Sixth Class learned that insulating a container will keep a frozen object frozen for longer than without insulation. We also learned which materials are good insulators.
Equipment used: Identical containers, newspaper, cotton balls, foam, bubble wrap, fleece, plastic ziploc bags, ice pops.
Prediction: Before we began our experiment, we looked at a concept cartoon depicting a snowman. Three children in the cartoon were discusing whether the snowman would melt quicker if they put a coat on him. We predicted that the snowman would melt quicker if the children put a coat on him.
Method : In order to test out whether a frozen object would melt quicker if insulated, we were each given a plastic container, all identical to ensure fair testing. We then decided to choose two materials each from the insulation materials provided. We were interested to see if any would be better than the others and which combination of materials would work best.
We covered the bottom half of the lunch box with insulation and prepared the insulation for the top part.
We placed the ice pop in the ziploc bag and placed the ziploc bag in the insulated container. We then covered the ice pop with insulation in a way that would trap lots of air, all the time considering which materials would trap the most air to keep the heat from getting to the ice pop. It is worth noting that we also placed an ice pop into an empty identical container in order to compare how much it melted in relation to the insulated containers.
Making sure our insulation fit, we closed the lunchbox.
We waited 30 minutes.
We opened the lunchbox to check if our ice pops were still frozen.
Results: All insulated container’s ice pops were still frozen. They were slightly softer. The ice pop in the empty container was visibly more melted than the ice pops in the insulated containers with liquid visible in the non insulated container. There was no liquid running off the ice pops in any of the insulated containers. All ice pops in the insulated containers performed well as regards keeping the ice pop frozen for longer. It was impossible to determine if any particular combination of materials worked better than the others.
Conclusion: To keep something cold for longer, use effective insulation materials to keep heat from entering the container and getting to the ice pop. Similarly, putting the coat on the snowman will actually keep the snowman from melting.