How does heat move from one item to another, even when the items are in different states of matter? Pupils experiment with adding washers to hot water and adding hot washers to room temperature water to observe the heat transfer. 

Differentiate between temperature and thermal energy. Your class will build a thermometer using simple materials and develop their own scale for measuring temperature. Discuss with your class and consider why engineers need to understand...

Students explore how to read a thermometer and what the instrument does. They practice measuring hot and cold objects and discuss changes in the weather based on temperature.

Stir chocolate drink mix into hot and cold water to see if there is a difference in how quickly it dissolves. Number three in a six-instructional activity unit on dissolving, this installment investigates the effect of temperature. If...

Physical science scholars discover an array of heat sources. They experiment to connect radiation to heat. They begin to understand thermal equilibrium. Then, they test to see if mass affects the rate of temperature change. Choose a few,...

Students create predictions on what they believe happen to reaction rates when temperature is raised. They use hot, cold, and room temperature water for this experiment and observe the differences. They graph their observations and...

How does temperature affect lipase activity? Young scholars conduct an experiment to collect data on the interaction of lipase at different temperatures. They add lipase to a solution of milk, sodium carbonate, and phenolphthalein and...

Students examine the differences between air temperature and ground temperature.  For this investigative lesson students find NASA data on the Internet and use it to create a graph. 

Three Dog Night isn't just the name of a band; it is also the way an Australian tribe, who used dogs to stay warm, would describe the temperature on a cool evening. After reading about many different ways of measuring temperature, the...

Students study plots and use a Live Access Server to generate plots.  For this temperature lesson students examine the process of incoming and outgoing radiation. 

Mars, Earth, and Venus contain atmospheres that generate weather. Young scientists explore the temperature of inner planets. They create a model simulating the greenhouse effect before researching and answering guided questions to...

Weather seems unpredictable, but is it really? Learners collect weather data from online interactives and build data displays. They use their displays to identify temperature and precipitation patterns in different areas.

As an anticipatory set, young environmental technicians watch a video about how ocean temperatures seem to be changing along with the global climate. They perform a laboratory demonstration with the purpose of observing what happens to...

Do you eat more when you are hot or when you are cold? Young scientists observe the eating pace of two caterpillars at different temperatures. The differences in endotherm and ecotherm animals' ability to adjust to temperature change...

How temperature affects the efficiency of a solar panel is the focus of the third in a series of eight resources that presents how engineers are able to control the temperatures of photovoltaic panels. Class members find out how the...

Why do we sweat? Scholars analyze data about body temperature, sweating, and other factors to better understand sweating. They note the changes after drinking ice water to sweating, skin temperature, and body temperature. Analysis...

Take part in a fun experiment and hold an impromptu bouncing contest with your class. Young scientists heat and cool balls before bouncing them to determine whether temperature changes affect how they bounce. The set of...

Investigate how temperature affects the density of water and stratification that occurs in bodies of water when temperatures vary. Water of differing temperatures is given different colors to see the layers that form. The lesson plan is...

Different substances can have different densities, but can the same substance have different densities? Lesson explores the effect of temperature on the density of water. Extension idea connects the concept of how melting ice in lakes...

Putting glow sticks in the freezer makes them last longer, but why is that? Lesson focuses on how temperature impacts the rate of a chemical reaction. It begins with a teacher demonstration, then scholars design their own experiments...

Using NASA's Live Access Server, earth scientists compare the temperature, precipitation, and normalized difference vegetation index for four different locations. They use the data to identify the climate zone of each location using...

Beat the heat using sensors. Scholars research normal body temperatures for humans and a specific animal. In groups, they create sensors that monitor body temperature, as well as the weather. The goal is to reduce the occurrence of heat...

Earth's vast ocean is full of mysteries! Science scholars discover the big-picture properties that influence its characteristics at different latitudes using a lesson from PBS's Weather and Climate series. After completing a background...

Students examine NASA satellite observations of surface temperature and investigate the seasonal changes of land and water temperature.