How does heat move?

Team Gibbas students have been learning about thermal energy in science and the different ways that heat moves.  Last week students learned about conduction - the transfer of heat that occurs when one thing touches another.  Students explored which material is a better heat conductor, a metal spoon or a plastic spoon.  Students placed the spoons in hot water each with a bead attached with butter.  The spoon whose butter melted first was the better conductor.   Can you guess which spoon held the butter that melted first?

Students then learned about convection or the transfer of energy through liquid or gas.  Students watched a demonstration of how warm and cold water circulate.  A fish tank was set up in the classroom with a hot plate under one side and a cold pack under the other side.  Two drops of blue food coloring were placed on the cold side and two drops of red food coloring were placed on the cold side.  

Can you predict how the cold and warm water moved?

Here are a few examples of how the students captured their learning.

Grade 4 2016 Massachusetts Science and Technology/Engineering Curriculum Framework

4-PS3-2:  Make observations to show that energy can be transferred from place to place by sound, light, heat, and electric currents.