Which will melt the fastest?

Learn about heat transfer and how to keep things warm by testing the characteristics of different materials. Some materials are good thermal conductors, they easily let heat pass through them, while others are good thermal insulators, which don’t easily let heat pass through them.

Try wrapping some snow balls in different materials to experiment and watch how they can slow down the melting process of snow.  You could use tin foil, newspaper, salt, cardboard or other household items – but remember to leave one snowball to melt as normal so that you can see how well each material has insulated the snow!

Write your results in a table and write a few sentences to tell us your opinion on why these materials worked/didn’t work so well.

Freeze a Bubble!

If the weather outside is below 0°C, you can take your bubbles outdoors.

Blow a bubble and catch it on the wand. Wait and watch as it freezes. It will turn into a crystal ball and then shatter like glass! Notice the ice crystals forming!  Can you take a picture of the bubble for our blog before it shatters? 

Salt and a String

Outside you can perform a “magic trick” with an ice cube, a string, and some salt.

Cut a piece of string a few inches long then place an ice cube in a cup of cold water. Try to pick up the ice cube using just the string and not your fingers! Does it work?

 Now dip the end of the string in the water and lay it across the ice cube. Sprinkle some salt on top of both the ice cube and the string. Wait a minute or so and then try to pick up the ice again using just the string. Does it work now?

Can you explain why?