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Choosing a Build Plate for the Makerspace 3D Printer

Grade 6 investigation: heater-time data for 3D printer plates show how energy transferred, mass and type of matter affect a change in temperature.

Grade 6ScienceInteractive · Printable

Aligned toMS-PS3-4

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What’s included

Single worksheet
Auto-graded online
1 NGSS standard
Printable answer key
11 questions
Classroom-ready

Details

Format: Interactive · Printable
Grade: Grade 6
Subject: Science
Question types: Fill in the blank, Multiple choice, Circle the answer, Short answer

About this worksheet

What students practice

Students calculate the energy a heater transfers from its power and running time.
Students analyze trials to describe how mass, material and temperature change affect the energy needed.
Students use investigation data to argue for a design choice.

How to use

Read the passage together and have students say what was changed, kept the same and measured before they start. Part 2 works well in pairs, followed by a short class debate on the open response.

Curriculum

NGSS standard covered

MS-PS3-4

Investigate how the energy transferred, the type of matter and its mass affect a change in temperature.

Preview

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Name Date

Choosing a Build Plate for the Makerspace 3D Printer

Use heater-time data to see how energy, mass and material affect warming.

Part 1: The heater trials

Read the passage and the table, then answer the questions.

A New Plate for the Printer

1The makerspace at Ridgeline Community Center has a small 3D printer that the teen club uses to print phone stands, game pieces and spare parts. The printer lays down melted plastic on a flat build plate, one thin layer at a time. The plate needs to be warm, about 60 °C, or the first layers often peel up and the print fails. The club's old plate cracked, so mentor Tavita Fonoti asked the teens to test some replacement plates before the club buys one.

2Club member Greta Albescu planned the test. Every plate was cut to the same 12 cm by 12 cm square, so a heavier plate of the same material is a thicker one. Each plate sat on the same flat electric heater pad, with a foam block on top so that little energy escaped into the room. The pad gives off 20 joules (J) of energy every second it is switched on. Every plate started at room temperature, 20 °C.

3For each trial, Greta switched the pad on and timed how long it ran until a thermometer taped to the plate read the target temperature. Then she switched the pad off, let the plate cool back to 20 °C and set up the next trial. She ran each trial twice and recorded the mean time, rounded to the nearest 10 seconds.

4Greta changed one thing at a time: the material of the plate (aluminum, steel or glass), its mass, or the target temperature. She kept the heater pad, the size of the plate, the starting temperature and the foam cover the same in every trial.