Down the Hall in Room 177: Exploring Forms of Energy: Heat and Sound

As part of our "Dynamics" Interdisciplinary Unit, Third Graders explored forms of energy. We began by observing the painting New York Movie by Edward Hopper.

Students were asked the question "What are the dynamics (the forces or properties that stimulate growth, development, or change within a system or process) present in this painting?" As we discussed the painting students generated a list of ideas or dynamics including:

Lights in the theater
story in the movie
feeling of the usher (character),
Economics- people paying for the movie and she works for the movie theater

As we explored forms of energy, we attempted to answer the following essential questions:

How does applying energy transform an object?
How can we see that energy transfers from one thing to another?

We began our exploration by discussing heat. We learned what heat is and that it is a source of energy. We then explored how heat effects matter. To do this we conducted an experiment called Can Crush Saga.

Can Crush Saga

During our Can Crush Saga Experiment we aimed to prove that hot matter expands and when that matter cools, it contracts. This is a problem in nature that experts like engineers, have to control. To solve this problem, engineers will add Thermal Expansion Joints to the bridge.

Thermal Expansion Joints on a bridge/roadway.

To test this, we first filled an emptied soda can ¼ full with water . Then we put can with water on a pan on the hot plate until water boils (less than 5 minutes).

Next, we filled a bowl with ice water.

We waited for the water to boil.

After water boils, we used tongs to flip the can over into the ice water.

After a few minutes we observed areas in the can where the can had crushed in on itself.

Spoon Wars

After proving that hot matter expands and when that matter cools, it contracts, third graders went on to explore how heat moves. We discussed how some materials act as insulators and hold heat in place and other materials act as conductors and allow heat to move. To investigate this concept, we conducted an experiment called Spoon Wars.

For this experiment, we used bowls, spoons, water and butter. We placed two bowls in the middle of a table as the students gathered around in a group. In one bowl, a metal spoon was placed and in the other a plastic spoon was placed with the handles facing downwards and he circle part should be sticking up out of the bowl. Each spoon had a small square of butter in each spoon. Hot water was poured into the bowl so that only the handles should got wet. Students watched to see what happened...on which spoon did the butter melt first/most? Which spoon is a conductor? Which spoon is an insulator?

A plastic spoon and a metal spoon with butter on them.
On which spoon will the butter melt first when hot
water is poured in the bowl? Which spoon is a
conductor and which spoon is an insulator?

After a few minutes, the butter on the plastic
spoon was melting where the spoon hovered
over the water.

After a few minutes, the butter on the metal
spoon seemed to be melting farther up on the spoon.
Some drops of butter melted into the bowl.

After thirty minutes, the butter on the plastic spoon had cooled.
A little bit of butter had dripped into the bowl.

After thirty minutes, the butter on the metal spoon had started
to slide down the spoon. There were many drops of butter in the
bowl. The butter on the spoon was still melted.

Students determined that metal was a better conductor of heat than plastic. We discussed how certain things in our homes are coated in plastic to protect us from heat...electrical cords, for example.

Keeping Chilly Warm

As a performance assessment for our study of heat energy, students were given the task of designing a setting for a penguin named Chilly. They were asked to keep Chilly the Penguin warm by including in his setting sources of heat and insulators.. After designing his setting, students must write about the insulators and sources of heat they used. Here are several student examples.

Cayla's Chilly setting.

Cayla's explanation of how she
kept Chilly warm.

Ray'von's Chilly setting

Ray'von's explanation.

Abubakr's Chilly setting.

Abubakr's explanation.

Sound Art

After concluding our study of heat energy, students also explored light and sound energy. In order to help student understand the concepts of pitch and volume, a technology lesson was conducted so that students could understand the difference between the two concepts.

First, students listened to YouTube videos of low pitch and high pitch sounds.

HIGH PITCH:

LOW PITCH:

While these video clips played, Ms. Amstutz adjusted the volume dial on the speaker. Students were then able to understand the difference between a low pitch at a high volume and a low pitch at a low volume. They also hear a high pitch at a high volume and a high pitch at a high volume.

Students then completed an interactive notebook entry for what the visual appearance of high and low pitch sound energy waves and high and low volume sound energy waves looked like.

Afterwards, students had a turn at seeing what the sound wave for their own voice looked like. Using a voice memo App on an iPhone, a recording of each student saying their name was taken. Then, the whole class participated in an experiment. We recorded ourselves saying "Third Grade" three different ways: 1) whispering, 2) speaking at a normal volume, and 3) shouting. As the voice memo App recorded our voices, we were able to see a visual display our our sound wave. Students were able to see that when they spoke loudly, the amplitude of the wave increased.

Here are two examples of the original recordings. Can you guess which student spoke with a louder volume?

After this, Ms. Amstutz, worked behind the scenes taking a screen shot of each sound energy wave. Each image then had the colors inverted so that what was black was now white and what was once white was now black. The new images looked like this:

Aaron's inverted sound energy image.

Cayla's inverted sound energy image.

Following this, each student's inverted image was placed in a PowerPoint slide where it was replicated a total of four times each to create a piece of "pop art". Each voice clip pop art had the student's name placed it using word art. Students then used their choice of media to add color to their pop art. This was a perfect way of integrating the science of SOUND, visual arts, and technology! Here are some of our finished pieces: