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A Battery Sleeve for a Winter Race

Grade 6 engineering practice: test battery sleeve versions in calm and windy cold, keep the pack between 5 °C and 40 °C and explain each layer.

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
11 questions
Classroom-ready

Details

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

About this worksheet

What students practice

Students use test data to decide which device versions keep a battery pack inside a temperature range.
Students explain how each part of a device slows or adds thermal energy transfer.
Students use a second test to improve a design and justify the final choice.

How to use

Read the passage together and mark the 5 °C to 40 °C range on the board. Students can work in pairs on Part 1, then answer Part 2 on their own.

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.

Preview

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Name Date

A Battery Sleeve for a Winter Race

Test and improve a sleeve that keeps a battery pack in a safe temperature range.

Part 1: The calm-morning test

Read the passage and the first table. Use them to answer questions 1–5.

Keeping the Finish Clock Running

1Every January, the running club at Pinecrest Middle School hosts the Frost Dash, a 5 km race around the lake. The big finish clock and the timing mat at the finish line both run on one battery pack. Last year the clock went dark halfway through the race. The pack had cooled so much in the cold air that it stopped giving enough power.

2Club member Soraya Whitfield read the guide that came with the pack. It says the pack works best between 5 °C and 40 °C, and that temperatures above 40 °C can damage it. The race lasts about 90 minutes from the first runner's start to the last runner's finish. Soraya set the design goal: the pack must stay between 5 °C and 40 °C for 90 minutes outside. She also set a limit: the sleeve must leave room for the power cable to pass through.

3Soraya built six versions of a sleeve. Version 1 was a cloth bag. Version 2 was a foam sleeve 1 cm thick, and Version 3 was a foam sleeve 2 cm thick. Version 4 added a shiny foil lining inside the 2 cm foam. Version 5 was Version 4 with one air-activated hand warmer packet tucked beside the pack, and Version 6 had two packets.

4For each test, she charged the pack indoors so it started at 20 °C, put it in the sleeve and set it on the school's loading dock on a calm morning when the air was −5 °C. A probe thermometer taped to the pack recorded its temperature after 90 minutes.