Bell Work: 9/9/14 What is an insulator? What does it mean to insulate? How could poor insulation be a problem?

Special Report! What does it mean for a home to be well-insulated? Why do you think engineering insulated homes is important?

Here Comes the Sun Challenge  Engineers are people who design and improve technologies in order to solve problems or meet needs in their communities, such as engineering well-insulated homes.  Challenge: Keeping homes at a comfortable temperature takes a lot of energy. Your challenge is to Use your green engineering skills to insulate a model home that will remain at a stable temperature. Your design will enable cities like Smyrna to save energy, thus creating a more “green” city.

ASK Restate your problem State what you already know List any limitations or controls

Essential Questions to Ponder… Can we recognize different types of energy transformations?

Standards SPI Recognize that energy can be transformed from one type to another.

Shipping Container Homes: Your challenge will be to explore insulation for shipping container homes. Shipping Container About the size of a school bus

Shipping Container Homes Your team will explore a model shipping container home and investigate the temperature inside.

Model Home Construction 1.Construct model home using masking tape. 2.Set up the model home at a computer station as shown in the picture below using the instruction sheet provided:

Bell Work: 9/10/14 Read the Global Home Cards to find out how people from around the world insulate their homes. Make a list of the different areas and how they insulate their homes. Are there any insulators that you read about that your team could use for your model home?

ASK Restate your problem State what you already know List any limitations or controls Here Comes the Sun Challenge

Essential Questions to Ponder… Can we recognize different types of energy transformations?

Standards SPI Recognize that energy can be transformed from one type to another.

Shipping Container Homes: Your challenge will be to explore insulation for shipping container homes. Shipping Container About the size of a school bus

Shipping Container Homes Your team will explore a model shipping container home and investigate the temperature inside.

Model Home Construction 1.Construct model home using masking tape. 2.Set up the model home at a computer station as shown in the picture below using the instruction sheet provided:

Imagine  Complete research on how solar energy affects the temperature inside the model home.  Use your timer to keep track of how long you’ve had your lamp on & create a chart to record what you find. Decide how often your team will record data on temperature change.  While you wait, earn money for your team! Complete the Insulation Crossword Puzzle for $250!  Complete your data chart for $250!

Imagine  When you turn off your sun lamp, touch your model home roof. How does it feel?  Calculate the total change in temperature of your model.  How did the sun lamp affect the air inside?  Imagine insulation ideas—how could your team insulate your model home? Brainstorm ideas and sketch them in your STEM notebook.

Types of Insulators  What types of insulation do you know about?  What type of insulation might be in your home?  Why would some insulator work better than others?

Global Home Cards Rondavels of Botswana The Cueva Homes of Andalucía, Spain

Global Home Cards Half-timbered Houses of GermanyGers of Mongolia

Global Home Cards Superadobe Structures

Imagine: Research Insulators by Experimenting  Do you have any ideas about how we might test and compare different types of insulation?  What will be your control factors and variables?  Record these in your STEM notebook  Set up the chart below in your STEM notebook:

Testing Insulators Set-up Each team will test a different insulator. After testing, each team will share their results. The results from each team will be recorded in your STEM notebook.

Reflection  What types of insulation worked best?  What types did not work as well?  Do these findings give you any information on materials you would or would not want to include in your final design?

 Use a Post-It Note to “tweet” about the following question: What energy transformation did you notice as you were testing temperature change? Tweet a response…