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Saving the Ice: An Ice Chest for an All-Day Track Meet

Grade 6 engineering practice: judge ice chest designs for a hot track meet by ice left, mass and cost, and explain how each part slows energy transfer.

Grade 6ScienceInteractive · Printable

Aligned toMS-PS3-3

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What’s included

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

Details

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

About this worksheet

What students practice

Students evaluate device designs against criteria and limits using test data.
Students explain how insulation, foil and a closed lid slow thermal energy transfer into ice.

How to use

Use after students have learned that thermal energy moves from warmer to cooler objects. Have students list the criteria from paragraph 2 before they start the questions.

Curriculum

NGSS standard covered

MS-PS3-3

Design and test a device, such as an insulated box or a solar cooker, that reduces or increases thermal energy transfer.

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Saving the Ice: An Ice Chest for an All-Day Track Meet

Test ice chest designs against criteria and explain how each part slows energy transfer into the ice.

Part 1: The ice chest tests

Read the passage and Table 1, then answer questions 1–5.

Ice for the Invitational

1Every June, the Ridgeline Middle School track team runs in an all-day invitational meet on a field with almost no shade. The team's athletic trainer, Ms. Daniela Fairweather, needs ice from 8 AM to 4 PM to cool sprains and bruises. Last year her plain plastic bin of ice was mostly water by lunch. Sixth grader Kwame Ostrowski and two classmates from the engineering club offered to design a better ice chest.

2Ms. Fairweather gave the team three requirements. At least 1,500 g of the 3,000 g of ice must still be frozen at 4 PM. The empty chest must have a mass of 3 kg or less, so she can carry it with her medical bag. The supplies must cost $25 or less.

3The team built six chests from the same size of plastic storage bin. On a sunny Saturday, they filled each one with 3,000 g of ice cubes at 8 AM and set all six side by side on the school field. The air reached 34 °C by early afternoon. To copy a meet day, a teammate opened each lid 6 times during the day for about 10 seconds, without taking out any ice. At 4 PM they poured off the meltwater and weighed the ice that was left (Table 1).

4The team also weighed the ice in Chest D every two hours and noted the air temperature (Table 2). A week later they ran one more test: they opened Chest C's lid 24 times instead of 6, and only 1,550 g of ice was left at 4 PM.

Table 1: Ice Chest Tests (3,000 g of ice at 8 AM)
Chest	Design	Ice left at 4 PM	Empty mass	Cost
A	Plain plastic bin	600 g	1.2 kg	$8
B	Bin + 2 cm foam walls and lid	1,700 g	1.8 kg	$15
C	Bin + 4 cm foam walls and lid	2,100 g	2.4 kg	$22
D	Chest B + foil on the outside	2,000 g	1.9 kg	$19
E	Chest C + foil on the outside	2,400 g	2.5 kg	$26
F	Wood box + 4 cm foam	2,300 g	4.6 kg	$24