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6th grade · Science · Unit 4 of 6

Thermal Energy & Insulation

Heat flow, temperature and keeping things warm or cold.

What your child practices

Practices how thermal energy moves from warmer to cooler objects, how mass and material affect temperature change, and how to design a device that slows heat transfer.

Alaska content standards learning standard: MS-PS3-3; MS-PS3-4 · designing to reduce heat transfer, and how mass and material affect temperature change

How we explain it

Children can open this short lesson before they practice.

  1. Thermal energy always flows from warmer objects to cooler ones.
  2. Conduction: heat moves through touching things. Convection: heat moves with flowing liquids or gases.
  3. Radiation: heat travels as waves, like warmth from the sun.
  4. Insulators, like thick cooler walls, slow heat flow.

Example: Warm air rises from a heater and spreads through a room. Which kind of heat flow is this? Heat is carried by moving air, a gas. Heat moving with a flowing gas or liquid is convection. Answer: convection

Thermal Energy & Insulation in Alaska

In the Alaska content standards, this is unit 4 of 6 in 6th grade Science, after Cells: Life's Building Blocks and before Engineering Design.

Gradelings describes a child's practice on this unit as Beginning, Approaching, Meeting or Exceeding (Four practice steps). That reflects practice, not a report-card mark: the teacher decides the mark.

Source: Alaska Department of Education and Early Development

Sample questions

A taste of this unit. In the app, questions change every time and get easier or harder to match your child.

  1. Question 1

    Heat moving by flowing liquids or gases is…

    • reflection
    • radiation
    • conduction
    • convection

  2. Question 2

    Which is a good conductor of heat?

    • Wool
    • Air
    • Foam
    • Copper

  3. Question 3

    Why do coolers have thick walls?

    • To slow heat getting in
    • To let heat in
    • To look strong
    • To make it heavy

  4. Question 4

    Heat moving through a solid by touch is…

    • conduction
    • convection
    • evaporation
    • radiation

  5. Question 5

    A bathtub and a cup are both filled with 40 °C water. Which has more thermal energy?

    • The bathtub
    • The cup
    • Neither
    • They are equal

  6. Question 6

    Why do engineers test several insulation materials?

    • To pick the prettiest
    • To make heat
    • To find which slows heat transfer most
    • To waste materials

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