Learning Goals
Students will be able to plan controlled investigations of thermal energy transfer by relating type of matter, mass, temperature change, and average particle kinetic energy
Students will be able to develop and revise particle-and-system models of liquids in open and closed containers to explain how evaporation, state, light absorption, and particle collisions affect temperature
Students will be able to design, construct, test, and optimize an insulated cup using quantitative evidence to justify how lids, reflective materials, and trapped air minimize thermal energy transfer
Students will be able to construct, test, and modify a safe heating or cooling device to explain how a chemical process can release or absorb thermal energy
Students will be able to model changes in stored potential energy when the arrangement of interacting objects changes
Students will be able to connect thermal energy transfer models to water cycling and ecosystem processes to explain how solar energy and gravity drive water movement while matter cycles and energy flows through ecosystems
Students will be able to communicate and refine evidence-based engineering decisions through shared decision-making, peer critique, public presentation, and reflection
Products
Thermal Energy Engineering Portfolio and Transfer Analysis
Each student submits an engineering portfolio containing controlled-investigation plans and data analysis, revised particle-and-system models, multiple annotated cup concepts with a decision matrix, chemical-device and potential-energy analyses, water-cycle and ecosystem connections, and an individual disaster-blanket transfer explanation. The portfolio documents design reasoning, feedback use, personal contributions, and growth without tasting or directly contacting any lab substance.
Two-Cycle Insulated Cup Prototype and Cold Cup Expo Presentation
Teams define criteria and constraints, select among members’ concepts, build and quantitatively test two cup prototypes, and present evidence showing how revisions, trade-offs, and limitations affected thermal performance. Their Expo display integrates particle models, a teacher-approved safe chemical heating or cooling demonstration, potential-energy and Earth-system applications, shared roles, and responses to audience questions.
No rubric has been generated yet.