Heat as Energy - Week 4 Course V

For your blog entry this week, think like a scientist, and reflect on the heat transfer experiment you conducted in the Application. Describe the materials you selected for the experiment, and explain why you chose them. Share the results of your experiment. Which materials made the best insulators?
The materials I decided to test were wax paper, aluminum foil, plastic wrap, and a cotton kitchen towel. The reason I selected these materials is because I felt all of them had the potential to be good insulators. Based on the data gathered, my analysis showed the best insulator of this group of materials was the kitchen towel.
The three methods of heat transfer are conduction, convection, and radiation. Convection is a form of transfer where currents are used to move heat.  Since all of the containers in this experiment were covered, this method was discouraged.  Radiation would also include the movement of heat from the container to the surrounding area once again discouraged by the tight cover.  The one method that was encouraged by this experiment was conduction since it is based on heat transferring by touch of one surface to the other.  The liquid touches the cup, it touches the counter, and the cover placed on it allowing the heat to move.
If I were to perform this experiment, again I would use the cotton kitchen towel, a rubber matting, aluminum foil and a lighter fabric such as silk.  I think the rubber matting would be the best insulator because the rubber would be molded and does not breathe as the cotton does.
I would not be interested in testing other materials, simply because they would be messier to deal with in a classroom setting. But, I think any material that is layered such as hot dogs or spaghetti would keep their heat longer than water, because the transfer has to progress through layers.  To make this experiment connect to real life experiences rather than just “materials” I would try to find actual items such as the plastic cover on the coffee cups, the can shaped insulators, paper cup covers from the hotel rooms. These items are familiar and knowing which one insulates best would be beneficial if they were going to purchase any of these. 
This is a great lesson to learn about conduction and insulators all in one.  In performing the experiment I had to think about these two concepts, in my mind this makes it the proper tool to teach them.