Sixth graders in Jennifer Page's science classes at Woodbury Middle School will be creating projects that mimic the best habitats for penguins as they continue with the Thermal Energy unit. But before they can do that, students explored the idea of thermal energy with a Tumbler Challenge Cold Cup Test.

They determined which everyday drink tumblers are the best to keep drinks cold by measuring how the temperature changes under certain variables. Students used cups of metal, hard plastic, and flimsy plastic filled with ice water and insulated with different items -- bubble wrap, felt, foil and measured the temperature changes in intervals within nine minutes.

This lab gets students thinking about the kinds of materials they will use on their January project -- innovative ideas to help the penguins survive by keeping the heat to a minimum