Today we tested our Arctic Buddies!! We needed to test for our two criteria: insulating ability, and waterproofness. We tested insulating ability by filling up our Arctic buddies with warm water and then putting them outside in the cold. Before we put them outside we measured the temperature of the water so that we had a baseline, or starting temperature. Then we waited for 1 hour and measured the temperature again. We noticed that the temperatures had dropped. Then we waited for another hour and measured the temperature again. In this second measurement some of us noticed that the temperature had fallen again, but others noticed that the temperature stayed the same. The good news was that none of them froze! Our insulators weren't perfect (the temperatures had fallen) but they were helping out a bit and seemed to be slowing down the temperature drop.
Next, we needed to test for waterproofness. We did this by putting our Arctic Buddies in a big tub and then Ms. Boyer used the watering can to soak them all with water. Then, we "dissected" our buddies to see if the water had seeped into the layers or if the waterproofing had worked. There was quite a lot of variety in our results for this part. Some Buddies were still quite dry with only some wet patches at the top and bottom. Other Buddies were soaked most of the way through.
Here are a few questions to ask me at dinner:
1. How well did your insulation work? What was your starting temperature? What was your final temperature?
2. How well did your waterproofing work? What materials seemed to work well, what materials caused problems?
3. If you were going to do this project again, what would you keep the same? What would you change?
This afternoon we also had a chance to visit the Grade 5/6 learning celebration called "You Won't Learn This in Grade 6 Science." Their projects were really interesting and it was exciting to see what our big buddies have been up to!
Please remember that there is no school for students tomorrow.
Our helper on Monday is: Peter
