Chemical Interactions: Investigation 4.2: Liquid Expansion
Focus Question: How does cooling and heating affect the level of
water in the pipe?
Procedure:
a. Write the focus question in your notebook.
b. Make a thermometer:
1. Push the clear plastic pipe a short distance into the
rubber stopper.
2. Use a syringe to put 35 mL of blue water into the
glass bottle.
3. Push the stopper into the bottle as far as it will go.
Use the pipette to fine-tune the water level so it is
halfway up the pipe.
4. Tape a 1” ✕ 3” card to the clear tube. Label the
water level “R.”
5. In your notebook, record the starting temperatures
of
the cold and hot water.
6. Place the bottle in cold water. After 3 minutes, label the water level
“C.”
7. Move the bottle to hot water. In 5 minutes, label the water level “H.”
c. In your notebook draw and explain what happened when you placed the
bottle system in cold water? In hot water?
d. Discuss the following with your partner:
 What do you think caused the water to go up in the pipe?
 What do you think caused the water to go down in the pipe?
e. Answer the focus question in your notebook.
Velez & Vargas LHS 2011
Language Objective:
Students construct a bottle system to observe the effect of heating and
cooling water, and build an explanation and a model to describe expansion
and contraction in terms of kinetic energy.
English Language Development:
Vocabulary:
Energy
Heat
Expansion
Contraction
Kinetic energy
Explain that kinetic energy is
energy in motion. The speed at
which particles move is directly related to the amount
of kinetic energy it has.


Review the discussion questions with students:
o Water expands when the kinetic energy of its particles increases.
o Water contracts when the kinetic energy of its particles decreases.

Students draw their bottle systems in hot water and cold water, and draw what they
think the water particles would look in both. Then they write an explanation to go with
each picture. For students who need scaffolding, provide sentence frames such as:
When water is _______, it ________, because _______.
When water is _______, it ________, because _______.
Essential Question: What are water’s unique physical and chemical properties?
Application at Grades 6 & 8: How is the heat capacity of water different from other materials?
How does the heat capacity of water affect weather?
Investigation
Materials:
1 Glass bottle
1 Rubber stopper
with clear pipe
1 Syringe, 35-mL
1 Squeeze pipette
1 Card, 1” ✕ 3”
• Tape
• Blue water
1 Large cup (500 mL)
with cold water
1 Large cup (500 mL)
with hot water
1 Glass thermometer
Velez & Vargas LHS 2011
TEKS for Physical Science 6th: investigate methods of thermal energy
transfer, including conduction, convection, and radiation; verify
through investigations that thermal energy moves in a predictable
pattern from warmer to cooler until all the substances attain the
same temperature.
TEKS for Earth Science 8th: Recognize that the Sun provides the
energy that drives convection within the atmosphere and oceans,
producing winds and ocean currents.
TEKS for ELL’s:
 Vocabulary needs to be taught in the context of connected discourse
so that language is meaningful.
 At the same time ELL’s are learning in English, the focus is on
academic English, concepts, and the language structures specific to the
content.