Title: Investigating the Heating and Cooling Rates of Soil and Water Lab
1Investigating the Heating and Cooling Rates of
Soil and Water Lab
2Have you ever walked barefoot on a sidewalk in
the early summer? The concrete probably felt hot
against your feet. But if you jumped into a pool
on the same day, you might have felt cold. How
could this be? Part of the explanation has to do
with the way the earth's surfaces receive and
give off heat. All the surfaces on the earth
absorb some of the sun's energy and give off heat
to the air as they coolbut they do it at
different rates. Did you know that the earth's
surfaces heat and cool differently? In this
lesson, you will investigate the rates at which
soil and water heat and cool. In later lessons,
you will see that this uneven heating affects the
circulation of air on the earth and helps create
storms.
Hot concrete and cool water are signs that the
earth's surfaces heat and cool at different rates.
3Earth's Surfaces
- Big Question
- What is the difference in the heating and cooling
rates of soil and water? - Hypothesis
- What do you think will happen to the temperature
of the soil and the water when you turn on the
lamp? What will happen to their temperatures
when you turn off the lamp? Why do you think
this? (When you answer these questions you will
have written your hypothesis for this lab
experiment.) - I think the temperature of the soil and water
will ___________ when I turn on the lamp because
_________. When I turn off the lamp the
temperature of the soil and water will __________
because __________.
4Materials and Constants
- How will you make certain that your investigation
of the heating and cooling of soil and water will
be a fair test? Record all the things that you
will need to keep the same in both setups. You
may draw a picture here and label it. (Under
your hypothesis write the title Materials and
Constants. This is where you will record the
materials used in the lab, and the things that
you will keep the same for both setups.) - Materials soil, water, digital thermometers,
beakers, heat lamp - Things we will keep the same - equal amounts
of soil and water - both thermometers set to
Celsius- both thermometers at the same depth-
soil and water equal distance from heat lamp-
soil and water must be under heat lamp the same
amount of time
5Figure 3.1
6Procedure
- Measure exactly 100ml of water and 100ml of soil.
(Do not pack soil.) - Put one thermometer in each beaker up to the
taped line. - Turn on thermometers and take beginning
temperature. This may take a couple of minutes
until the temperature reading no longer shows any
sign of changing. - When the reading stabilizes, record the first
temperature on your table next to the time 000.
7- Put the beakers under the lamp 30 cm from the
bookends. Turn on the lamp start the stopwatch!
- Important DO NOT PUT THE BEAKERS DIRECTLY UNDER
THE LAMP! - Record the temperature of both the soil and water
every minute for ten minutes. Do not stop the
stopwatch in between readings. - BLUE READ SOIL TEMPERATURE
- RED READ WATER TEMPERATURE
- YELLOW WATCH THE STOPWATCH
- GREEN RECORD TEMPERATURES ON TABLE
8- As soon as you record the temperature for 1000,
turn off lamp and DO NOT stop the stopwatch. - Record the same temperature for ten minutes in
both the heating and cooling column of table.
(SEE TABLE HIGHLIGHT). - Record the temperature of the cooling water and
soil every minute for ten minutes. Record
temperatures on table. - After recording the temperature at time 2000, as
a group figure out the total temperature change
for both the heating and cooling of the water and
soil.
9Questions before we begin
- Look at Table 3.1a
- What do the numbers in the first column of the
table represent? - Which section of the table represents times in
which the lamp is on and times when the lamp is
off? - Why should you not reset the stopwatch to 0.00
after each minute reading? - How can you calculate temperature change?
10Time for the Experiment!!!Observations/Data/Resul
ts
- Set up materials with thermometers in the soil
and water. Red you are in charge of getting the
water Blue is in charge of getting the soil. - Take the temperature reading for 000 but DO NOT
turn on lamp yet! - We will all turn on the lamps and begin timing at
the same time.
11Conclusion
- Restate the big question(What is the difference
in the heating and cooling rates of soil and
water?) The difference in the heating and
cooling rates of soil and water .. - Revisit your original hypothesis(What did you
think would happen to the temperature of the soil
and the water when you turned on the lamp? What
would happen to their temperatures when you
turned off the lamp? Why did you think this? Was
your hypothesis proven to be true or false? Why)
12Heating and Cooling Reflection
- How would you describe the heating and cooling
rates of soil and water in the investigation? - Which material held its heat longer?
- What factors may have influenced your results?
- Reread the Introduction to this lesson. Can you
explain now why concrete feels hot under your
feet in early summer, while water in a pool feels
cold? - On the basis of your investigation, how do you
think the temperature of the ocean compares with
the temperature of the land nearby?
13Heating and Cooling Data Table 1
14Graphing Your Data
- What title will you give your graph?
- How will you label each axis to show the
temperature and time changes? - What will be the first number on each axis? How
will you space the numbers on each axis? How
many degrees will each interval between the
numbers represent? - What techniques will you use to make the graph
more readable?
15Graph A
16Graph B
17Graph C
18Graph D
19SAMPLE GRAPH
Heating and Cooling Rates of Soil and Water
T E M P E R A T U R E (y)
(x) T I M E (Minutes)