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Temperature is what a thermometer measures. On the Celsius scale water freezes at 0 °C and boils at 100 °C. The particles of a hotter substance move faster.

Heat is energy that moves from a hotter object to a colder one. It keeps flowing until both are at the same temperature.

Conduction: heat passes through a material or from one object to another that touches it. Metals conduct heat well: the handle of a metal spoon in hot soup soon gets hot. Air and wood conduct heat poorly.

Experiment: Fair test: which material insulates best?

1. Wrap three jars in the different materials, using the same thickness each time. Leave one jar unwrapped as a control.
2. Ask the teacher to pour the same volume of warm tap water into each jar. Put a lid or a piece of card on top.
3. Measure the starting temperature of each jar.
4. Measure the temperature every 5 minutes for 20 minutes.
5. Fair test: change only the material. Keep the jars, the amount of water, the starting temperature and the place the same.
6. Work out how many degrees each jar cooled down. Plot a line graph of temperature against time.

Material	Start (°C)	5 min (°C)	10 min (°C)	15 min (°C)	20 min (°C)	Drop (°C)
Bubble wrap
Cotton wool / sock
Foil
Nothing (control)

Questions

1. Draw a pan of water on a stove. Use arrows to show conduction, convection and radiation.

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2. Explain the difference between heat and temperature.

3. In your fair test, which jar cooled down the least? Why?

4. Why do penguins and polar bears stay warm? Use the word 'insulator'.

Sources for every fact on this sheet: echoesof.science/school/heat/sources/

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