the conclusion that objects cool down or warm up to the temperature of their surroundings (If you are using the QCA Scheme of Work for Science, Unit 4C - Keeping warm, you will find that this is a requirement for more able children)
Referencing
 QCA Scheme of Work for Science, Unit 4C - Keeping warm
 National Curriculum for Information Technology, KS2 - 2c, 3b
 National Curriculum for Mathematics, KS2, AT4 - 1b, 1c, 2b, 2d
 National Curriculum for Science, KS2, AT3 - 1a, 1b
 Northern Ireland National Curriculum for Mathematics, KS2, AT5 Collect, Represent and Interpret Data - b
 Northern Ireland National Curriculum for Science and Technology, KS2, AT2 Materials, Properties - a, c
 5-14 Guidelines for ICT - Collecting and Analysing, E
 5-14 Guidelines for ICT - Controlling and Modelling, C
 5-14 Guidelines for Environmental Studies, Science - Understanding energy and forces, C
 National Numeracy Strategy Year 4, pages 114,116 - Handling data, Organising and interpreting data
 National Numeracy Strategy Year 5, pages 115,117 - Handling data, Organising and interpreting data
 National Curriculum 2000 for Information and Communication Technology, KS2 - 2b, 5b
 National Curriculum 2000 for Science, KS2, Sc1 - 1b, 2e, 2f, 2h, Sc3 - 1b, 2c
 National Curriculum in Wales for Information Technology, KS2 - 1.3
 National Curriculum in Wales for Mathematics, KS2, AT4 - 1.2, 1.4
 National Curriculum in Wales for Science

talulabell · Joined: 27 Oct 2008 Posts: 913

thaksyou! However it will be my first lesson on unit and not sure if that is a few steps on

queenlit · Joined: 28 Oct 2008 Posts: 1027

I just thought it would be useful for later.

talulabell · Joined: 27 Oct 2008 Posts: 913

I wonder if i give them 3 differnt liquids and using themometer they have to rank them from coolest to hotest in order to practice reading a themometer. It needs a purpose maybe i might be a picky tea drinker lol

emadam · Joined: 26 Oct 2008 Posts: 388

Wow Queenlit - what an offering! I know who to come to if stuck for Science ideas.
Sorry Tallulabell, teach Year 6 and not quite sure what to suggest for you as only ever look at temperature in revision so don't plan a whole unit. Hope you work it out.
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sallymgoodman · Joined: 05 Nov 2008 Posts: 69

I used the hot/cold water thing last year. We also included optical illusions (don't trust your eyes, use a ruler) and getting them to pick up a large but light box and a small but heavy box (don't trust appearances, use a weighing scales).

There is a really good world map on the BBC weather site where you could link temperature to geography.

talulabell · Joined: 27 Oct 2008 Posts: 913

thanks i was thinking coud i be that something only live in say room temp waiter. Use hands first in the three bowls and discuss its not accurate. Then use themometer. Which would be most suitabe. In geog we are doing weather so if i can find the map it would link

bluerose · Joined: 27 Oct 2008 Posts: 2675

queenlit that looks really useful will pass that to someone who it will help

sal 26 · Joined: 03 Dec 2008 Posts: 975

Great ideas queenlit - thank you!