Grade 6 students began a unit on thermal energy this week. Science Teacher Kate Schulte challenged them to construct and conduct an experiment to test the claim that a "fancy" (insulated) cup does a better job of keeping cold water cold than a "regular" (non-insulated) cup. They thought about what materials they needed, which variables to control, and how to test the hypothesis. From here, students will think about related phenomena (where else might they see this happening in the real world?) as they begin to do a deeper dive to understand how energy moves and the role that insulation plays in the transfer of thermal energy.