Learning Goals
Students will be able to model thermal energy transfer in a cup system by relating temperature to average particle kinetic energy, particle collisions, and energy movement from warmer to cooler matter.
Students will be able to analyze how cup materials, lids, sleeves, double walls, and light absorption affect the rate at which a cold drink warms.
Students will be able to plan and conduct a controlled cold-cup investigation that measures temperature change while accounting for type of matter, mass, time, and other relevant variables.
Students will be able to design, construct, test, and refine a cup that minimizes thermal energy transfer using quantitative temperature data and evidence from particle-and-energy models.
Students will be able to evaluate competing cold-cup solutions using jointly developed criteria and constraints for thermal performance, cost, and waste.
Students will be able to construct, safely test, and modify a teacher-approved sealed device that absorbs or releases thermal energy through a chemical process.
Students will be able to explain how matter and energy transfer in cup systems compares with matter and energy flow in organisms and ecosystems.
Students will be able to collaborate and communicate an evidence-based defense of design decisions while using peer feedback and reflection to guide revisions.
Products
Thermal Engineering Design Notebook and Evidence-Based Explanation
Each student documents multiple cup concepts, annotated particle-and-energy models, a controlled test plan, data analysis, a criteria-based decision matrix, chemical-device testing, ecosystem connections, and an independent explanation of why the final cup works. The notebook identifies feedback used, revisions made, trade-offs considered, and evidence supporting each design decision.
Tested Cold-Cup Prototype and Cold Cup Expo Presentation
Each team builds, fairly tests, compares, and revises two cold-cup prototypes, then presents the final device with temperature data, system models, design trade-offs, safe sealed chemical-device findings, and connections to energy flow in living systems. At the Expo, members collaboratively defend how materials, particles, and light affected performance and explain how individual design ideas and peer feedback shaped the final solution.
No rubric has been generated yet.