Thermal Conductivity
These two short videos, produced by the National STEM Centre, illustrate the process of thermal conductivity. The first video shows a demonstration of thermal conductivity using ice, plastic and aluminium blocks. Alom Shaha explains the process involved. The second video simply shows the effect of the different blocks on the ice.
This demonstration can form the introduction to a structured development of ideas about energy transfers between objects at different temperatures. Ice cubes are placed on metal and plastic blocks; the cube placed on metal melts much more quickly than the cube placed on plastic. This is counterintuitive (for many students) because metals feel cold while plastics feel warm.
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Review
Activity time: 15 minutes Starter/introduction.
Level / prior knowledge: High Ability Year 9 Assessed…
Activity time: 15 minutes Starter/introduction.
Level / prior knowledge: High Ability Year 9 Assessed lesson.
Subject / curriculum links / skills: Science/physics.
Preparation time: 5 minutes.
Extra resources:n/a
Commentary:
Pupils were shown the demo and asked to write a script for the presenter, which they then put to one side. Pupils were then shown the full clip and took part in the task. Pupils were given a further few minutes to modify scripts. The discussion created within pairs was very interesting.
As a starter tool to get pupils thinking and drawing on previous knowledge it worked well. Having the choice of 2 videos, which could be used separately or alone, was excellent and it could also be used as a guide. The timings of the video were good and the information was clear and concise. For teaching it was good to have a video ready to go that could be used in so many different ways.
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Resource author
Resource by: National STEM Centre
Collections
The resource is part of National STEM Centre,Institute of Physics
- Physics Demonstration Films
- Thermal Conductivity
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Comments
Hello,
Timstar website might be a good start:
http://www.timstar.co.uk/Item/NA/HE92305/ICE_MELTING_KIT.html
Regards,
Anna
Is there a UK supplier where the blocks can be purchased - they are available from US but shipping is expensive
I have done this demo many times before, but I normally use the back of a pan and a plastic tray. What I really liked in your version is using the temperature probes to convince the learners that the two really are at the temperature! This is very useful!
I really liked the question to predict what will happen and this is perhaps something that is missing in some of the other videos!?!
Thanks for another great video.