In 6th Grade Science, students learn how heat transfers from warmer objects to cooler objects, and how some objects are insulators and some objects can be conductors of thermal energy. They used this knowledge to build space shuttle re-entry vehicles.
By following the engineering process, students use different materials to create their space shuttles. The end of the project has us experience what thermal energy is experienced by astronauts and we blast their projects with heat. If their astronauts survive, then they know they have done a great job transferring the heat energy.
