Summary Feel how a layer of fur can stop your hands from getting cold. Science content Biology: Features, Adaptations of Living Things (K, 1, 3, 7) Physics: Heat (3) Science competencies (+ questioning + manipulation + others that are in every activity) Planning/conducting: data collection/recording (K up) Evaluating: inferring (3 up) Lessons activity is in Bears and hibernation Fur and Feathers Materials pieces of cloth of varying thickness, including very thin and furry iced water in a capped recycled drink bottle e.g. gatorade Procedure Hold the bottle of iced water, to feel how cold it is. Then wrap the bottle in each cloth in turn, and feel whether the cloth can keep your hand warmer. (Note that if your hands get very cold from the ice, it will be hard to tell what the cloth does, so encourage students to use each hand in turn to give them time to adjust between each test.) Students should find that the thicker, more furry, cloths keeps their hand warmer. The air trapped in the thicker fibres insulates from the cold (i.e. it prevents heat from moving away from your hand). Animal fur and feathers trap air to keep animals warm, sometimes from extreme cold. Local animals with thick fur include bears, otters. Bears moult annually in the early summer. They shed both their underfur and outer guard hairs, leaving only a short, sleek summer undercoat. Their new coat is growing in as the old one is being shed, so that by fall they have their thick, luxurious coats once again. www.americanbear.org Notes Less mess: Iced water is in a sealed bottle e.g. gatorade Grades taught Gr K Gr 1 Gr 2
