Students investigate the essential question, “How do different materials and structures change how fast a liquid warms up or cools down?” Beginning with a tasting-free Cold Cup Mystery Tour, teams plan fair tests, measure temperature changes, model particle collisions, compare single- and double-wall cups, and explore safe chemical processes that absorb or release thermal energy. They analyze evidence, use peer critique and Progress Tracker reflections to set academic and social-emotional goals, and persist through iterative revisions of an insulated cup system. At the Cool Cup Convention, teams present a tested prototype, labeled diagram, and data poster explaining how evidence changed their thinking and how the final design reduces energy transfer.

Students will investigate how materials, mass, and single- versus double-wall structures affect how quickly a liquid warms or cools through fair tests that change one variable at a time. They will use temperature data and particle models to explain that thermal energy transfers from warmer to cooler matter through particle collisions and that temperature reflects average particle kinetic energy. Teams will apply these principles, including evidence from a teacher-approved chemical hot or cold pack, to design, test, critique, and revise an insulated cup system that minimizes energy transfer. Students will track scientific learning and academic and social-emotional goals, then clearly present their prototype, labeled model, data, and evidence-based design changes at the Cool Cup Convention.

Students will create fair-test investigation plans, temperature data tables and graphs, and particle models showing energy transfer through different materials and single- versus double-wall cups. They will also construct and test a teacher-approved hot or cold pack that safely releases or absorbs thermal energy through a chemical process. Teams will build, test, and revise an insulated cup prototype using data and peer feedback, while each student updates a Progress Tracker with learning and academic and social-emotional goals. For the Cool Cup Convention, teams will display their final prototype and a poster with a labeled diagram, temperature evidence, design changes, and an explanation of how the materials and structure reduce energy transfer.

Begin with a tasting-free Cold Cup Mystery Tour featuring equal amounts of cold water in single-wall cups, double-wall cups, and cups with lids or straws. Teams rotate through stations, observe each cup’s materials and structures, and measure temperature changes without drinking the water. Students sketch an initial cup-system model, predict where energy transfers, and add open-ended questions to a class board around “How do different materials and structures change how fast a liquid warms up or cools down?” Students record an initial discovery plus one academic goal and one social or emotional goal in their Progress Tracker.

Host a Cool Cup Convention where each team displays its final insulated cup prototype, labeled diagram, and poster with temperature data comparing initial and revised designs. Invite teachers and grade-level peers to examine the prototypes and ask how specific materials, double-wall structures, and air gaps reduce energy transfer. Each team gives a brief presentation explaining how test evidence and feedback changed its model and improved its design. Visitors leave written “evidence noticed” and “question to consider” cards, and students complete a final Progress Tracker reflection on their learning and goals.