Science Fair

Grown-ups

Which cup keeps an ice cube from melting longest?

1st–7th grade · 1 day of testing · about $1 · ages 6 to 13 · 150 minutes a sitting

  • 💧 Water
What you need for the cups that keep ice project: ice cubes, all from the same tray, paper cups, clear plastic cups, all the same size, a clear jar or tall glass, foam cups, the kind for hot drinks

My hypothesis

If I change what the cup is made of, then how long the ice cube takes to melt all the way will ______, because ______.

You fill in the blanks. Think about how the room's warmth gets from the air, through the side of the cup, into the ice. A guess is a good because: the test finds out.

Change, measure, keep the same

CHANGE

what the cup is made of: Paper, Plastic, Glass, Foam

MEASURE

how long the ice cube takes to melt all the way, in minutes

KEEP THE SAME

  • ice cubes from the same tray, one in each cup
  • cups about the same size
  • the same table, out of the sun

Scientists call the thing you change the independent variable and the thing you measure the dependent variable. The things you keep the same are the controls: if one of them changed too, you wouldn't know which change made the difference. Try each of the 4 levels 3 times.

What you need

  • Ice cubes, all from the same tray: 12 cubes
  • Paper cups: 3 paper cups
  • Clear plastic cups, all the same size: 3
  • A clear jar or tall glass: 3 small glass jars or glasses
  • Foam cups, the kind for hot drinks: 3
  • Masking tape, to mark lines
  • A stopwatch or a kitchen timer

Steps

  1. Line up three paper, three plastic, three glass and three foam cups on a table, out of the sun.
  2. Label each cup with a strip of masking tape.
  3. Drop one ice cube from the same tray into each cup, as fast as you can.
  4. Start the timer.
  5. Every 10 minutes, look in each cup and write down which ones still have ice.
  6. Write down the time when each cube is all water.
  7. The three cups of each kind are your three trials.
  8. Find the middle time for each kind of cup, and draw a bar graph.

Every step is one you can do yourself, with a grown-up nearby. Write each number down straight away, in the table below, so nothing is lost.

Your results table

MY RESULTSPeabody 🦉 peabody.kids/science-fair

Name ______________________ Fair day ____________

Question: Which cup keeps an ice cube from melting longest?

I changed: Cup   I measured: how long the ice cube takes to melt all the way (minutes)

CupTry 1 (minutes)Try 2 (minutes)Try 3 (minutes)Mean
Paper
Plastic
Glass
Foam

MY GRAPH (a bar graph: cup along the bottom, minutes up the side)

What I noticed: ______________________________________________

From 4th grade, add the tries for each level and divide by how many there were: that's the mean, and it goes in the last column. Then draw a bar graph, one bar for each thing you tried.

📊 Make my graph🖨 Print the whole packet (9 pages)

Why it works

Ice melts when warmth from the room flows into it. Foam is full of tiny trapped bubbles of air, and trapped air lets warmth through very slowly, which scientists call insulating. Glass and thin plastic usually let warmth through faster, so the ice in them often melts sooner.

Going further (7th and up): Change a second thing: put a foil lid on half the cups of each kind, and graph lid and no lid side by side.

Board layout

MY BOARD · 36 × 48 in tri-foldPeabody 🦉 peabody.kids/science-fair
  1. ❓ Question (10 × 8 in): Which cup keeps an ice cube from melting longest?
  2. 💭 Hypothesis (10 × 9 in): If I change what the cup is made of, then how long the ice cube takes to melt all the way will ______, because ______.
  3. 🧺 Materials (10 × 12 in): 7 things: see your list.
  4. 🪜 Steps (22 × 9 in): 8 steps, three tries at each level.
  5. 📊 Results (22 × 16 in): Your table (Cup down the side, tries across) and your bar graph.
  6. ✅ Conclusion (10 × 14 in): My hypothesis was right / partly right / not right. I know because…

Materials to list: Ice cubes, all from the same tray; Paper cups; Clear plastic cups, all the same size; A clear jar or tall glass; Foam cups, the kind for hot drinks; Masking tape, to mark lines; A stopwatch or a kitchen timer.

Bring photos or drawings of your test. Nothing wet, hot, powered or alive on the table.

This project at your grade

1st–3rd gradeTries: three at each level (one is fine at a first fair). The table: levels and tries, numbers or pictures. The graph: a picture, or a simple bar graph. The conclusion: what happened, in their words.
4th–6th gradeTries: three at each level. The table: units in the header and a mean column. The graph: a bar graph, or a line for a number that grows. The conclusion: right, partly or not, and the numbers that show it.
7th grade and upTries: three or more at each level. The table: a mean for every level of both tests. The graph: a graph with two lines or two sets of bars. The conclusion: the numbers, what might have gone wrong, and a next question. Second variable: put a foil lid on half the cups of each kind, and graph lid and no lid side by side.

From 4th grade up, the table gets a mean column. See every project for 1st grade, or print a blank results table.

What a judge will ask

  • What did you change, and what did you measure? I changed what the cup is made of and measured how long the ice cube takes to melt all the way, in minutes.
  • What did you keep the same, and why does that matter? I kept ice cubes from the same tray, one in each cup and cups about the same size the same, so the only difference was what the cup is made of.
  • How many times did you test it? 3 times at each of my 4 levels.
  • If you did it again, what would you change or test next? I'd put a foil lid on half the cups of each kind, and graph lid and no lid side by side.

Make it yours

Keep this project on this device and Peabody counts down to your fair day, with a plan for each day. Nothing is sent anywhere.

Try next

👨‍👩‍👧 For grown-ups and teachers: how much to help, the safety rules, and running a school fair. Science fair v0.16.1 · Checked .

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