Junior High Year 1 PA 8.

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

Charlyn (3) JH107

29 June 2021

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

180 s
 Junior High Year 1 PA 3.2
IS1 – The Nature of Science
Practical Activity

Hot water:
0s 30 s 60 s

90 s 120 s 150 s

180 s
Junior High Year 1 PA 3.2
IS1 – The Nature of Science
Practical Activity
 Junior High Year 1 PA 3.2
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 tea takes a long time for it to change colour. At the end of 3 minutes, it is a very light brown colour.

In the cold water, …

The tea takes a very long time to change colour. At the end of 3 minutes, it has hardly any colour.

In the hot water, …

The tea changes colour quickly. At the end of 3 minutes, it is a brown colour which is the exact colour of
the tea.

After a long time, …

The tea changes colour.

Discussion Questions

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

The tea particles were constantly moving in the cup.

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

As the temperature of water increases, the tea takes a shorter time to change colour.

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.

The hot water has more thermal energy, so it has more total kinetic energy for the tea particles to
move faster. The tea particles in the hot water changed colour faster than the tea particles in the cold
and room-temperature water because the hot water has more thermal energy.
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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?

As the temperature increases, the speed of particle movement increases.