Students investigate, “How can containers keep stuff from warming up or cooling down?” through hands-on labs, particle models, light investigations, and analysis of energy transfer in organisms and ecosystems. They then address, “How can we design a cup that keeps a drink cold for the longest time, and what evidence explains why it works?” by collaboratively designing, testing, evaluating, and refining cups against shared criteria. To answer, “How do particles, materials, and light work together to change the temperature of a drink inside a cup?” students use pooled temperature data to connect each design feature to particle collisions or light absorption. Students also construct and safely test a device that absorbs or releases thermal energy through a chemical process, then communicate evidence-based recommendations and reflect on feedback, revisions, and community trade-offs.

Students will investigate, “How can containers keep stuff from warming up or cooling down?” by modeling how particles, materials, mass, and absorbed light affect temperature and thermal energy transfer. They will plan fair tests and use pooled temperature data to answer, “How can we design a cup that keeps a drink cold for the longest time, and what evidence explains why it works?” Students will safely construct, test, and modify cold-cup and sealed chemical heating or cooling devices, then evaluate competing solutions using shared criteria for performance, cost, and waste. They will use evidence to explain, “How do particles, materials, and light work together to change the temperature of a drink inside a cup?” and connect matter and energy transfer to organisms and ecosystems through models, peer feedback, presentations, and reflection.

Students will create an observation journal, investigation plans, pooled temperature data displays, and repeatedly revised particle-and-cup-system models showing how materials, particle collisions, and absorbed light affect warming and cooling. Teams will build, test, evaluate, and refine two cold-cup prototypes, using shared criteria for temperature change, cost, and waste and documenting peer feedback and design decisions. Each student will produce an evidence-based explanation answering how containers limit temperature change, why the final cup keeps a drink cold, and how particles, materials, and light explain its performance. Students will also complete a safe, teacher-approved thermal-pack transfer design and present their final cup, test data, models, and comparison of competing solutions to families or community partners.

Teams examine everyday containers, predict which will keep identical samples of ice water cold longest, and track temperatures without tasting the samples. Students compare results, sketch initial models showing how particles, materials, and light might affect each drink, then contribute observations and questions to a class Driving Question Board. Guide discussion with: “How can containers keep stuff from warming up or cooling down?”, “How can we design a cup that keeps a drink cold for the longest time, and what evidence explains why it works?”, and “How do particles, materials, and light work together to change the temperature of a drink inside a cup?” Close by revealing the nine-week challenge: teams will design, test, evaluate, and refine a cold cup using agreed-upon criteria and evidence.

Host a Cold Cup Expo for families, cafeteria staff, and community partners, featuring a live, fair test of each team’s redesigned cup alongside the class Ultimate Cold Cup. Teams display Designs 1 and 2, temperature data, and particle models to answer how containers prevent warming or cooling and which design keeps a drink cold longest. Each student uses evidence to explain how materials, particle collisions, and light absorption affected temperature, while visitors evaluate solutions using shared criteria for performance, cost, and waste. Conclude with individual reflections naming the most meaningful revision, the evidence behind it, and a remaining question about thermal energy transfer.