Melting Ice

Just trying out tomorrow's lesson from a student's point of view.  I think this is going to work.  This experiment doesn't really have a problem and hypothesis portion of the scientific method.

Background:

The kinetic theory of matter is the current theory that explains how the particles within an object behave as they absorb or release energy.  These are the 4 main points:

1. As particles gain energy they move more quickly.
2. Particles are held together by attractive forces.
3.  Particles are in constant motion.
4. At the same temperature more massive particles move more slowly than less massive ones.

Materials: 

2 hot plates, 2 beakers, ice, water, LabQuest, temperature probes

Procedure:

1. Set the LabQuest to record the temperature once every 2 minutes for 20 minutes.
2. Place 200 mL of water in one beaker and 200 mL of ice in a second beaker.
3. Put each on their own hot plate that is set at a moderate temperature.  (We used 4.)
4. Put one probe in the water and one in the ice.
5. Press play on the LabQuest. 
6. Record data in the data table and answer questions while waiting for the data to be collected.

Results:

Data Table 1: (This data is completely made up by me so that I may show students a sample lab report.)

time (minutes)	temp ice (deg C)	temp water (deg c)
0	5	11
2	7	20
4	7	25
6	8	32
8	10	35
10	15	40

Data Analysis:

 As both the raw data above and the graph at the left indicate the temperature began to significantly increase at the 8 minute mark.  This increase occurred with both the ice and the water.

Also, it should be noted that both substances have very similar heating patterns.

Finally, ........

Conclusion:

I am choosing not to write up the conclusion here as I want to see what the students have to say as opposed to them copying my thoughts.