What's this lesson all about?
The purpose of this lesson is to help students conceptualize that objects at different temperatures in contact with each other move toward the same temperature. It should also help students see that all objects, even objects like flour, sugar, and air, can heat up; it just takes a long time.
This lesson was designed after learning that many students, especially those in the 15-18 year-old range, do not have a conception of thermal equilibrium (Sözbilir, M., 2003). The misconception is so prevalent that it relates to 8 of the 26 questions contained on the TCE (Yeo & Zadnik, 2001), as seen below:
This lesson was designed after learning that many students, especially those in the 15-18 year-old range, do not have a conception of thermal equilibrium (Sözbilir, M., 2003). The misconception is so prevalent that it relates to 8 of the 26 questions contained on the TCE (Yeo & Zadnik, 2001), as seen below:
The structure of this lesson is meant to help teachers facilitate a lesson with their students. Throughout, allow students to explore, to be curious, to ask questions! The lesson will look slightly different for every class, depending on the particular setting.
This lesson should take place after the TCE Pre-Test.
This lesson should take place after the TCE Pre-Test.
Introductory Physical Activity - Taking Temperature
Materials: Thermometers (digital preferred), a variety objects scattered throughout the room whose temperatures can be measured
- Start by asking questions such as “which objects in this room as cold? Which are warm? Why?”
- Have students explain their reasoning to you or to each other. Do not correct them if their reasoning is imperfect.
- Instruct students, in groups or individually, to explore the room and take the temperature of 3-5 different items that are laying out. They should record their results in a table -- you can make a copy of this template or make your own.
- Once data has been recorded in Google Sheets or somewhere else, have a whole class discussion about the results. Was it what they expected? Why, or why not? Were some temperatures higher than expected? Some lower? Were they all similar? Try to let students lead you.
- Note: It is quite likely that, depending on the thermometer used, the temperatures of objects in the room will not be at room temperature. This is OK. Try to elicit reasoning from your students as to why this might be.
- Examples: Object is close to window, object measured was not left in the room long enough, etc.
- Note: It is quite likely that, depending on the thermometer used, the temperatures of objects in the room will not be at room temperature. This is OK. Try to elicit reasoning from your students as to why this might be.
- The whole idea is to try to get students to see that if objects are in contact with the same temperature air in a room they should all reach the same temperature. Heat sources, like the human body, don’t apply.
Teaching through T-GEM
If support is needed for using the Energy2D tool, please visit the “Teacher Support” section of this website.
The rest of this lesson plan is supported using the Energy2D simulation tool, and follows a structure guided by T-GEM (Khan, 2011). The procedure involves Technology at each stage and students taking part in the following cycle:
You can use the following plan as a guide for your own lessons. Please feel free to adapt/modify it for your particular group of students, supplement it with additional inquiry questions, and/or reduce the level of complexity. The end of this document contains suggestions for guiding questions to help students to think critically. Finally, you’ll find numerous references to having students compare data, results, predictions, and so on. This can be as informal or formal a process as you feel is best, but I have found it useful to keep track of data-driven lessons using Google Sheets. It allows large sets of data to be compared, and for students to collaborate easily. Feel free to use this template as a sample for how you may want to approach student-student collaboration. |
Having trouble viewing the embedded document? Please view the Google Doc here, or download the lesson here.
Grand Takeaway
Objects at different temperatures in contact with each other move toward the same temperature.
Again, this lesson can be modified to suit your needs, as it covers a large breadth of material. Not every aspect of what’s explored above needs to be covered in-depth, but the teacher should ensure that students are questioned throughout the process. The lesson will be more effective if the teacher helps students make connections between the simulations and real-world analogies or situations.
Again, this lesson can be modified to suit your needs, as it covers a large breadth of material. Not every aspect of what’s explored above needs to be covered in-depth, but the teacher should ensure that students are questioned throughout the process. The lesson will be more effective if the teacher helps students make connections between the simulations and real-world analogies or situations.
Additional Teacher Guidance
Here are some questions or prompts you can use with your students before, during, or after the lesson. Students should be encouraged to use examples from “real-life” as well as the simulations to support their responses to the questions below.
Having trouble viewing the embedded document? Please view the Google Doc here, or download the lesson here.
The next lesson is Lesson 2 - "Hot" and "Cold".
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Notes:
- Please forward any feedback you have on this lesson to [email protected]. I’d love to hear what you liked, what you didn’t, what worked, what didn’t, or any modifications you’ve made!
- All Energy2D files (.e2d) must be downloaded and opened in Energy2D before they will work.
- The team behind Energy2D is working on a more web-friendly version of their simulations. At the time of this writing this didn’t exist, so Java was begrudgingly used because of the benefits of the tool.
- Until a mobile-friendly version of the tool exists, students should each (or in groups) have a computer/laptop/tablet that can run the software.