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Temperature School
Task with Student Directions
Contributed by: Kentucky Department of Education (KDE)

PERFORMANCE TASK STUDENT RESPONSE FORM

TASK: S1 - TEMPERATURE SCHOOL
Grade 4

Student Name:  _______________________________________________

School Name:  _______________________________________________

School Code:  _________

 

GENERAL INSTRUCTIONS:

Write your name, school name, and school code on the line above. Do not open this packet until the directions tell you to do so. You will have a total of 45 minutes to complete this task. You may use up to 30 minutes to complete the group work.

GROUP ACTIVITY:

Did you ever drink a cup of "hot" chocolate that was no longer hot, or a "cold" cup of milk that had become warm? In this activity, your group will study how liquids change temperature. You will measure the temperature of hot, cold, and room temperature water as time passes and make tables so you can study your data.

  1. Practice using the timer. It is made so that it takes just 3 minutes from the time it is turned over for the sand to run completely from one end to the other. You will use the timer to know when it is time to read the the thermometers. Name one person in the group as the "time keeper" who will use the timer. The others will be busy reading the three thermometers and recording the results in their tables.

  2. Set up your experiment as follows:
    • Use the measuring cup to put-
      • 1/2 cup of room temperature water in Can A
      • 1/2 cup of hot water in Can B
      • 1/2 cup of ice water (only water - no ice) in Can C
    • Place one thermometer in each of the cans.

    Your group is now ready to collect data that will be written in the table. You will read the temperatures of the three cans of water every three minutes. It is very important that once you start, you keep going. You must keep measuring the temperatures every three minutes for fifteen minutes.

  3. Do the following things in order:
    • Have the time keeper turn over the timer. Then, as quickly as you can, read all three thermometers without taking the bulb out of the water. Write the results in the first row in the table below.

    • When the sand has run out, three minutes will have passed. The time keeper should then say, "Time", and immediately turn the timer over again. As before, the others will read the three thermometers as quickly as they can and write the results in the table.

    • Keep repeating this process each three minutes until 15 minutes have passed and you have completed the table.

  4. Make sure that each person in the group, including the time keeper, has had a chance to complete the table, and that each table is the same. Then pour the water from the cans into the waste container and dry things with the paper towels.

When you finish the work on this page, someone should tell the person in charge that your group has finished its work.

INDIVIDUAL ACTIVITY

  1. Use your data table to help you describe what change, if any, you observed in the temperature of the water that started at room temperature. Tell why you think this happened.

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  2. Look at the columns in the table for hot water and cold water. Describe what seemed to be happening to the temperature of the hot and cold water as time passed. Tell why this was happening.

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  3. If you kept measuring the temperature of the three cans of water for a whole hour, tell how the three temperatures would compare. Write down what you think the three temperatures would be after an hour.

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  4. Suppose you put a cup of hot chocolate down because it was too hot to drink. You started to watch a TV program, and forgot your hot drink for one hour. Use the results of your group experiment to tell what would have happened to the temperature of your hot chocolate.

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