WHAT IS TEMPERATURE?
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Lesson Time:
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LESSON GOALS
Sensors connected to the Piper Computer Kit provide students with educational hands-on experience that integrates environmental sensory data with unparalleled coding and story adventures.
The Sensor Explorer projects and lessons feature three sensors that you wire up to the Piper Computer. Students will then be guided through character-driven story narratives while using game-like StoryMode to learn how decisions impact final outcomes within three unique StoryMode world puzzles and problems. Coupled with the game experience in StoryMode, students will have fun extending their coding skills using PiperCode while collecting real-world data using the 3 sensors.
In this lesson, students will deepen their understanding of temperature, forms of energy, and quantitative/qualitative data while continuing their use of sensors and PiperCode. Students will enjoy using the PiperCode Project: Ther-mood-stat to build their own thermometer, and then apply all they've learned so far to examine how water relates to climate phenomenon.
LESSON RESOURCES
CAREER CONNECTIONS
Soil and Plant Manager
Meteorologist
Air Conditioning Installer
Hydrologist
ESTABLISHED GOALS
In this lesson, students will deepen their understanding of temperature, forms of energy, and quantitative/qualitative data while continuing their use of sensors and PiperCode. Students will enjoy using the PiperCode Project: Ther-mood-stat to build their own thermometer, and then apply all they've learned so far to examine how water relates to climate phenomenon.
LEARNING OBJECTIVES
1.
Define temperature
2.
Explore the connection between temperature and energy
3.
Understand temperature units of measurement
4.
Describe temperature both qualitatively and quantitatively
LESSON PREPARATION (10 MIN)
Ensure students have access to (or you print out copies of) the Lesson 2 graphic organizer.Teacher-led Discussion (5 minutes)
Compare: Quantitative and Qualitative Data
Have students consider the relationship between quantitative and qualitative data with the following scenarios:
- What speed would you consider slow for a moving vehicle?
- Slide 2 in the Lesson 2 Slide Deck offers sample speeds in miles per hour.
- Ask students: Are those speeds “slow” or “fast” for a moving human?
- Slide 3 offers those same speeds in a different context
Have students discuss how we decide what’s “fast” and what’s considered “slow.” The goal is to clarify that qualitative data is dependent on the context, whereas quantitative data is not.
To push the idea further, on Slide 4, we bring up the use of different units of measuring speed: how will we compare speeds at kilometers per hour instead of miles per hour? There is a relationship between the two units that allows us to convert to miles per hour.
Explore: Complete the PiperCode Project: Ter-mood-stat (30-40 minutes)
Have students go to PiperCode on the Piper Computer Kit and complete the project tutorial entitled “Ther-mood-stat” found under “Sensors” in the project menu.
- Use Slides 5 and 6 to help introduce the PiperCode project.
- Tell students: “Thermostats help us control the temperature in our homes. They monitor the air temperature in order to control the A/C or heater in your home. Have you ever wondered how they work? Today, we will be creating a ther-mood-stat. Follow the tutorial and be sure to take the time to respond to the Discussion Questions with your group. Record your responses in your Graphic Organizer.”
TEACHER NOTES:
- Introduce safety related to today’s project, Ther-mood-stat, using slide 6. Students will use PiperCode to build a thermostat of their own and they test it out by measuring the temperature of objects found in the classroom. We must ensure that students know that the sensor cannot be submerged in liquid and cannot be placed on hot metal surfaces.
- Troubleshooting Tip: During wiring, students can use the RPi pin map to check to make sure they’ve wired up the component correctly. This will light up to show when current is being sent to a pin.
- Suggestions for materials: water bottles or sodas from the fridge (for something cold, condensation is okay), rubbing hands (creating heat), going outdoors on a warm or cold day.
Explain (10-15 Minutes)
Discuss: Review Ther-mood-stat with students.
Do a TPS with new partners to share responses to the Discussion Questions in Ther-mood-stat PiperCode project tutorial.
Discussion questions from the tutorial using slides 8-13 in the Lesson 2 Slide Deck.
Apply: Relating the water cycle to climate phenomena
Defining Temperature as Kinetic Energy.
Use slides 13-14 to explain temperature.
- What were we measuring with our sensor? (The temperature of an object.)
- How could we change our “mood”? (By creating heat.)
- How do you create heat? (I’ve rubbed my hands together.)
- What did that do? (It created kinetic energy. Temperature is the measure of that energy.)
[Optional lesson: Explain how voltage allowed the sensor to measure an object’s temperature.]
Closing/Reflection Activity (10-15 Minutes)
Students can reflect by responding to the following writing prompts:
- How has your definition of temperature changed?
- What quantitative data do you relate to “cold” and “hot”?
Have students complete this summative assessment on coding instructions, temperature, converting between Celsius and Fahrenheit temperatures.