On Thursday afternoon, a scientist called Claire came to work with Year 1.
She wanted us to carry out an investigation to find out which material was the best insulator.
We had to choose from: foil, bubble wrap, foam, cold water or nothing.
We predicted that the foam would be the best.
We split into pairs and got a jam jar with water in and wrapped material around it.
Next we had to put the thermometer into the water and see what the temperature was and then write it down.
Anna – “I liked seeing the numbers change on the thermometer.”
Matilda – ” I liked it because I liked holding the thermometer.”
We recorded the temperatures lots of times to see how it changed. Some of them lost a lot of heat, and some of them only lost a few degrees.
Our results showed that the the water which had no material on stayed the warmest! We think this might have been because the classroom was very warm, and the people with this jam jar might have touched it with their hot hands. The foil was also a very good insulator, and we talked about foil blankets for people who have been running, or people who have been rescued and are very cold.
At the end of the session, Claire showed us some really cool paint that disappeared when it got hot!
Charlie – “It was really fun watching it.”
Sophia – “I liked it when it disappeared!”
Poppy – “The magic paint was my favourite part.”
We loved being scientists!
