plants help keep
a house cool
Grade 3, Science and Technology
Source: Adapted from Plants Help Keep a House Cool, GECDSB
description
This three-part experiment gives students the opportunity to explore ways to keep houses cool using outdoor plants and
different paint colours. Students will record their initial hypotheses, observations, and results for each phase of the experiment
and discuss as a class.
curriculum links – science and technology, grade 3
Understanding Life Systems – Growth & Change in Plants
Overall Expectations: 1, 2
Specific Expectations: 1.1, 2.1, 2.4, 2.6
planning notes
Materials
• Two shoeboxes or small cardboard boxes
• A reflector lamp with a 100 watt incandescent light bulb
or comparable light source
• Various types of potted plants
• Two thermometers to measure air temperature
• Stopwatch
• Black or dark-coloured liquid tempera paint (or black
construction paper)
• White liquid tempera paint (or white construction paper)
• Experiment Recording Chart (Appendix 1)
Prior Learning
Students should be able to identify the major parts of plants
and understand some of the most basic ways in which humans
use plants for food, shelter, and clothing. By providing shade
and moisture, plants, particularly trees, play an important role
in moderating temperatures during warm seasons.
Learning Skills & Work Habits
Critical thinking, organization
Recommended Class Time
• 3 periods
teaching/learning strategies
Day One
1. Introduce the experiment and explain that students
will be comparing temperatures of houses with plants
outside and houses without.
2.Take two boxes and place them an equal distance
from the lamp so that the same amount of light hits
both of them.
3. Put the thermometers inside the boxes.
4. Place plants between the lamp and one of the boxes so
that the shadows cast by the plants cover most of the
box (house).
5. Ask students which box (house) will have the lower
temperature inside – the house with plants outside or
the house without plants and why? Record hypotheses
on Experiment Recording Chart (Appendix 1).
1
6. Turn on the lamp.
7. Measure the air temperature in each box at 1 minute,
3 minutes, and 5 minutes. Record findings on Experiment
Recording Chart.
Grade 3: Plants Help Keep a House Cool
Day Two
1.Follow the set up procedure from day one with the
following changes: paint/cover one of the boxes white
and the other black, and remove the plants.
2.Ask students which box (house) will have the lower
temperature inside – the black house or the white house
and why? Record hypotheses on Experiment Recording
Chart.
3. Turn on the lamp.
4.Measure the air temperature in each box at 1 minute,
3 minutes, and 5 minutes. Record findings on Experiment
Recording Chart.
Day Three
1.Follow the set up procedure from day two with the
3. Turn on the lamp.
following changes: paint/cover one of the boxes white
4.Measure the air temperature in each box at 1 minute,
and the other black, and place plants outside both boxes.
3 minutes, and 5 minutes. Record findings on Experiment
2.Ask students which box (house) will have the lower
Recording Chart.
temperature inside – the black house with the plants
outside or the white house with the plants outside and
why? Record hypotheses on Experiment Recording Chart.
extension
Conduct a similar experiment outside on a bright sunny day. Have students experiment comparing environments: shade or
sun, cement or grass, dark area or light. Discuss their findings and identify commonalities.
appendix
Appendix 1 - Experiment Recording Chart
2
Grade 3: Plants Help Keep a House Cool
appendix 1
PLANTS HELP KEEP A HOUSE COOL
Experiment Recording Chart
Names: _____________________________________________________________________________________________
DAY ONE: Hypothesis (my guess):
House in light and House shaded by plant
Time
Observations (What We SAW)
Temperature in plain house
Temperature in shaded house
1 minute
3 minutes
5 minutes
DAY TWO: Hypothesis (my guess):
House painted black and House painted white
Time
Temperature in black house
Observations (What We SAW)
Temperature in white house
1 minute
3 minutes
5 minutes
DAY THREE: Hypothesis (my guess):
Black house shaded and white house shaded
Time
1 minute
3 minutes
5 minutes
Temperature in shaded black house
Temperature in shaded white house
Observations (What We SAW)