Mateo’s science class is investigating heat energy. Mateo wonders what would happen to the temperature reading on the thermometer if he put the thermometer inside a mitten.

Mateo obtained two thermometers and a mitten. He recorded the initial temperature of both thermometers as 22°C. He put one thermometer inside the mitten and the other thermometer on the table next to the mitten. He left the thermometers undisturbed for an hour. During this hour, the temperature in the room remained the same.

An hour later, he compared the readings on the two thermometers.

What do you think the readings on the thermometer were? Choose one of the responses below and record on your paper. Then, describe your reasoning for your answer choice.

1. The thermometer inside the mitten will have a lower temperature reading than the thermometer on the table.
2. The thermometer inside the mitten will have a higher temperature reading than the thermometer on the table.
3. Both thermometers will have the same temperature reading.

Now, let’s see what happened.

Was your hypothesis confirmed or rejected? During this lesson, you will explore thermal energy and refer back to these lab results in a later section.