Curated OER
Hot and Cold Colors
Students examine how temperature effects changes in materials. In this physical science lesson, students use food coloring and cups of water of varying temperatures to observe the effects temperature has on matter. Students predict and...
Curated OER
It's Just Right
Students conduct an experiment to determine the temperature tolerance of yeasts. In this biology lesson, students collect data and compare them by plotting graphs. They explain how extreme temperatures affect organisms.
Curated OER
A New Phase In Town
Middle schoolers explore heat energy and how it is used to change the phase of matter, and discover that temperature does not increase or decrease until the phase change is complete. This extremely well-written plan is packed with great...
American Chemical Society
Evaporation
This is one in several lessons that explore the relationship between temperature and phase changes of water. After some discussion, elementary physical scientists place wet paper toweling on a hot and a room-temperature water bag...
Science Matters
Thermal Energy Flow in Materials
The sun sends the earth 35,000 times the amount of energy required by all of us on the entire planet, every day. The fourth lesson in the 10-part series looks at how light energy from the sun transfers into thermal energy. Scholars build...
US Environmental Protection Agency
Sea Level: On the Rise
With the global temperature on the rise, the effects of climate change are starting to be seen. However, many people have a difficult time conceptualizing the long-term effects, such as sea levels rising. Given an easy and effective...
American Chemical Society
Condensation
It's time to break the ice! If you are doing all of the lessons in the unit, children have already seen that increasing heat increases the rate of evaporation, but is the opposite true? Does decreasing temperature cause more condensation...
Curated OER
The Effect of Dissolved Salt on the Boiling Point of Water
Explore the properties of solutions with a lab activity. Chemistry fans determine the boiling point of water, add salt to create a solution, and then repeat the process four more times. They design their own data table and then graph the...
University of California
Hot! Hot! Hot!
Calories are not tiny creatures that sew your clothes tighter every night, but what are they? A science lesson, presented at multiple levels, has learners experiment with heat, heat transfer, and graph the function over time....
Curated OER
Changing States of Matter - Making Ice Cream
Students make ice cream as a result of viewing changes of states of matter. In this matter lesson plan, students learn how heating and cooling can effect a state of matter to change.
Kenan Fellows
How Much Energy Is That Anyway?
The fifth lesson in the six part series introduces units of energy including calories, Calories, and joules. Scholars determine the energy released when eating a snack and during activity.
Curated OER
Global Warming: Life in a Greenhouse
High schoolers examine the evidence that scientists have used to support the existence of global warming and the greenhouse effect. How the concepts have been developed and evaluated form the focus of this lesson.
Curated OER
Science: Hurricanes As Heat Engines
Learners conduct Internet research to track the path of Hurricane Rita. They record the sea surface temperature of the Gulf of Mexico during and after the hurricane and draw conclusions about how hurricanes extract heat energy from the...
Science Geek
Basic Thermochemistry
Heat is more than just temperature, as viewers discover throughout a presentation about thermochemistry that emphasizes vocabulary. Definitions include joule, calorie, energy, enthalpy, calorimetry, exothermic and...
Curated OER
More on Conduction and Convection
Why do some items feel colder when they are the same temperature? How should you keep your soda cold? What makes the wind blow? These are just some of the things middle schoolers discover when completing a lesson on...
Discovery Education
It's Getting Hot in Here
Class members engage in a STEM experiment and investigate how materials affect heating in a house by creating models of houses and using different top surface materials. They record the temperature inside the models and consider what the...
Center for Learning in Action
Water—Changing States (Part 1)
Here is part one of a two-part lesson in which scholars investigate the changing states of water—liquid, solid, and gas. With grand conversation and up to three demonstrations, learners make predictions about what they think will happen...
Virginia Department of Education
States of Matter
Scientists have been studying exothermic reactions before they were cool. The lesson begins with a discussion and a demonstration of heat curves. Scholars then determine the heat of fusion of ice and the heat needed to...
Curated OER
Energy and Matter
A review of a full unit on energy and matter, this slide show starts with basic definitions of states of matter and their mass. It then develops the ideas of the forces that that matter can exert. Details about bonding within matter and...
Mascil Project
House Insulation
Make sure your house is warm in the winter. Pupils analyze graphs of heating costs for two similar houses and make hypotheses for why the costs differ. They then build models of houses with appropriate insulation to reduce heating costs.
Colorado State University
Can Boiling Make Something Freeze?
Use boiling as an avenue for freezing. Young scholars watch as liquid nitrogen removes heat from the ingredients for ice cream. As this happens, the nitrogen boils and the ice cream freezes—all in the same container. A little science magic!
Curated OER
Ammonium Nitrate - Heat of Solution
Students quantify the relationship between temperature, energy and heat
and define an endothermic reaction. They measure the energy change caused by dissolving one mole of ammonium nitrate in water.
Curated OER
Ice Ain't Easy
Students are told that objects in contact with one another reach an equilibrium temperature. A hot object placed in a cool liquid always cool off. It never happens that the object gets hotter and cool liquid gets colder. Students predict...
Curated OER
Ice Cream Science
Students review properties of matter and discuss how materials change when things are done to them. They observe how materials change as a reaction to temperature by following the procedure to make ice cream and recording the temperature...