UNIT PLANNER: Year 3 Science
SCHOOL:
UNIT/THEME/TOPIC The Heat is On!
DURATION:
OVERVIEW OF LEARNING
Students develop understanding of the concept of heat in a physical sciences context, specifically heat energy, its
production and movement from one object to another. Students develop understanding of how heat can be
produced in many ways and can move from one object to another in the context of creating a solar oven.
Students will pose questions, actively investigate and gather evidence to support their claims. Students explore
the idea that science knowledge of heat energy may contribute to sustainable practices. They will develop an
understanding that much of the worlds population lacks access to modern energy, relying on wood, coal,
charcoal or dung for cooking and heating. They will investigate how the use of solar ovens is contributing to
sustainable practices and bringing long term hope to many in developing nations.
CAPABILITIES
Literacy

Critical and Creative Thinking

Personal and Social Competence
Numeracy

Ethical Behaviour

Intercultural Understanding
ICT

CROSS CURRICULAR PRIORITIES
Sustainability
Kate Dilger CESA 2011

Asia and Australia's engagement
with Asia
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander
histories and cultures

STRANDS
SCIENCE UNDERSTANDING
Biological Sciences
Chemical Sciences
Earth and Space Sciences
Physical Sciences

SCIENCE AS A HUMAN ENDEAVOUR
SCIENCE INQUIRY SKILLS
Prior Knowledge (Year 1 )
Everyday materials can be
physically changed in a variety of
ways (ACSSU018)
Nature and development of science
Science involves making predictions and
describing patterns and relationships
(ACSHE050)
At this year levelHeat can be
produced in many ways and can
move from one object to
another (ACSSU049)
Use and influence of science
Science knowledge helps people to
understand the effect of their actions
(ACSHE051)
Questioning and predicting
With guidance, identify questions in familiar contexts
that can be investigated scientifically and predict
what might happen based on prior knowledge
(ACSIS053)
Planning and conducting
Suggest ways to plan and conduct investigations to
find answers to questions (ACSIS054)
Safely use appropriate materials, tools or equipment
to make and record observations, using formal
measurements and digital technologies as
appropriate (ACSIS055)
Moving towards (Year 5)
Solids, liquids and gases have
different observable properties
and behave in different ways
(ACSSU077)
Processing and analysing data and information
Use a range of methods including tables and simple
column graphs to represent data and to identify
patterns and trends (ACSIS057)
Compare results with predictions, suggesting possible
reasons for findings (ACSIS215)
Evaluating
Reflect on the investigation, including whether a test
was fair or not (ACSIS058)
Communicating
Represent and communicate ideas and findings in a
variety of ways such as diagrams, physical
representations and simple reports (ACSIS060)
LINKS TO CAPABILITIES
Literacy
This unit provides opportunities for students to develop their literacy skills as they:
 Engage in discussions and record their thinking, ideas and questions in journals
 Draw labelled diagrams
 Read text and procedures
 Present their information in an appropriate visual or written format
Numeracy
This unit provides opportunities for students to develop their mathematical understanding as they:
 Measure time and temperature using a variety of equipment, with precision and accuracy
 Draw and interpret graphs
 Record and present data
Information and Communication Technologies
This unit provides opportunities for students to develop their ICT skills as they:
 Use computers for research purposes
 Use interactive technology to view, record and analyse information
Critical and Creative Thinking
Kate Dilger CESA 2011
This unit provides opportunities for students to develop their critical and creative thinking skills as they:
 Pose and respond to questions for investigation
 make predictions
 Plan investigations
 solve problems through investigation
 make evidence-based claims
Ethical Behaviour
This unit provides opportunities for students to develop their ethical behaviour as they:
 Work as part of a team
 Gather evidence to support their claims
 Work safely with equipment
Personal and Social Competence
This unit provides opportunities for students to develop their personal and social competence as they:
 Work together in teams to complete tasks
 Participate in discussions
LINKS TO CROSS CURRICULUM PRIORITIES
Sustainability.
Through an investigation of energy use and the needs of the world’s population to use heat energy for
cooking, students start to better understand that actions to improve sustainability are both individual and
collective endeavours that must be shared across local and global communities.
LINKS TO OTHER LEARNING AREAS
Australian Curriculum: Mathematics at Year 3
•
Fluency: using familiar metric units.
•
Problem Solving: planning methods of data collection and representation.
•
Reasoning: interpreting the results of data collections and data displays.
Australian Curriculum: English at Year 3
•
Listen to and contribute to conversations and discussions to share information and ideas and
negotiate in collaborative situations
Kate Dilger CESA 2011
YEAR 3
THE HEAT IS ON!
Unit
Outcomes
Week
By the end of Year 3, students use their understanding of the movement of the Earth, materials and the behaviour of heat to suggest explanations for everyday
observations They describe features common to living things. They describe how they can use science investigations to respond to questions and identify where people use
science knowledge in their lives.
Students use their experiences to pose questions and predict the outcomes of investigations. They make formal measurements and follow procedures to collect and
present observations in a way that helps to answer the investigation questions. Students suggest possible reasons for their findings. They describe how safety and fairness
were considered in their investigations. They use diagrams and other representations to communicate their ideas.
Investigation
What is heat?
ENGAGE
(How can we
engage students
and elicit their
prior knowledge?)
Lesson Activities/ Teaching Strategies
This is one of the big ideas in Science and it is important to assess student’s prior knowledge and
misconceptions about heat.
Teacher Demo: Whoosh Bottle
Have the demo set up before students enter the class. Write the investigation question for the lesson on the
board.
 What did you see, hear, feel?
 Do you think the bottle is hot? Why?
 Could you feel heat from where you were?
 Where did the heat come from?
 Why is heat important?
 How do we use heat?
As students use new words in their answers, record these words and place them on a word wall.
Brainstorm: What is heat?
Students discuss in groups what they think heat is and place their ideas on post-its. These post-its are placed
under the ‘T’ on the TWLH Chart.
Students generate questions about what they would like to know about heat and put these ideas on post-its
under the ‘W’ on the TWLH Chart.
Share some of the ideas and questions with the class.
(Alternate is to do a Commit and Toss: students ideas about what heat is are written on paper scrunched into a
ball and tossed to another student. After a few tosses each student reads the ideas they have on the piece of
paper they caught.)
Read: The Mitten by Jan Brett
 How many of you know this story?
 By looking at the cover, what do you think it is about?
