Engineers, what is wrong here?

There are penguins all over the world, not just in Antarctica. The red dots indicate where penguins live. There are penguins all over the southern hemisphere. Even in South Africa…

Boulders Beach is on the coast of South Africa. Here, the Boulders Beach penguins live. As the climate across the globe changes, these penguins are getting hot. To keep from overheating, they cool off in the water. But this survival technique has not worked in their favor…

Boulders Beach Penguins The sea gulls are stealing their eggs! So the park rangers have built the penguins little houses to protect their eggs AND to help keep them cooler. This is helping them survive!

Climate change is causing penguins in Antarctica to become endangered by eliminating available habitats

How bad is climate change? Are we to blame?

But how can we help? For starters, we can conserve energy so we don’t use as many fossil fuels in power plants! But that will take some time! What can we do at home to help the penguins?

How can we help them now? Challenge: Can you design a dwelling that will protect your penguin from increasingly warmer temperatures?

Review of Thermal Energy Transfer Conduct the following experiments to gain a better understanding of thermal energy transfer, insulators, and conductors.

Insulation and Conduction Soda Cans You are leaving on a field trip and you want to keep your soda cold, but ice packs are not allowed. What can you wrap the can in to keep it cool?

Materials Predict which material you think will keep the soda can colder longer? – A wool sock, paper towel, aluminum foil, plastic wrap, cotton sock, nothing Starting temperature of can 42 degrees F

Insulators and Conductors- Soda Cans

Which material appears to work the best? – Wool Which material appears to work the least? – Cotton sock When you wrap a can of soda, what are you really trying to do? – Keep the heat out, not keep the cold in From the data collected, how would you rate aluminum foil? Why? – Not very good, it is a metal and good conductor What is the best fabric to wear in the winter to keep you warm? – wool, because it traps air and doesn’t absorb moisture

Metal vs. Other Materials Preview: Which tray is colder? Watch the video, why don’t the ice cubes melt at the same rate?

Battle of the Spoons Predict: Which spoon (silver or plastic) will keep an ice cube from melting faster?

Which spoon is causing the ice cube to melt faster? Why? – Metal, It is conducting heat from my hand through the spoon and melting the ice cube. Why didn’t the other spoon melt the ice cube as fast? – The plastic spoon does not transfer heat well Which spoon is a conductor? – Metal Which spoon is an insulator? – Plastic

Draw Metal Spoon Heat is conducted from my hand, along the metal, which is a conductor, to the ice cube, which melts Plastic Spoon Heat is NOT conducted from my hand, since plastic is an insulator. The ice cube does not melt

Tray temperatures What are the actual temperatures? So why does the metal feel colder? – It conducts heat away from your hand quickly

Explain the melting ice blocks The blocks are made of different materials. The fast melting cube was on a good conductor (metal). The slow melting cube was on a good insulator (wood, plastic).

Hot House How can conduction, convection, and radiation all come from a single source?

Data Collection

What method of HEAT TRANSFER is heating up the attic? – Conduction- The attic gets hot because the hot roof (esp the black roof) is absorbing the light and it transfers its energy directly to the attic What method of HEAT TRANSFER is used when we FLIPPED the house? – Convection- the cold, dense air will sink and the warm air will rise What method of HEAT TRANSFER is blocked when we covered the house with the space blanket? – Radiation- the heat instead of being absorbed is reflected away

Brainstorm Using your knowledge of insulators, conductors, conduction, convection, and radiation, design a dwelling for your penguin which will prevent it from melting under the sun.

Materials What type of materials will you use? – Cotton, wood, construction paper, foam, felt, plastic wrap, aluminum foil

Design What will your design be? Remember your penguin has to be able to get into and out of your dwelling.

Are you designing a home for winter heat losses? What do you think the arrows represent? Where is the heat going?

Or for summer heat losses? Now where is the heat going? In the summer, it’s HOT! Heat transfers into our houses!

We need to slow down heat transfer. In other words, we need to stop the from happening!

Test Oven Radiation from heat lamp above Conduction and convection from black floor Convection and radiation from 4 shiny foil walls

Conserving energy is the key to help…