Relating the Fahrenheit and Celsius scales



Relating the Fahrenheit and Celsius scales

A POGIL Laboratory and Workshop Activity

Teacher Handout

Content goal:

• Students should be able to use a linear graph to determine the relationship between two temperature scales

Process goal:

• Students should be able to use the TI-83 calculator to graph and analyze a linear relationship

• Students should be able to convert between one temperature scale and another

Time

You have many options, but here is my suggestion:

50 minutes per day

Lab ( 1 period

POGIL ( 1 period

Critical thinking questions

and extensions ( 1-2 periods

110 minutes per day

Lab and POGIL ( 1 period

Critical thinking questions

and extensions ( 1 period

Laboratory

Materials: You will need the following per group of 4:

1 Styrofoam coffee cup

1 hot plate

1 thermometer marked in degrees Celsius

1 thermometer marked in degrees Fahrenheit

Ice, a few cubes per group

Access to water

Fahrenheit thermometers are a little hard to come by. You can order them from



If you have Vernier probes, you can hook up two thermal probes at once, and set one to read in Fahrenheit and the other in Celsius. If you set this up ahead of time most of your kids won’t realize that the calculator is just doing the conversion internally.

POGIL

You have many options here.

• You could have the students graph the data by hand if you prefer or don’t have access to TI-83 calculators.

• You can also use this activity as an introduction to random and systematic error. If you can compare mercury and alcohol thermometer this can be quite interesting.

• You could have the students invent their own temperature scale and name it for themselves. In this case you might want them to base it on some other two observable phenomenon This helps drive home the point that temperature is arbitrary, which can lead into a nice discussion about what heat really is.

A couple of interesting temperature points to use:

( Boiling point of nitrogen, 77 Kelvin

( Normal body temperature 37 oC

( Freezing of methane (182 oC, boiling (162 oC (methane is the principle

component of the Neptune atmosphere

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