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Science Fair Central: Make. Create. Explore

The document describes a science fair experiment that tested which material is the best insulator for keeping ice cold - aluminum foil, Styrofoam, a commercial plastic insulator, or no insulation. The experiment involved placing ice in cups insulated with each material and measuring the amount of water melted over 5 hours. Although the hypothesis was that Styrofoam would be best, the results showed aluminum foil kept the most ice, followed by Styrofoam, plastic, and no insulation. The author attributes the unexpected results to potential flaws in the experimental procedure and recognizes repeating the experiment could provide a firmer conclusion.

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Alex Buzarang Subrado
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43 views

Science Fair Central: Make. Create. Explore

The document describes a science fair experiment that tested which material is the best insulator for keeping ice cold - aluminum foil, Styrofoam, a commercial plastic insulator, or no insulation. The experiment involved placing ice in cups insulated with each material and measuring the amount of water melted over 5 hours. Although the hypothesis was that Styrofoam would be best, the results showed aluminum foil kept the most ice, followed by Styrofoam, plastic, and no insulation. The author attributes the unexpected results to potential flaws in the experimental procedure and recognizes repeating the experiment could provide a firmer conclusion.

Uploaded by

Alex Buzarang Subrado
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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science fair central

make. create. explore.

KEEP IT COOL

Testable Question What I changed:


(Independent variables)
Which is the best insulator for keeping ice cold? the insulators (aluminum foil,
Styrofoam, commercial plastic
insulator, and no treatment)
Research
What stayed the same:
I started by looking up insulators in a book at my house. The (Controlled variables)
book was called How Science Works by Judith Hann published by initial amount of ice, containers,
Reader’s Digest 1991. The book said that materials that trap air like time, location of the containers
polystyrene and wool are good insulators. Metals like aluminum are
good at conducting heat. A thermos is good at keeping things cold What I measured:
because it cuts down on the passage of heat in all possible ways. (Dependent variables)
Inside a thermos is a flask with a double wall of glass or plastic with how much water melted from
a vacuum in between. The vacuum is good for stopping heat from the ice over time
passing through it.
Materials:
I wasn’t sure if a book published in 1991 had the latest information • styrofoam
about my topic, so I searched the internet to see if other current • aluminum foil
scientists still agree. After searching the internet, I found that • plastic commercial product
polystyrene or Styrofoam is still good at keeping things cold. (drink cozy)
• ice 300g
Finally, I asked the manager at the local convenience store. He said • clock/timer
that Styrofoam coolers are one of his most popular products. • 4 transparent plastic cups with
lids
Hypothesis • clay
• scale for determining mass
Styrofoam is the best insulator for preventing ice from melting. • measuring tool for mL

Why I think so: I think this because my research says that


Time: 1 day
polystyrene traps air and Styrofoam coolers are a very popular
cooler to purchase.

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What is tested What stays the same Data Collected
Testable Question
(independent variable) (controlled variable) (dependent variable)
Which is the best The insulators (aluminum Initial amount of ice, How much water melted
insulator for keeping ice foil, Styrofoam, containers, time from the ice over time
cold? commercial plastic
insulator, and no
treatment)

Procedure
1. Place 75 grams of ice into each of 4 identical transparent plastic cups. Cover with lid. Cover the
opening where the straw hole is with clay to make it airtight.

2. Insulate 3 of the cups with either aluminum foil, Styrofoam, or a plastic commercial insulator. Do
not put any insulation on one of the cups.

3. Wait one hour. Remove the clay and pour the water from the cup. Measure the amount of water
in each cup. Compare the amounts of water.

4. Measure and compare again every hour for 5 hours. Observe the ice and make qualitative
observations as well.

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Data: The chart below shows how much water I collected after each hour.

Amount of Melted Water Collected Over Time in mL

Type of insulator After 1 hr After 2 hrs After 3 hrs After 4 hrs After 5 hrs

Aluminum foil 5 mL 20 mL 15 mL 12 mL 10 mL

Plastic 10 mL 20 mL 18 mL 12 mL 15 mL

Styrofoam 10 mL 20 mL 11 mL 15 mL 10 mL

None 15 mL 20 mL 20 mL 20 mL --

Qualitative Observations:
As the ice cubes began to melt they stuck together. At the end of the 5 hours, there clearly was a
bigger piece of ice left in the aluminum foil covered cup than in any of the other cups.

Results/Conclusions
The results did not confirm my original hypothesis. I thought that the Styrofoam would be the clear
winner. Instead the container with the aluminum foil had the most ice left at the end of the test. The
Styrofoam came in second place, followed by the plastic and the container with no insulation.

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I wonder if my results had something to do with the procedure I used. The loose Styrofoam that I placed
around one of the cups may have let in more air than the aluminum foil that covered the other container
completely. If I had to do the experiment again, I would use a Styrofoam cup instead of the smaller pieces
of Styrofoam.

Also, since the difference between the Styrofoam and the aluminum foil was not that much, there could
have been a slight error in how much ice I measured at the beginning of the experiment. Maybe the
styrofoam cup had slightly less grams of ice at the beginning of the investigation because some of the
ice could have been accidentally dropped when moving it from the scale to inside the cup. Maybe the
ice in one of the containers began melting together when I was measuring it at the beginning of the
investigation and this affected the rate of melting more than if the ice cubes were still cold and separate
at the beginning of the experiment. My best guess for the different results is that it might have taken me
too long to measure the melted ice resulting in more air getting inside the Styrofoam container than in the
aluminum foil container.

While the results of my investigation show that aluminum foil is best for keeping things cold, I am not
confident that my original hypothesis is totally wrong. The small differences at the end of the investigation
make me think that repeating the investigation would help draw a more firm conclusion.

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