YES Middle School

Engineering Medicine Coolers

Middle School Matter Energy In Classrooms

Students explore heat transfer as they engineer chemical cold packs and insulation for a container that keeps medicine cool.

Unit Overview

Students use the Engineering Design Process to design a medicine cooler system that protects medication from losing efficacy in the heat. Students learn about thermal energy transfer to design a system that cools the air inside the cooler and slows heat transfer into the cooler.

Curriculum LineYES Middle School
Engineering FieldChemical Engineering
Science DomainPhysical Science
Science TopicThermal energy transfer
Suggested Grade Level6 - 8

Standards Alignment

YES units align with state and national science standards, integrating seamlessly with popular middle school science curricula.

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Unit Resources

Digital Resources (FREE)

YES provides these materials free of charge! Use the link below to download resources from our Google Drive.

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Purchase Materials

Educator Guide Pack - $69
  • Full-color print educator guide, plus multiple sets of heavy-duty reusable color-print resources (ex. vocabulary cards, materials glossaries, station signs, and student instructions) for the class.
Materials Kit - $649
  • Hands-on materials to support 24 learners.
Additional Section Kit - $149
  • Supplements Materials Kit to serve up to 24 more students.
Safety Kit - $99
  • 30 pairs of student goggles, 1 pair of teacher goggles.
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Unit Map

Students are introduced to engineering by designing a phone stand to solve an everyday problem.

Students consider who is most impacted by hot temperatures damaging medications and use this knowledge to identify criteria.

Teams test various materials to generate a class ranking of which work best to slow thermal energy transfer.

Students investigate how they might use solutions of potassium chloride in water for cooling.

Students establish the remaining criterion and constraint, independently brainstorm ideas, and develop a plan as a team.

Engineering teams plan their tasks and assign roles to create their medicine cooler designs.

Teams test their medicine coolers, plot the temperature versus time data from testing, and evaluate their designs.

Teams iterate and use test data to compare their second design to their original design.

Students display their coolers and act as users to “shop” for ones that meet their needs. Students reflect on their growth as engineers.

Teacher Preparation Videos

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Lesson 1 Preperation: Model Phone

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Lesson 3 Preparation: Clamp Lamp

Videos for Students

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Lesson 2: The Problem

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Lesson 3: Materials Investigation Procedure

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Lesson 4: Potassium Chloride Investigation

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Lesson 8: Consider Users

Our funders

Major support for this project has been provided by MathWorks.

Computer Science

Heatwave Visualizations

Extend learning with this computer science module designed to be taught after Engineering Medicine Coolers. Students explore how visualizing heatwave data can help them identify which regions and people might be most impacted by hot temperatures. They observe that the same data can be visualized differently and consider how people’s experiences and beliefs could influence the data visualization algorithms.

  • Computer science connections: Algorithms and Programming; Impacts of Computing
  • 3 lessons
  • 45 minutes per lesson
  • Computational tools used: MATLAB interactives (free and web-based)
Heatwave Visualizations
Jade Lott - Medicine Coolers

Computer Science

Medicine Cooler Alarms

Extend learning with this computer science module designed to be taught after Engineering Medicine Coolers. Students consider how to alert users that their medicine coolers have warmed to room temperature. Students learn how to write an algorithm so that a micro:bit can continuously monitor the temperature and then alert the user when the temperature has exceeded a certain value.

  • Computer science connections: Data and Analysis; Impacts of Computing
  • 2 lessons
  • 45 minutes per lesson
  • Computational tools used: BBC micro:bits (not included in Materials Kit) and MakeCode (free and web-based)
Explore Medicine Cooler Alarms

Computer Science Modules

YES Computer Science modules engage K-8 students in computational thinking by framing computer science through the authentic context of engineering design. Students experience how engineers use computational tools to increase efficiency and accuracy, using low-cost devices such as micro:bits, or free web-based tools such as Teachable Machine and MATLAB interactives from MathWorks. The modules encourage students to decompose and investigate algorithms to recognize their social context, benefits, and potential limitations.

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