heat transfer

Heat transfer experiment
This week in my physical science graduate class, heat and temperature were studied. Thus this week’s blog will discuss the experiment that I performed, what other materials that I could test for heat insulation and how I could change this activity to make it more interesting for my students.
I began this experiment by gathering my supplies. I used four identical mugs, a thermometer, four rubber bands, a measuring cup, and four materials to test. The four materials that I chose to test were aluminum foil, plastic wrap, a paper towel and cotton gauze. I expected the cotton gauze to allow the most heat to escape since it has holes in it and the aluminum to hold the heat the best.
Once my supplies were gathered, I took the temperature of my hot tap water. I then measured one half cup of water into each mug. Next I covered each of the four mugs with a material and set my timer for thirty minutes. When the timer went off, I took the temperature of the water and found that the aluminum foil and plastic wrap insulated the temperature the best.
If I was to perform this experiment again, I would like to test out rubber, foam and wool. I would expect the wool and the foam to insulate the best because they are porous and the book states that good insulators have small air spaces which limits the conduction through motion(Tillery, Enger & Ross, 2008)..
If I did this experiment for my students, I would make it relevant to them by making it about food. I would have the students test types of materials to determine which material would keep their hot chocolate the hottest or their soda the coldest.

References
Tillery, B. W., Enger, E. D., & Ross, F. C. (2008). Integrated science (4th ed.). 39. New York:
McGraw-Hill.