Heat is energy on the move, and temperature is how we measure how hot or cold something is. At Thermo Springs, Year 4 scientists read thermometers in degrees Celsius and find out why a metal spoon gets hot but a wooden one doesn’t.
What your child will learn
- Measure temperature with a thermometer in degrees Celsius (°C)
- Know that water freezes at 0 °C and boils at 100 °C
- Know that heat moves from hotter things to colder things
- Sort materials into heat conductors and heat insulators
Heat moves from hot to cold
A hot drink cools because its heat spreads into the cooler air. An ice cube melts in your hand because heat flows from your hand into the ice. Things carry on warming or cooling until they match the temperature around them.
Conductors and insulators
Metals are good conductors: heat travels through them quickly. Wood, plastic, wool and trapped air are insulators: they slow heat down. A coat doesn’t make heat — it traps the heat your body makes.
Example questions
Here are a few questions like the ones in the first quest. Can you solve them?
1. What happens to ice when it is heated?
- It freezes
- It melts
- It gets harder
- It turns to stone
Show answer
Answer: It melts. Heat turns solid ice into liquid water.
2. True or false? Rubbing your hands together makes them warmer.
Show answer
Answer: True. Rubbing (friction) produces heat.
3. What should you wear to stay warm on a cold day?
- A thin T-shirt
- Sandals
- A thick woolly jumper
- Sunglasses
Show answer
Answer: A thick woolly jumper. Wool traps air, which holds in your body heat.
Tips for grown-ups
- Put a metal, a wooden and a plastic spoon in warm water and feel the handles after a minute.
- Read an outdoor thermometer at the same time each day for a week.
- Wrap one ice cube in a sock and leave another bare — which lasts longer?