Children were asked to think about the ‘snowman’s coat’ Concept Cartoon, where the characters are commenting whether putting a coat on the snowman will speed up or slow down the melting. (Counter-intuitively, a coat would keep the snowman cold because it is a thermal insulator).

They were then asked to carry out their own investigation (at home due to the Covid-19 partial school closures). In class, this would involve working in groups with different materials or different numbers of layers, but at home the pupils would be working individually so a simpler comparison was proposed.  The children were asked to measure the size of two ice cubes, one with and one without a ‘jacket’ of bubble wrap (or similar). This would help them to see that covering in an insulating material would slow the melting.

This links to the TAPS Insulating layers investigation

Abigail Tiffin, Year 5, Grazeley Primary School, Wokingham