Junior High Year 1 PA 8.

1
IS1 – The Nature of Science
Practical Activity
Name: [ ]
Class: Date:

Tea Bag Activity

In this activity, you will make observations of tea bags placed in water at different temperatures and
investigate the effects of the different temperatures!

Ways of Thinking and Doing Science (WOTD)

● Follow instructions given to complete an experiment safely.
● Make observations and record them in an appropriate table format.
● Manipulate different apparatus to make accurate measurements/observations.

Apparatus

Transparent cup Stopwatch Tea bags x 3 (identical if possible)

Procedure

1. Prepare cold water by putting water into the fridge or melting some ice in water.
2. Prepare hot water by boiling some water. Handle the hot water with care.
3. Fill the transparent cup with water at room temperature. Prepare a tea bag and place it into the cup
gently. Start the stopwatch.
4. Take a photo of the cup from the side view every 30 seconds for a total of 3 minutes (i.e. 30 secs, 1
min, 1 min 30 secs, and so on). Do not disturb the water! Insert your photos on the next page.
5. Record the time taken for the colour of the water to become uniform in the space below.
6. Repeat steps 3 to 5, replacing the water at room temperature with cold water in the second
experiment, and with hot water in the third experiment.

Recording Observations

1. Record the time taken for the tea to be dispersed uniformly in the beaker of room-temperature
water, cold water and hot water, in a suitable table below.
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IS1 – The Nature of Science
Practical Activity

2. Insert your photos here:

Room-temperature water:
0s 30 s 60 s

90 s 120 s 150 s

180 s
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IS1 – The Nature of Science
Practical Activity

Cold water:
0s 30 s 60 s

90 s 120 s 150 s
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IS1 – The Nature of Science
Practical Activity

180 s

Hot water:
0s 30 s 60 s
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IS1 – The Nature of Science
Practical Activity

90 s 120 s 150 s

180 s
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IS1 – The Nature of Science
Practical Activity

3. Describe your observations of how the tea behaves in each type of water.

In the room-temperature water, …

The water started to change its colour in 60 seconds.

In the cold water, …

The water started to change colour 90 seconds later.

In the hot water, …

The water started to change colour 30 seconds later.

After a long time, …

The water turned into tea.

Discussion Questions

1. What macroscopic evidence do you have that particles of liquids must be moving at all times?

The colour of the particles kept changing (tea became darker) as time pass.

2.  What is the relationship between the behavior of the tea particles and the temperature of the water
samples?

As the temperature increases, the kinetic energy of the tea particles increase.

3. Using the kinetic particle theory, explain the relationship between the behavior of the tea particles
and the temperature of the water. Support your explanation with evidence.

When cold water that has a lower temperature was used, the kinetic movement of the tea particles
decreased, resulting in a longer time for the water to form into tea. When hot water that has a higher
temperature was used, the kinetic movement of the tea particles increase, resulting in a shorter time for
the water to form into tea.
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IS1 – The Nature of Science
Practical Activity

4.  What conclusion can be drawn about the speed of particle movement and temperature?

The temperature affects the speed of the particle movement.