 Why do you think the animals climbed into the mitten?
Consider the question Are the gloves hot? Is this why our hands stay warm? Place the signs ‘agree’, ‘disagree’
and ‘unsure’ at separate parts of the room and ask students to stand in front of their answer. Ask students to
discuss with other students in front of the sign why they chose that answer.
Students complete a Claim/Evidence Chart in their Journals for the question: Are the gloves hot? Is this why
our hands stay warm?
How could we find out if a mitten is a SOURCE of heat?
Kate Dilger CESA 2011
Opportunities for
Assessment
Diagnostic Assessment
Responses to questions/Class
discussions
Ideas on the TWLH Chart
Science Journal entries
How is heat
produced?
EXPLORE
(What hands-on
shared experiences
of the concepts are
appropriate?)
Formative Assessment
Ice Race Experiment
The student will:
 Carry out an experiment to
determine how quickly they can
melt an ice cube
 Make predictions
 Record results and observations
 Evaluate their method and
suggest improvements
Does the mitten fit here? Does a mitten produce heat?
Students should revisit their ideas on heat in their journals.
How does heat (or
lack of) change
everyday
situations?
EXPLORE
Class Pictograph
Students gather pictures of things that produce heat in their home. These are placed on a class pictograph.
Discuss how they are different/the same as each other.
How is the heat being generated?
Friction e.g. rubbing your hands together
Motion e.g.
Electricity e.g. clothes dryer
Burning fuel e.g. cooking with gas/ Whoosh Bottle
Sun e.g. solar panels
Students record these heat sources and examples in their science journals.
(What hands-on
shared experiences
of the concepts are
appropriate?)
Kate Dilger CESA 2011
Ice Race Experiment
Give each group a Ziploc bag with an ice cube in it.
Students race to use whatever method they can to melt the ice cube.
Students record their process in their journals
 What method(s) they used.
 What sources of heat they used
 What they did and how successful it was
 What they would change next time.
As a class:
Which method worked the best? Why do you think this was the case?
Read ‘It’s much too hot’ by Bob Graham
What did heat do in these situations?
Try some of the activities in the book with the class:
1. Outline a puddle in chalk and after about 10 minutes, make another outline to see how much has
evaporated.
2. Place a mixture of water and salt in a saucer and leave in the sun.
What is left when the water evaporates?
3. Time how long it takes for a block of ice to melt
 In the sun
 In the shade
Further investigations into the changes heat makes
Cooking an egg
 What changes did heat make?
State changes; melting a choc bar
 If you hold a chocolate bar in your hand for a while what happens?
 Can you change it back?
Dissolving sugar in water
 Does it dissolve faster in hot or cold water?
Formative Assessment
Following procedures
Making predictions
Recording observations
Can we measure
heat?
EXPLORE
(What hands-on
shared experiences
of the concepts are
appropriate?)
Kate Dilger CESA 2011
Card Sort
Give each group cards with the words freezing, cold, warm, hot and boiling
Ask students to sort them on a vertical scale on a thermometer template
Students can paste the words onto the template and display them on the classroom wall.
Explain that these words describe the temperature of a place or object.
Measuring temperature: Discovery and Practice
Show students a display thermometer
 What do the numbers mean?
 What are the markings for? What is the scale?
 What positions/numbers mean freezing, cold, warm, hot and boiling?
Give students real thermometers and let them investigate them for awhile.
Give students instructions on how to use the thermometers
Correct any problems before the investigation
Measuring temperature: Investigation
Each group is given three cups of water: one hot (no hotter than 40C), warm and cold
Each group member use their hands to feel and record a description of the temperature of the water
The group now must make predictions as to what temperature each cup will be measured by the
thermometer. Record predictions
The group now uses the thermometer to measure the temperature of each cup of water. Ask students to start
with the coldest cup first.
Record their data in a table and mark the temperatures on a thermometer diagram pasted into their books.
 Why do we use a thermometer to measure temperatures?
 Why did we measure the coldest cup first?
 Were your predictions supported by the data collected?
 How much hotter is the hottest cup than the coldest cup?
Formative Assessment of SIS
Measuring Temperature
Experiment
The student will:
 Carry out an experiment to
determine the temperature of
water
 Make careful measurements
 Make predictions
 Record data and observations
 Compare observations with
predictions
 Perform simple calculations
 Reflect on the usefulness of
thermometers
Can heat move?
(What are the
current scientific
explanations? How
best can students
represent their
understanding?)
Show picture of chocolate being held and melting
 Is heat moving in this picture?
 What makes you think that heat is moving?
 What is the source of heat in this picture?
Heat on the Move: Demo
To see if heat is moving we must look at what it does because we can’t see it.
Place small dots of wax equally spaced along a metal knitting needle.
Heat one end of the needle in a candle flame
Have the students time how long it takes for each wax dot to melt
Is heat moving?
What evidence do you have that the heat is moving from the source (the candle) to the wax?
Students record their claim and the evidence is their journals
EXPLAIN
This type of heat transfer is called CONDUCTION
Light bulb: Demo
Have students stand around an incandescent bulb (They must not touch the bulb!)
Can they feel the heat?
Is heat moving?
What evidence do you have that the heat is moving from the source (the bulb) to them?
Students record their claim and the evidence is their journals
This type of heat transfer is called RADIATION
Spiral: Demo
Hold a spiral made of paper over the bulb or the candle
What happens?
Is heat moving?
What evidence do you have that the heat is moving?
Students record their claim and the evidence is their journals
This type of heat transfer is called CONVECTION
Revisit the melting chocolate picture. What sort of heat transfer is this?
Draw a flow diagram of how you think heat moves from the candle to the wax.
It is important that students grasp the concept that heat Moves from hot areas to cold areas, hence, it is the
flow of heat from warm areas to cold areas which we aim to slow down if we want to prevent something
cooling down or warming up.
Go back to “The Mitten”. What does the mitten do? Does it add heat or stop heat from flowing from a hot
area (your hand) to a cold area?
Kate Dilger CESA 2011
Formative Assessment of SIS
and CCT
 Present a clear and concise
claims using evidence to justify
your claim
How is heat
transferred from
one object to
another?
EXPLAIN
(What are the
current scientific
explanations? How
best can students
represent their
understanding?)
Student Investigation: Does Heat travel through some substances better than others?
Ask the children how they might prevent a cold thing from warming up or a hot thing from cooling down. ( A
cold can of Coke on a hot day, or a hand on a cold day )
See if they can suggest a way of investigating this. Ask what they could use as a "test object" and how they
would test to see whether something is staying cold or not.


