Name_____________________________                                         Date: _____________

Activity:  Differential Heating and Cooling

Objectives:

·          To observe that soil both heats up and cools faster than water.

·          To observe that different colors absorb different amounts of the Sun’s radiation.

·          To research, compare and contrast temperature patterns around the country/world.

Materials:

· Reflector lamp with 100 watt bulb

· 2 x 250 ml beakers

· 150 ml of soil

· 150 ml of water

· 2 thermometers

· Stopwatch

· Temperature map

Procedure:

1. Place 150 ml of soil in one beaker and 150 ml of water in the other beaker.

Place a thermometer in each beaker and record the starting temperature.

2. Place the lamp 10 cm from the beakers. Make sure that both beakers are equally distant from the lamp and that both receive an equal amount of light.

3. Turn on the lamp and record the temperature every minute for 10 minutes.

Heating

4. Turn off the lamp and record the temperature every minute for 10 minutes.

Cooling

5. Graph your results.

6. Write up your results and explain what you observed.