Have you ever noticed that some substances heat up and cool down faster than others?

• When you cook a baked potato wrapped in aluminum foil, which substance takes longer to cool down? The baked potato or the aluminum foil?

• What are other examples that you can think of? Write down your answers!

• In Nova Scotia, we are close to water

• We know that water has a high heat capacity

• This means it takes water longer to heat up and longer to cool down

• This also means that the water is warmer than the land in the winter because water takes longer to cool down than the land

• The heat from the water helps cities like Halifax stay warmer in the winter compared to cities further away from bodies of water like Calgary

Using the graph above of the heat capacities of various substances, answer the following questions about heat capacity in the worksheet to the left.

This is a great way to make sure that you can interpret the graph correctly and that you understand heat capacity in various contexts!

Which materials are best to use in a kitchen because of their heat capacities?

In this experiment, you will be determining which material has the highest and lowest heat capacity:

• metal

• plastic

• wood

Make sure to make a prediction before you get started. A good prediction uses knowledge that you already have! If you need help with your prediction, you can go count the different utensils in your kitchen. How many are wood, plastic and metal? Are there any different materials they are made of?

Make sure you can answer these questions so you know you have a good understanding of the material. Try to answer these questions before moving onto the unit projects:

1. What does it mean if a substance has a high heat capacity?

2. How does being close to a body of water help cities in the winter?

3. Why does aluminum foil cool down faster than a baked potato?

Take the quiz to make sure you are on the right track!

Find a variety of resources that correspond to this lesson to help enhance learning and understanding. The documents can either be printed off or opened and edited in Google Docs.