LeAnn Watts
Bill Jones
Lesson Plan: Conduction
Grade:6th
GLCE: P.EN.06.41 – Explain how different forms of energy can be transferred from one place to another by radiation, conduction, or convection.
Lesson Overview
Students will be able to describe what conduction is and how it works.
Students will be able to design their own device to keep water hot or cold.
Materials
Engage Activity: spoons made of various materials (aluminum, stainless steel, wood, plastic, etc…), saucepan, hot water, and a hot plate if you need to warm the water.
Explore Activity: spoons or other objects made of various materials (aluminum, stainless steel, wood, plastic, etc…), cold water, bowls or tubs.
Elaborate Activity: pop cans, tape, thermometers, water, variety of fabrics and materials (fabric scraps, foil, foam, bubble wrap, etc...).
Evaluate: worksheet
Engage
Pour the hot water into the saucepan or heat it up on the hot plate. Then ask the students what they think will happen to the spoons when you place them in the water. Which spoon will get hotter? Ask the students to explain their thinking. Place each of the spoons in the water and tell the students which of the spoons became hotter. If they aren’t too hot you can have the students feel them and let them decide which one feels hotter.
Explore
Divide the students into small groups. Give each group a bowl or a tub of cold or ice water. Give the students a variety of materials that they can explore with. Explain to the students that they are to try all their different materials in the cold water and see what happens to each of the materials. Tell students to pay specific attention to how warm or cold each one feels. Allow the groups to share what they found with the class.
Explain
Explain to the students what conduction is and how it works. Use examples from the Engage and Explore sections in this lesson. Explain to the students what their observations mean and why saw or felt what they did instead of getting different results.
Elaborate
Have the students work on their own or with a partner. Give each student or pair of students a pop can, tape, and variety of materials. Explain to the students that it is up to them to create something that will be able to keep water hot or cold. Let the students create their design. Then have them fill their pop cans with hot or cold water and place a thermometer inside. Have them record the water temperature as soon as they start and then wait five or ten minutes while they do their evaluation. Once they complete the evaluation worksheet have them take the temperature of their water again to see if it has changed a lot or if their design works.
Evaluate
Since this would be the last lesson in the unit involving conduction, convection, and radiation have the students complete the attached worksheet. Also evaluate the students on the Elaborate section of this lesson. The students design may not work the greatest but you have to look at the ideas they had while coming up with it.
References
Name: ______Date: ______
Transferring Heat Energy Questions
List the 3 different ways in which heat energy can be transferred.
- ______
- ______
- ______
Match the word to its definition
_____ 4. Conduction a. Is the transfer of heat that occurs in fluids.
_____ 5. Convection b. Is the transfer of heat by waves that can go through empty
space
_____ 6. Radiation c. Is the transfer of heat energy by which moving particles
make other particles move.
True or False:
____7. A thermos illustrates how conduction, convection, and radiation can be minimized.
____8. All three ways (conduction, convection, and radiation) can be used to transfer heat
through a vacuum.
____9. All materials conduct heat with the same intensity and capacity.
____ 10. A pot of water on the stove is heated by both conduction and convection.