The NRG Science Box from the House of Science

We were lucky to have a Science Box in Room 10 last week. It was based on the story of how Maui Slowed down the Sun.  We undertook three different experiments.

The first experiment was to see what colour paper attracted the most heat from the sun. Was it white, red, black or tinfoil? We had to keep an eye on the weather and as soon as the sun came out, we were out on the court with our thermometers, paper and stopwatches. 

We had to design our own experiment to see what type of fabric was the best insulator.  We finally worked out we could put hot water into a cannister that we wrapped with different types of fabric. We measured the temperature at the start and the temperature at the end of a set time to see which fabric held in the heat the best.

The very last experiment was to see which sunscreen was the most effective in cutting out the UV rays from the sun.  We smeared a small amount of sunscreen on a piece of film and placed some UV beads under the film.  We then used the stopwatch to time how long it took before the beads changed colour.  This was another day we needed the sun to shine.