Education Technology


A Sweet Drink - Adventure 7

Activity Overview

Students determine how the temperature of water affects the dissolving time of a sugar cube. They create, interpret and analyze graphs of data, find an equation of the line of best fit, and relate slope to rate of change.

Before the Activity

  • Connect CBL 2™ to the calculator.
  • Plug the TI temperature sensor into Channel 1 (CH 1) on the CBL 2
  • Launch the DataMate program
  • See the attached PDF file for detailed instructions for this activity
  • Print pages 47 - 48 from the attached PDF file for your class
  • Transfer files to student calculators using TI-Navigator™  "send to class" feature
  • During the Activity

    Distribute the pages to your class.

    Follow the Adventure procedures:
    Collect Data:

  • Place the temperature sensor in the water at 25 oC
  • Add one sugar cube to the water and start timing
  • Stir constantly and record when the sugar cube is dissolved completely
  • Repeat the experiment with water 5oC and 35oC
  • Plot dissolving time versus temperature of water data
  • Graph the line of best fit
  • Determine the slope of the line
  • Negative slope indicates that as temperature increases, the dissolving time of the sugar cube decreases
  • After the Activity

    Students analyze the results and answer the questions in the worksheet

    Review student results:

  • As a class, discuss questions that appeared to be more challenging
  • Re-teach concepts as necessary