Help the children to plan an investigation to see what materials will keep an ice cube frozen for the longest
time.
Discuss the need to make this a fair test and ask the children how they can make the investigation fair.
• Ice cubes must be same size and shape.
• Attempt to start all groups at the same time.
• Groups should only use one layer of insulating material.
• Groups should briefly check ice cube at regular intervals
In between observations, children produce drawings of what they did and describe procedure.
Compare the results of each group, discuss the class findings and conclude the best material.
A thermal CONDUCTOR is the opposite of a thermal INSULATOR. Whereas an insulator does not allow heat
to pass through it, a conductor will readily do this.
Set up the following demonstration. Place a range of different spoons in a jug of hot water. After ten minutes
or so invite groups of children to come and feel how hot the handles have become.
Ask the students to write a conclusion in their journals.
Conclusion
Claim:
Which type of material conducted heat the best? (Which spoon got hot the fastest?)
Evidence:
How do you know that this material conducted heat the best?
Questions
 Was this a fair test?
 What type of spoon would you choose to stir a large pot of hot spaghetti? Why?
Items, which have become warm or hot, have been made from good conductors. The items, which have
remained at room temp or only slightly warmer, are made from good insulators.
Make a chart of materials that are: Good Insulators/ Good Conductors
Student Investigation: Do some colours absorb heat better than others?
Students follow a procedure to test which colours absorb heat more than others.
See absorbing colours investigation planner
Kate Dilger CESA 2011



