Insulation Lab teaching notes
For middle school science teachers, STEM teachers, co-op leaders and parents. The shoe box in one period, the real build beside it, what students get wrong and where the app answers it, what the model leaves out, and the sheet and the setup.
Using this with a class? Make a free class and add your students yourself: each gets a username and password, with no email or Google account needed. Or give them one join code. Using Google Classroom? Post the link there; with a free class, the link also puts each student in your class, so you see their work. mytekDev is also available from the Google Workspace Marketplace, so your school's Google admin can install it for everyone.A first lesson: One period: guess, test an empty shoe box, then wrap the ice and pack the space and compare. A second period to set criteria, build the best design for real with a real ice cube, and type the real result beside the prediction.
Set up a free class Share to Google Classroom- About these notes
- One period
- Build it for real
- What students get wrong, and where the app answers it
- What the app simplifies, on purpose
- Middle school and high school
- The sheet, the build sheet and the setup
- Standards
About these notes
Insulation Lab is the classic keep-the-ice-cube-frozen challenge with a clock on it. The student builds a box in the order a real one is built (container, lining, wrap, fill, lid and tape, outside), on a play-money budget, presses Test, and sees how much of a 30 gram ice cube is left after 30 minutes in a 22 °C room. Every test stays on the graph and in a table that names what changed.
It is written for MS-PS3-3: apply scientific principles to design, construct, and test a device that either minimizes or maximizes thermal energy transfer. The standard's evidence statement names the material properties (thickness, conductivity, reflectivity), the constraints (materials, safety, time, cost) and the rate of change as the measure of success, and it leaves calculating the total energy out of what is assessed. So the middle school level shows grams, degrees, minutes and dollars, never joules.
One period
- Guess, then test the empty shoe box (5 minutes) Everyone slides a guess for how many grams will be left and presses Test. About 22 g. Ask: the box hardly helped. Why not?
- What touches the ice (10 minutes) The guide sends them to wrap the ice. Cotton batting: about 26 g. Then pack crumpled newspaper round it: about 28 g, for free. Ask which change did the most, and why still air in small pockets matters.
- Criteria and constraints (5 minutes) Each team writes its goal in the sentence above the build: at least so many grams, no more than so many dollars. Every test now says met or missed.
- Improve on a budget (15 minutes) One change at a time. The tests table says what changed each time; the best test under budget has a colored edge.
- Swap the job (5 minutes) Put a warm jar in the best box. Ask before they press Test: will the box that kept the ice coldest keep the jar warm?
- Exit question (5 minutes) Would a wool sweater make an ice cube melt faster or slower? Why?
Build it for real
On any test's card, Print a build sheet gives a picture of the build, what to buy with play-money prices, the steps in order, the app's prediction, a table for readings, and safety lines. Teams build their best design with a real ice cube (weigh it first), leave it 30 minutes, unwrap the ice, dab it dry and weigh it again. They type the real grams on the test's card, and a diamond marks it on the graph.
What students get wrong, and where the app answers it
| What students say | Where the app answers it |
|---|---|
| Keep the cold in, cold gets in | Dots are energy and only ever move from warmer to cooler; nothing cold moves anywhere |
| This keeps hot things hot but not cold things cold | Swap the job: the same box, a warm jar, and the box that kept the ice best keeps the jar warmest |
| Foil is the best wrap | Foil alone does little pressed against something; it helps by reflecting the invisible glow of warm things when it faces air or the sun |
| A blanket makes heat | A sock or felt round the ice makes it last longer: a wrap has no heat to give, it slows energy getting in |
| Thicker is always better | The ice stops fitting and the budget runs out; the second layer buys less than the first |
| Air is nothing | An air gap is a layer you can add, and crumpled paper beats flat paper because it holds air |
| Insulate the heater to keep the house warm | Wrap the Shelter's jar and the house gets colder: insulation keeps energy where it is |
What the app simplifies, on purpose
- Each wall is one wall: its layers are added up, and real corners and seams leak a little more than the flat parts.
- The air inside the box is one temperature. With one small cube that air stays almost as warm as the room, so the lid and the walls barely matter. Use the 500 g block or a longer test in Test conditions to see them matter, the way they do in a full cooler.
- The meltwater puddle and the air leaks round lids, corners, doors and windows are estimates, tuned to classroom results. The values for newspaper, bubble wrap, packing peanuts and felt are estimates too.
- Wet wraps let energy through faster than dry ones; the app treats them as dry.
- Plastic wrap windows let some of the invisible glow through, so a real one loses a little more than the app says.
- The Shelter's result depends on time: a wrapped jar leaves the house colder at two hours and warmer over a whole night.
- The heat camera's colors come from each wall's temperature; the spot nearest the ice or jar is an estimate for the picture.
Middle school and high school
| Middle school | High school | |
|---|---|---|
| What the screen shows | Grams, degrees, minutes and dollars | The same, and watts per kelvin from the room to the ice |
| The lens | Each wall layer by name | Each layer's R-value too |
| The sheet | Criteria, the biggest jump, why, met or not, what next | And how many grams would melt in a minute at the starting rate |
| Shelter | Inside temperature after two hours | The same, with how long the house takes to warm and cool |
The sheet, the build sheet and the setup
The Sheet in the app's header is the student's write-up: their criteria and constraints, the tests table with real results, a picture of their best build, and questions that quote their own tests. They hand it in and it saves with the project; Print makes a paper copy.
Setup is for you: the level, the Cooler or the Shelter, the budget, which materials are on the shelf and what each costs (set them to match your supply bin), whether students can change the room and the test length, whether Swap the job is on, the sheet's questions and up to ten of your own. Print answer key finds the best build your shelf and budget allow, and the cheapest one nearly as good. Press Done, save, and hand the project out as the starter.
Standards
- MS-PS3-3: design, construct and test a device that minimizes thermal energy transfer (the whole app).
- MS-PS3-4: the mass of the ice and the jar, and the temperature change.
- MS-ETS1-1 to 1-4: criteria and constraints, comparing designs, combining the best of them, and a model for testing before building.
- HS-PS3-4 and HS-ETS1-3 at the high school level.
- Crosscutting concept, Energy and Matter: the transfer of energy can be tracked as energy flows through a designed system.
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Page last reviewed November 2026.
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