Title

Investigating the effect of increasing temperatures when heated on the waters

temperature as measured my Celsius.
Overview of Climate Change Concern
Bodies of water increasing in temperature can affect the life forms living in them
can also have a bigger impact on natural disasters. This has been a problem since
human activities have increased the overall temperature. Even at the slightest
temperature change, can cause ocean organisms like coral to bleach and will die.
Other organisms affected by the temperature increase is krill, which is the base for
the food chain. Increasing temperatures can also effect having stronger storms, as a
warmer surface can have an easier time being a larger, more powerful storm. (Mark
Wilson, n.d, Sea Temperature Rise. Retrieved on 11/14/13.
http://ocean.nationalgeographic.com/ocean/critical-issues-sea-temperature-rise)
Purpose
The goal of this inquiry is to investigate the effect of increasing temperatures on the
waters initial temperature. During the investigation, the water will be put in a 250ml
beaker, and will be sealed in an incubator and it will increase the temperatures of
the water. The temperatures water will be monitored using a thermometer. The
results of this investigation can be related to the increasing ocean temperatures.
This will show how little change in temperature can affect the physical aspects of
the water, can its life forms that the ocean shelters.
Hypothesis
In the investigation, it is predicted as the incubator heats up; the temperature of the
water should heat up as well. The temperature would increase depending on the
temperature you set the incubator on. The temperature should not increase father
than the incubator temperature set point. (Ross, 2009)
Independent variable
In this investigation, the independent variable is the increasing temperature. The
temperature can be increased using the incubator. We will increase the temperature
of 3 treatments of 250 beakers filled with water. However, we will only fill the
beaker up to 200ml with water.
Dependent variable
In the investigation, the dependent variable is the waters temperature. The waters
temperature will be measured in a thermometer. By finding out the waters
temperature, we can determine if the temperature of the water is increasing or
decreasing.
Controlled Variables
In this investigation, one of the controlled variables is how much water is going in
each beaker in each treatment and trial. There will be 200ml of water going into
each beaker, in will be measured and distributed by hand. Another controlled

variable is of temperature of the incubator. This can be controlled by changing the

temperature inside the incubator to 20o, 25o, or 30o C.

Extraneous Variables.
One of the variable that would be ideal to control is the time it takes to heat up the
water. It sometimes takes more than the initial time (which was 5 minutes, then had
to be moved to 10) for the water to heat up, and sometimes the water doesnt heat
up at all. Having a quicker heating process would have sped up the time to finish
the investigation. Another variable that would be ideal to control is to know the
temperature of the beakers water, while its inside the incubator. Knowing the
temperature after its been taken out of the incubator could result in the
temperature dropping from when we open the incubator, leading to sometimes
inaccurate and/or impossible results (as in the temperature being lower in the
beakers water after being heated).

Procedure:
Materials and Apparatus:
We will be using:
-

3 beakers filled with 200ml of water

Thermometer
Incubator

Method:
1
2
3
4
5

Clear work area.

Collect Materials.
Pour 200ml of water into the 3 beakers.
Put the 3 beakers filled with water into the incubator.
Record the temperature of the water inside the beakers before you put the
beakers into the incubator with a thermometer.
6 Calculate the average of the waters temperature inside the beaker before
your put them into the incubator.
7 Set the incubators temperature to 25o C.
8 Leave the beakers inside the incubator for 10 minutes.
9 Take out the beakers after 10 minutes, and record the temperature for each
beaker with a thermometer.
10 Record your results for all three treatments.
11 Calculate the average of the water inside the beakers after you put them into
the incubator.
12 For trials 2 and 3, empty the beakers and repeat steps 3 to 11. However, on
each trial, raise the temperature inside the incubator by 5 o C. (ex. Trial 2, 25o
C and Trial 3, 30o C.)

Results:

Qualitative Observations:
During the procedure, the water in the beakers after being heated up had bubbles
forming on the bottom of the surface. This is because as water heats up, the water
starts to bubble. I noticed the bubbles at the lowest temperature in the
investigation, which was at 25o C. this can indicate that water starts to bubble when
it is heated at 25o C, since the measured room temperature water was at 24 o C and
there is no point of increasing the temperature higher than it already is, I can come
to this conclusion.

Data Tables:

Treatment 1:
200ml
Treatment 2:
200ml
Treatment 3: 200
ml
Average

Trial 1: 25 C
Before
After

Trial 2: 30 C
Before
After

Trial 3: 35 C
Before
After

24.5 C

24.7 C

24.5 C

27.5 C

24.7 C

28.6 C

24.3 C

24.6 C

24.1 C

26.3 C

24.3 C

29.7 C

24.3 C
24.3 C

24.6 C
24.6 C

24.2 C
24.3 C

27.4 C
27.1 C

24.8 C
24.3 C

30.1 C
29.4 C

Sample calculation for average:

(24.5 C+24.3 C+24.3 C)/3=24.3 C

Data Presentation (Graph)

The Effect of Increasing Temperature On The Waters Temperature

35
30
25
20
Temperature ( C)
15
10
5
0
Trial 1: 25 C

Trial 2: 30 C

Trial 3: 35 C

Beakers Filled with Water (before and after heated)

Before

After

Discussion:
Conclusion:
This graph has a resemblance to an acute angle. As the treatments before the water
was placed in the incubator, that trend stays the same. However, the treatments
after the water was placed in the incubator, that trend has an increase. Buts its not
a significant increase where there is an angle of 90 o, where there is more of an
angle of 5o.This is because the increase from before compared to after is not an
overall big change. In trial 1 for example, the change from before to after went from
24.3 C, to
24.6 C, having only a .3 C increase. But in trials 2 and 3, the
change went from 24.3 C to 27.1 C, and 24.3 C to 29.4 C, having an increase of
2.7 C, and an increase of 5.1 C. this graph also has a resemblance to a plane
taking off, as a plane slowly gets off the ground. In the graph, it slowly starts to
increase and if the graph would to continue, it would increase much higher, as
would a plane. If the temperature of the incubator were to increase the temperature
by 5 C starting from 35 C to 60 C, then the graph would start to look more like a
plane taking off, without a plateau.
Evaluation of Procedure:
One limitation would be the incubator by itself. The incubator would take too long to
heat up the beakers filled with water, but sometimes the incubator wouldnt even
heat up the water.
Improving this investigation:

Not using the incubator and using something else is a start. If there was a light
instead of the incubator, then I would use that use in real life, whats heating up the
ocean water is the suns radiation, or its light.