Perkins-Tryon Intermediate Team: Jean Aresco Donna Boles Diane Gordon Joan Goss

Construction of Penguin Palace Our sixth grade group spent hours studying global warming and the threats imposed on penguins. We researched the best materials and processes for keeping the cold inside the palace and the heat outside. We also applied previous information from Gary England’s advice to dress in layers in order to keep warm on cold winter days. Therefore, we chose to use several strategically placed layers of various materials such as cotton balls, felt, bubble wrap, foam sheets, and aluminum foil around a paper cup. First, our group cut a foam sheet into one-inch tiles. The self-adhesive tiles fit closely to the cup and covered it completely. It looked like a miniature igloo! Next, we covered the cup with 20 cotton balls and covered it tightly with bubble wrap to keep the cotton balls in place. The primary purpose of these materials was to keep the cold temperature from exiting the palace. Finally, to keep heat from entering the palace, we used aluminum foil as the outer cover of the palace. This would allow the heat from the bulbs to reflect off the palace instead of being absorbed into the palace. After researching global warming, conduction, convection, radiation, and insulation, we constructed what we felt would be the very best palace. We also decided that our second experiment would be to line the inside of the cup with felt and document any changes. We were then ready to try out our penguin palace!

Our Penguin Palace

Data Collection Palace 1: We placed four ice cubes inside the palace. The total mass of the ice cubes was 27.1 grams. The internal temperature of the palace at the beginning of the experiment was 29.1 degrees Celsius. We recorded the temperature changes every thirty seconds and the mass of any liquid collected from melting. The temperature gradually dropped over the first two minutes, but then it gradually rose over the next three minutes. The ending temperature was 31.4 degrees Celsius, and guess what….there was absolutely no collection of liquid mass! Palace 2: We lined the inside of the palace with felt fabric to see if it would have any effect. We then placed a family of four ice penguins inside the palace. (They were so cute!) The total mass of the penguins was 49.6 grams. They were almost twice as heavy as the ice cubes in our first experiment, and they were hard to fit into the palace. We had to handle them more than the ice in the previous experiment, and they were also touching the inside of our palace. We suspected that these three variable changes might affect our data collection. The beginning temperature inside the palace was 14.2 degrees Celsius. The temperature steadily dropped throughout the five minutes; the ending temperature was 27.8 degrees Celsius, and 0.2 grams of liquid had been collected. Palace 3: We felt that variable differences in the second experiment did not allow us to truly test possible benefits or hindrances of lining the inside of the palace with felt, so we did the third experiment with a felt lining and ice cubes that more closely matched the mass of the first experiment. The ice mass was 29.6 grams, and the beginning temperature was 22.0 degrees Celsius. Similar to the first experiment, the internal temperature gradually dropped for the first ninety seconds, and then it rose to 25.5 degrees Celsius at the end of the five minutes. Again, there was no collection of liquid mass!

Conclusion Our first palace is the perfect design. The strategic placement and layering of products proved to be very beneficial as well as economical. The total cost of materials used in this design was $58, not including the paper cup, which was standard with all designs. This design was very inexpensive, yet absolutely no liquid mass was collected. For our revised palace, the results were the same when the variables were consistent, so we found no advantages to lining the inside of the palace with felt. The use of the felt in this design increased the total cost to $178, over three times the cost of the first palace. In conclusion, our first palace is the best constructed, the most effective, and the most cost efficient design on the market. Please allow us to help save the penguins!

Graphic Analysis of Data  Circle graph of total budget distribution  Circle graph of chosen palace cost distribution  Line graph of palace temperatures related to time  Line graph of solid mass related to time

Cost of all items have been included, even if the items were used from sample items. Felt was only used on revised palace and did not improve efficiency. This felt was only used in our revised design. We concluded that it did not improve the efficiency of the palace and would not be necessary.

Total cost of chosen palace: $58 Budget Reserve: $192

This graph represents solid mass. Since there was no melting in Palaces 1 & 3 and virtually no melting (0.2 grams) in Palace 2, a graph related to liquid mass was not constructed.

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