OpenSciEd 6.2, Lesson 3: Hot Water Test
Task
Use this Tuva Investigation with OpenSciEd curriculum Unit 6.2, Lesson 3. Tuva has ditized the student procedure and class data chart handouts in Parts 2–3. Tuva is used to document, organize, and analyze data collected during the hands-on lab work; it is not a standalone lesson. Use it in tandem with the OpenSciEd Teacher Edition to guide overall instruction and collaborative sensemaking. Where This Investigation Fits into the Storyline In the last lesson, students ranked cups by their ability to keep liquids cold and identified the lid and double walls as the most important features. In this lesson, students test whether those same cups also keep liquids hot, revise their explanations, and plan an investigation into how the lid works. When to Use Tuva Use Tuva on Day One of the lesson. Before opening Tuva, complete Part 1, the Navigation Routine and review safety considerations for the investigation. (Use pages 6 and 8 of the OpenSciEd Teacher Edition.) Have students open Tuva before Part 2. They will use Tuva to record predictions, agree on constants, follow the embedded procedure, enter their temperature data, graph it, and record patterns they notice. Students should complete Steps 1–4 on Tuva. Then, they should stop. Embedded prompts urge students to pause for class discussion or to turn and talk with their partners while answering the questions. After Step 4, students should pause and wait for the class. Begin Part 3 off of Tuva. Engage students in the Initial Ideas Discussion, using pages 9–10 of the Teacher Edition. Students can bring their Tuva graphs to the discussion to add to what they noticed on the class's data table. Then, have students go back into Tuva and complete Steps 5–9. They will have the opportunity to use sample data to utilize mean and variability to help them consider the consistency of the patterns they have noted. *NOTE: If you would like to use your own class data to do the following, you can upload the data into Tuva. Instructions and helpful links can be found at the bottom of this Teacher Introduction. Students will close Tuva at this point. The last portion of Part 3, the model, should be completed in their notebooks. What Happens Next Students will not return to Tuva on Day Two. Note on Mathematical Sequence: In Tuva Lessons 2 and 3, students interact visually with group means and variability (data overlap) to evaluate the effect of structure on function in physical systems. Tuva uses automated tools to display group means and data variability to help students distinguish signal from noise; formal calculation of the mathematical mean is explicitly taught in OpenSciEd Lesson 4. Pedagogical Guidance: Supporting Early Statistical Thinking Data literacy education research shows that introducing the mean visually as a signal within variable data builds strong conceptual statistical reasoning about distributions before students master the formal arithmetic calculations. Mean as Signal: Rather than presenting the mean as an abstract formula or a simple "average," frame it as the overall signal or trend representing how a specific cup design performs as a system. Variability as Noise: Point out the individual data bars around the mean as variation or noise. Encourage students to ask: "Is the difference between the group signals (means) big enough to overcome the noise (overlap in individual cups)? Scientific Certainty: Guide students to realize that when group means are far apart and individual data points do not overlap, we have strong evidence of a real effect (e.g., lidded vs. lidless cups). When means are close or overlap is high (e.g., plastic vs. metal), the data is inconclusive, motivating the need for controlled experiments in Lesson 4. How to Upload Your Own Data into Tuva Upload the classwide data into Tuva and share the dataset with your class. Here are two ways to get data into Tuva: Input data into a shared spreadsheet in Excel or Google, and import it into Tuva. Directly insert the data into a Tuva table. Be sure to set up the data table with the following columns instead of the ones provided in the OpenSciEd Materials: Cup, Cup Material, Lid, Straw, Number of Walls, Temperature Change. This will make the data compatible with Tuva.
In the last lesson, we found that the two most important cup features for keeping a drink cold were a lid and double walls. You also ranked the cups from best to worst performer. In this investigation, we will be answering: In what ways are the cup features that keep drinks cold the same or different from the cup features that keep drinks hot? Click Next to continue.
Topics and standards: Physical Science, MS-PS3-4, MS-PS3-5, MS-PS3-3, MS-PS1-4, MS-PS4-2, Grade 6, OpenSciEd, 3.2.6-8.B, 3.2.6-8.M, 3.2.6-8.N, 3.2.6-8.O, 3.2.6-8.R