Energy and Forces: Heat

Question: We are going for a picnic. We have packed some ice cubes. How will we keep them frozen for our picnic?
1. The children brainstormed materials that could be used to keep the ice cubes frozen.
​2. In the staffroom, we used a pipette to fill the ice cube moulds with water. We placed them in the freezer.
3. The next morning, we used six ice cubes to carry out the experiment. We placed the ice cubes in a flask, wrapped in tinfoil, in a plastic bottle, outside, in a cooler bag and inside an icepack.
4. After an hour, we lined up the ice cubes and compared the sizes.
5. We placed the materials into order based on the size of each ice cube after an hour.

The Result:
The ice pack was the best item for keeping the ice cube frozen. Next was the tin foil, the cooler bag, the flask, the plastic bottle and in last place was leaving the ice cube outside.