Formative (Summative?)
Assessment of SIS and SU
Students complete an
investigation in which they:
Work in teams to plan an
investigation
Measure, observe, record
data
Represent investigation
results
Make claims based on the
evidence collected
Apply knowledge to a new
situation
`
ELABORATE
How can we use
heat from the sun?
(What student
investigations or
applications of
knowledge would
extend their
understanding?
What do you want
students to be able
to do? How will
they demonstrate
this?)
Construction of Pizza Box Solar Ovens
Students follow a basic template to build a solar oven
 Based on what they have learned they choose what colour to paint the inside base of the box
 Based on what they have learned about conductors and insulators they choose material to
insulate the box
 Draw a labelled diagram of your solar oven


Test the oven outside on a sunny day
Temperatures can be taken every five minutes and recorded in a data table and displayed in a column graph

What is the heat source? How is heat being transferred?
Can you improve the efficiency of your oven?
What did you do? Did your oven work better? Why?
Cooking with the oven
On a sunny day cook with the oven. (use oven gloves and wear sunglasses and hats)
Foods that could be cooked in the oven include popcorn, mini pizzas, s’mores
Launch a Solar Hot Air Balloon: Class Activity (can be done while the food is cooking!)
The balloon will visually demonstrate the power of solar energy.
1. Fill the balloon with air. Tie the balloon.
2. Add a long cord students have marked off in ten centimeter increments so that elevation can be
measured.
3. As the black balloon is allowed to sit in the sun, it will heat up and begin to rise.
4. Start timing as soon as the balloon begins to rise. Record the elevation every minute. Use Solar
Balloon handout to record the results.
5. Each student now constructs a simple line graph of elevation vs time
Discussion questions: Why did the balloon begin to rise? Did it rise at a constant rate?
Kate Dilger CESA 2011

Summative Assessment of SU
Students complete an
investigation in which they:
Work in teams to construct a
simple solar oven
Measure, observe, record
data
Present investigation results
in a simple graph or table
Evaluate their method and
suggest improvements
Summative Assessment of SIS
Measure, observe, record
data
 Construct a simple graph

Teacher background information
EVALUATE
How can we use
solar energy to
build a more
sustainable
future?
(What do you want
the student to
know? What
representations
will provide
evidence that they
understand the
concepts?)
In our modern day environment, flipping a switch to abundant energy supplies is usually an unconscious act
with little awareness of the critical issues that lie behind it. But many of the world’s inhabitants do not have
a switch to flip. About half the inhabitants of the Earth cook over wood fires — 45% of the world’s wood is
used as fuel. But there’s not enough to go round: some 2.4 billion people are now facing shortages of fuel
wood. Meanwhile deforestation helps cause climate change, floods and soil erosion, increasing
environmental degradation, and increasing poverty and hunger. Wood smoke from cooking fires is a major
source of air-pollution and an outright killer: it causes respiratory infections which kill at least 5 million
young children each year. At the same time millions of people do not have access to clean drinking water,
causing widespread disease, especially among children: the WHO says diseases spread through
contaminated water cause 80% of the world’s illnesses.
There’s a simple answer to help ease some of these problems, that can save millions of trees, provide clean,
safe drinking water, doesn’t pollute, and that costs very little –a solar cooker.
Watch:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=SFFOZ7OxtkQ
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xZWIpKRuur0
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C_yhZsGPj0o
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l7-1uuvknF0&feature=player_embedded#!
As a class investigate how and why solar ovens are being used to better peoples lives in such places as
Kenya, Rwanda and Afghanistan.
Each student can contribute ideas, thoughts, research, pictures or questions to a SOLAR SAVES project
board in the classroom.
RESOURCES
Source: “Understanding by Design” Professional Development Workbook Jay McTighe and Grant Wiggins ISBN 1 74101 694 0
Kate Dilger CESA 2011
Summative Assessment of SHE,
SU and Lit

Science journal entries

Class discussions

Science Project board
contributions