Learning kitGrades 6-8
Physical science and engineering
Keep a Cube
Build a box that keeps an ice cube frozen, on a play-money budget. Guess, test an empty shoe box, then wrap the ice, pack the space and seal the lid, one change at a time, and watch energy creep in from the warm room. Set a goal, put a warm jar in the same box, build your best design for real with a kitchen scale, and keep a little house warm on a cold porch. Ages 11 to 14.
- Time
- About 60 minutes on screen in two or three sittings, and 45 minutes for the real ice cube in step 5 (most of it waiting).
- Steps
- 6 steps, 6 of them in Insulation Lab
- You need
- A computer or Chromebook with a mouse, trackpad or touch screen. For step 5: a shoe box, a few ice cubes from the same tray, a kitchen scale that reads grams, tape, and whatever is in the house to insulate with (a sock, newspaper, a dish towel, foil, bubble wrap).
The 6 steps
These open once the kit is unlocked.
- 1Guess, then test the empty boxIn Insulation LabA 30 gram ice cube, just starting to melt, is sitting in a 22 °C room. Put it in an empty shoe box with the lid on. How much of it will still be ice after 30 minutes? Make a guess before you test, so you find out what you really thought.
- 2What touches the iceIn Insulation LabThe empty box hardly helped. The air inside stayed almost as warm as the room, because one small cube is too small to cool it. So try putting something right around the ice instead. Change one thing, test, and only then change the next thing, so you know which change did what.
- 3A goal and a budgetIn Insulation LabEngineers start with what the design has to do (the criteria) and what limits it (the constraints). Write yours in the sentence above the build: at least how many grams of ice left, and no more than how many dollars. Then try materials until one test meets both. A good goal is hard but possible, for example 27 grams for no more than $3.
- 4Swap the jobIn Insulation LabSome people think a cooler keeps cold things cold but cannot keep hot things hot. Test it. Swap the job puts a jar of warm water in the same box. Predict first: will the box that kept the ice best also keep the jar warmest?
- 5Build it for realIn Insulation LabThe app is the rehearsal. Now the real ice cube is the test. Build your best design (or the closest you can make from what is in the house), weigh a real ice cube, leave it in the box for 30 minutes, and weigh it again. Then type the real result beside the app's prediction.
- 6Keep a house warm, then explain itIn Insulation LabThe same idea keeps a house warm. First, explain in your own words how your best box kept the ice frozen. Then switch to the Shelter: a little cardboard house on a 5 °C porch with a window, a door and a jar of hot water as its only heater. Test it, change one thing, and test again.
Work on a computer. The apps need a keyboard and a bigger screen than a phone: a laptop, desktop or Chromebook. You can pay here and open the emailed link on the computer.
One learner
Unlock the kit, $5
- All 6 steps, worked on screen, with a lesson you can print if you like paper
- Insulation Lab activities that check the work as it is done
- A numbered certificate with a page of the learner's own work: your guess, your tests, your goal, your real ice cube, and your explanation
Have a discount code?
Co-ops and classes: unlock it for a group
One payment and one code. Each learner types the code to unlock the kit on their own computer, and gets their own certificate at the end. Your pack page shows who has started and finished.
See a sample certificate (PDF) · Already paid? Find your link