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6th grade · Science · Unit 5 of 10

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.

New York State Learning 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 New York

In the New York State Learning Standards, this is unit 5 of 10 in 6th grade Science, after Cells: Life's Building Blocks and before Work, Energy & Efficiency.

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: New York State Education Department (NYSED)

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

    A metal spoon feels colder than a wooden spoon at the same temperature because metal…

    • conducts heat away from your hand faster
    • is actually colder
    • makes cold
    • is wet

  2. Question 2

    A thermos keeps soup hot by…

    • making soup
    • adding heat
    • cooling the soup
    • reducing heat transfer

  3. Question 3

    Which needs more energy to heat by 10 °C?

    • 100 g of water
    • 1 g of water
    • 10 g of water
    • 1 kg of water

  4. Question 4

    Heat moving through a solid by touch is…

    • radiation
    • evaporation
    • convection
    • conduction

  5. Question 5

    Thermal energy always flows from…

    • nowhere
    • warmer objects to cooler objects
    • up to down only
    • cooler to warmer

  6. Question 6

    Two pots of water, 1 L and 3 L, get the same heat. The 1 L pot's temperature rises…

    • less
    • the same
    • not at all
    • more

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