After much anticipation we finally presented our lab to four other students last Monday. Luckily, we’d run through the lab many times for practice, so it ran smoothly for the students.
When we first became a group, Blakely, Edva, Matt, and Skye sat down together in an attempt to decide what we wanted to focus on for our lab. We managed to come to an agreement during the first class, and knew we wanted to run an insulation lab…with a twist. We found the model for what we wanted to do on one of the Lab View websites, but we really wanted to make the lab unique, so we decided to turn it into a competition. We agreed that we would each bring in different household materials, and we’d have students pair off and design (from these materials) the best insulation for a glass Snapple bottle. We hypothesized that by making it a competition, students would be more engaged and enthused to use their heads and design the best product.
After finalizing our plans we ran through the labs ourselves several times using paper, styrofoam, tinfoil and cardboard to test the temperature probes and lab program. We also tested whether hot or cold water worked better, and found we were most sucessful testing to see how long different insulation materials took to heat up on a hot plate. Thus we determined the water should remain at room temperature for all the Snapple bottles.
Our next step was to design our lab handout, shown here:
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Lab Handout
Created by: Blakely Harris, Matt Robertson, Edva Seferi and Skye Lewis
Purpose: To determine the best material for insulating a Snapple bottle.
Background: In today’s society, insulation plays a critical role in regulating temperature, and energy conservation. Current insulation materials have been under examination for their contributions to global warming, and possible greenhouse gas emissions. Two common types of insulation, known to many as “blueboard” and “pinkboard” are made with hydro fluorocarbon (HFC), which is a blowing agent that includes potent greenhouse gases. According to buildinggreen.com, both of these types of insulation are made specifically with HFC-134a, is said to be 1,430 times as strong of an emitter of greenhouse gas as carbon dioxide. In a time when reducing green house emissions is a critical necessity, it’s imperative that better insulation materials be discovered. In aiming to reduce these emissions one must also take into consideration the effect of transporting these materials around the world, and the fact that more often than not they are made from plastic, or other materials that we will eventually run out of. Our goal is to discover everyday materials that could be more easily accessible and emit far less greenhouse gases. In today’s lab, we will be testing different materials, and using a mix of creativity and trial and error to discover which materials best insulate the bottles. Each team will have a chance to pick six materials and design their own insulation for their Snapple bottles. Whichever team creates the best insulation for their bottle wins!2
Procedure:
Setup: Groups organize themselves into teams of two. Each team collects two glass Snapple bottles. Next one player from each team competes in a round of rock, paper, and scissors to determine who gets first selection of the insulation materials. The winner then picks their first material from the pile. Then the second team chooses their first, and the teams take turns until they each have six materials. Next the teams begin insulating their bottles with the chosen materials. There is one limitation to their design in that their bottles must use different materials, however they can cut and arrange them according to what they believe will work best. As they are designing their insulation, the instructor will begin heating the hot plate. The teams will have 15 minutes to put their bottles together. At the end of this time, they will fill the bottles with room temperature water, all of which has been determined to be the same temperature for all teams. On the computer, they should open the Lab View program and use the Thermal Heating Lab program. They will then place the temperature probe through the cap of their bottles, and making sure the probe is connected to the computer, place the bottles on the hot plate.
Please List Materials Used here:
Bottle 1: __________________________________________________________________
Bottle 2: __________________________________________________________________
Data Collection: Once the bottles have been placed on the hot plate, teams can start the program. The program will take a temperature reading every 15 seconds for five minutes, generating 20 temperature reads. Players will note their first and last readings on their lab reports. They will then repeat these steps with their second bottle, making sure to record the first and last temperatures again.
Theoretical: Teams will subtract their first number from the last to find their change in temperature over five minutes. They will then repeat this with their second bottles and find the difference between the two bottles. Whichever team ends the lab with the lowest amount of change in temperature wins!
Data:
| Bottles: | Initial Reading | Final Reading | Change in Temp. Over Time |
| #1 | |||
| #2 |
Average Change in Temperature over 5 minutes: __________________
Analysis:
- 1. Which insulation materials worked best? Why do you think these were better materials?
- 2. What suggestions do you have to improve this lab for future students?
- 3. How does this lab relate to sustainability? Is insulation an effective way to conserve energy?
After completing the handout, we moved on to the powerpoint. Our powerpoint, shown below, helped explain the content of our lab.
Finally, we collected data from the students who took our lab. They flipped a coin to see which team could choose materials first. After all the materials were selected the two teams took about ten minutes to create their insulation designs. The two boys (paired together), designed one bottle with just brown paper bag, and one bottle that was covered in rubber, tin foil, a Starbucks coffee bag wrapper, and a tshirt. The two girls designed one covered in a towel, and one covered in styrofoam. The towel covered bottle from the girls first faced off against the brown bag covered bottle from the boys. Their results were:
Towel (Team Girls): Initial Reading: 69.68*F Final Reading: 75.31 *F
Change in Temp: 5.63*F
Brown Bag (Team Boys): Initial Reading: 69.31*F Final Reading: 72.77
Change in Temp: 3.46*F
The second two to face off where the styrofoam from the girls, and the rubber/starbucks/tinfoil/cotton from the boys. There results were:
Styrofoam (Team Girls): Initial Reading: 70.05*F Final Reading: 74.77
Change in Temp: 4.72*F
Rubber/starbucks wrapper / tinfoil/cotton (Team Boys): Initial Reading: 70.41*F Final Reading: 73.50*F
Change in Temp: 3.09
Next we had the two teams average their two change in temperatures, leading the boys to victory as their results were:
Team Girls Average Temperature Change: 5.2*F
Team Boys Average Temperature Change: 3.3*F
When we followed up with the students after to ask if they had any answers to our handout questions, or thought of any improvements, they all said the only thing they’d change would be to offer a prize for the winning team. If we ever have the opportunity to present this lab again we’ll absolutely remember this.
Overall it seemed this lab was effective in relating to sustainability. Current insulation materials are extremely toxic and negative for our environment. Both “pinkboard and blueboard” as they are commonly known as produce 1,430 times as much HFC-134a (better known as Hydro Flurocarbon, a blowing agent containing potent greenhouse gases), as carbon dioxide. Our goal for this lab was to look at everday materials that are already available, and don’t require travel that could help insulate a home. We hope that perhaps this lab could be used for students in the future. As a group we felt as though we got alot out of this experience and absolutely learned alot. Thanks for taking the time to read our blog…. perhaps it will inspire you to take a look at your own insulation!
Below, are images from our actual lab. The first is an image of the original materials the students got to choose.
The next image shows the students assembling their insulation materials.
The next shows the first two insulated bottles to face off, the brown paper versus the towel!
The next image shows the final two matchups. the styrofoam versus the rubber / starbucks/ cotton / tin foil
And Finally, an image of our data as it was collected…
Thanks again for taking the time to read about our lab project, hope you enjoyed learning about it as much as we enjoyed designing it!