Name:______________________________

Heating Earth Lab #21

KWBAT investigate the factors that affect the surface temperature on Earth.

Part 1: The Task

Today, you are going to investigate what happens to different earth
materials when the Sun shines on them. Examples of earth materials
include soil, rock, water, and air. What is the main source of energy that
will heat all of these materials? ______________ What type of heat transfer
occurs for us to receive that energy? _______________________
Each group will set up four earth-material containers, one each filled with
sand, soil, earth, and air. You will place these containers under the Sun
(heat lamp) and you will observe the changes.
*Super important: When you place the thermometers into the lid, make
sure that you are sliding it up from below. You do not want the bulb to go
through the opening. Look at how I have done the air container for you. *
Why is it important that the thermometer bulb is inside of the container?
___________________________________________________________________________
______________
___________________________________________________________________________
__________________________

Container Set Up
1. Sand and Soil Containers
a. One person from your group should come up to the supply
desk with their beaker and get 100 mL of sand or soil into their
container.
b. Slide a thermometer through the slot in the lid from the
bottom (so the top of the thermometer goes up the slot).
c. Snap the lid on the container with the thermometer bulb under
the surface of the sand or soil.
d. Repeat for soil
2. Water Container
a. One person from your group should come up to the supply
desk with their beaker and get 100 mL of water. Pour this into
your container.
b. Slide a thermometer through the slot in the lid from the
bottom (so the top of the thermometer goes up the slot).
c. Snap the lid on the container with the thermometer bulb under
the surface of the water.
3. Air Container.
a. Slide a thermometer through the slot in the lid from the
bottom (so the top of the thermometer goes up the slot).
b. Snap the lid on the container with the thermometer bulb inside
of the container.

Prep For Measurements

1. You will place the four containers under the Sun (heat lamp)
a. DO NOT TOUCH ANY PART OF THE LAMP. IT IS HOT
2. You will use your stopwatch to record the temperature changes every
two minutes of all 4 containers. It would be best if there was one person
assigned to each container. You will do this for ten minutes.
3. After the ten minutes is up, you will move the four containers into the
shade (not under the lamp) and record the temperature every two
minutes.
4. You will use the sheet on the next page to track your changes. Please
note how important it is to actually keep track of the data. If you do not,
it was pretty pointless for you to even do this lab. Data is key!
5. While waiting to collect data, you may share your data with other
people in your group, calculate the change in temperature, and begin
graphing the data.

Pre Experiment Questions:

What is your hypothesis? Which container do you think will heat up the
quickest under the sun? Why?
___________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________
What is your independent variable going to be?
_______________________________________________
What is your dependent variable going to be?
_________________________________________________
Look below if you cannot answer the above questions!!
Scientists use an experiment to search for cause and effect relationships in
nature. In other words, they design an experiment so that changes to one
item cause something else to vary in a predictable way.
These changing quantities are called variables. A variable is any factor, trait, or
condition that can exist in differing amounts or types. An experiment
usually has three kinds of variables: independent, dependent, and
controlled.
The independent variable is the one that is changed by the scientist. To
ensure a fair test, a good experiment has only one independent variable.
As the scientist changes the independent variable, he or
she observes what happens.
The scientist focuses his or her observations on the dependent variable to see
how it responds to the change made to the independent variable. The new

value of the dependent variable is caused by and depends on the value of

the independent variable.

Y Axis = ______________

Analyzing

X Axis =
_____________________________________

Data

1. What material heated up the most in 10 minutes? Why do you think that
occurred?
2. What material heated up the least in 10 minutes? Why do you think that
occurred?

3. Which material cooled off the fastest?

4. Which material cooled off the slowest?

5. Did all 4 materials receive the same amount of solar energy? Support your
answer
6. What properties of the different materials do you think caused the different
temperatures?

7. The Sun (heat lamp) heated the earth materials we put in the containers.
How did it do that? How did the energy from the Sun (heat lamp) get to the
sand, soil, water, and air?