Year 7 - Science
Heating and cooling our school sustainably
Climate change and living sustainably
Study Hub
Study Guides
This pupil-friendly study guide includes a unit summary, clear notes, common mistakes, and quick questions with answers.
Unit Summary
This unit introduces the greenhouse effect, global warming and the impact of climate change on weather events. It explores some actions that can be taken to use resources, and to live, in a sustainable way.
Lesson Summary
You will learn to describe ways to reduce the need for heating or cooling in a school.
Key Notes
- Thermal insulators can reduce the energy needed to heat a building.
- Improving a building's insulation makes it easier to heat it using only renewable resources.
- Thermostats can control temperature automatically in different rooms and help reduce unnecessary heating.
- The greater the temperature difference between the inside and outside of a house, the faster it warms up or cools down
- Planting near a house increases the outside temperature on cold days and decreases it on hot days
Vocabulary To Learn
- thermal insulator: a material that transfers energy slowly by collisions between moving or vibrating particles
- renewable resource: a resource that will not run out because it is replenished more quickly than we use it up
- thermal conductor: a material that transfers energy quickly by collisions between moving or vibrating particles
- thermostat: a device that can control the heating in part of a building to keep it at a chosen temperature
Common Mistakes To Avoid
- Winds are cooling because they are moving air that is colder than the surrounding air.
3 Quick Questions (With Answers)
1. Explain the scientific idea in this lesson using two key points.
Thermal insulators can reduce the energy needed to heat a building. Improving a building's insulation makes it easier to heat it using only renewable resources.
2. Define this scientific word and use it in context. 'thermal insulator'
a material that transfers energy slowly by collisions between moving or vibrating particles. Include the word in a full scientific explanation, not as a single label.
3. Correct this common scientific misunderstanding.
Mistake: Winds are cooling because they are moving air that is colder than the surrounding air. Correction: Discuss with pupils how hotter objects heat the air around them, so the temperature difference between them and the air is smaller; and how wind blows away this warmer air. Provide opportunity for them to explain this in their own words.
More Lessons In This Unit
Browse all guides in the Year 7 Science guide library.