Today in 5th grade science we investigated heat energy through a short lab. Students were given a hot cup of water, a cold cup of water, and food coloring. Students put one drop of food coloring in each cup and then watched what happened. The kids were fascinated to see that in the cold cup of water the food coloring dispersed very slowly and even after a minute had passed the food coloring was still not fully mixed in. However, when they put the food coloring in the hot water the kids immediately saw a difference! The food coloring dispersed and mixed in very quickly, which was very different from the cold water.

Through discussing with their classmates and using their understanding of heat energy (the vibrating of molecules), students were able to relate that in the cold water the molecules were vibrating and moving around much slower, making the food coloring take much longer to disperse. The molecules in the hot water, which were vibrating and moving around much quicker, allowed the food coloring to disperse much quicker.

Stay tuned for more energy experiments and enjoy the weekend!