Look at these two ice cubes. If I leave one on the windowsill and one in a shaded corner, will they melt at the same speed?
How could we find out fairly?
Our question: Which place melts an ice cube fastest?
Our three places today: windowsill, shaded corner, and near the heater.
Predict which place will be fastest and say why. Predictions are the start of the science, not a guess to get right.
A fair test means we change one thing, measure one thing, and keep the rest the same.
Now we plan our test together on the board, sorting cards about our ice investigation into three bins: Change, Measure and Keep the same.
Help us sort each card into the right bin. Watch and talk first; keep your journal closed until we finish the board.
When every card is in place, copy the finished plan onto your Investigation Journal page so it matches the board.
Which place melts ice fastest?
Watch the timer on the board. It counts down 15 minutes. We open it now, before any cube is set down, and start it together when every cup is in place. When it reaches zero, we bring the cups back.
We share three class places: windowsill, shaded corner and near the heater.
Put one ice cube in each of your group's three cups. Carry one cup to each place. When every cup is in place, we start the 15-minute timer on the board together. Keep the cube size, the cup, the start time and the wait the same for every place, because the only thing we are changing is the place.
While the timer runs, look at your cups when we call 5 minutes and 10 minutes. Which cup has the most water in the bottom so far?
When the timer reaches zero, bring your three cups back to your table. For each cup, hold the ice back with a spoon and pour only the melt water into the measuring cylinder. Read how many millilitres it is and write it in the results table on your Investigation Journal page. Empty the cylinder, then do the next cup.
No cube will melt away in 15 minutes, so there will still be ice in every cup. That is fine: we are measuring how much water each place melted in the same time.
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