Bottle Insulation Project

     Our most recent assignment was to insulate a bottle. The bottle had to be easy to transport, durable, and maintain the temperature of the water for thirty minutes. It could be up to five inches wide and ten inches long, could only be assembled using tape and scissors, and had to remain intact after being dropped from thirty inches.
     We started by brainstorming ideas. Each person in our group (there were four of us) came up with three ideas. After listening to each idea, we came up with a design based on the twelve ideas.
      Our final design started with wrapping the bottle in foil-face insulation, then wrapping the foil-face in some sort of green squishy insulation (I'm not sure what it's called). The foil-face and green squishy tube was then inserted into a rectangular cardboard box, and the spaces were filled with cellulose. The cap consisted of a piece of foil-face with a hole in the middle

     The next day we had to test our insulation. We put a cold water bottle inside, put a probe in the water, and took the temperature every two minutes for thirty minutes using the LabQuest 2. Our final increase in temperature was 1.3 degrees Celsius, which is pretty good!

Field Trip To Otter Brook

       Last Thursday, May 8, block 1 and block 2 science classes went to Otter Brook Farm to observe a house. The point of the field trip was based off of our new unit about Heat Transfer. At the house there were 14 stations. Each station had a different activity for us to do whether it was using an infrared camera, little smoke machines, or just using our hands to find places where cold air was coming in. 

       While performing these activities, we had a packet with questions for each station that we had to answer. Some of them required us to come up with an opinion while others required basic math. The stations were outside, inside, on the main floor and in the upstairs. We would remain at our station until one of the adults told us to switch.

        Over all the field trip was not boring at all! When we got back to school this week, we took what we had learned and applied it to our most recent project; The Bottle Insulation Project.

This picture (credit to Bridget Grady) shows not only a crack in the foundation but also some sort of wire fencing that is allowing heat to escape and cold air to come in.