Early in the school year, our initial model of how the fancy cups worked better than the regular cup showed that we thought incoming light had to do with heating up the liquid inside that was attempting to stay cold. So Mrs. Brinza dug around the supply closet and luckily came up with some light sensors and lights to help us figure out how to see if light was affecting the cups!
We did two things! First, we measured the water temperature's change when exposed to light. We wanted to test various cups since we've had some questions about materials of the cups, too!
We did two things! First, we measured the water temperature's change when exposed to light. We wanted to test various cups since we've had some questions about materials of the cups, too!
Then we used a light sensor/meter to measure the amount of light going towards, into, and off of our cups (we're talking more like scientists now and are suggesting that light can transmit, reflect, or absorb differently off of different cups).
And the data we've collected is telling us some REALLY interesting things that we'll be trying to make sense of next week. The really neat thing, too, is that we're using a ton of math in science right now. Our ability to manipulate numbers and use our number sense to eliminate outliers is outstanding! Way to go 6th grade!