Using school grounds to study evaporation and latent heat

This is a great starter or plenary for a lesson on evaporation. Exploring the school grounds gives learners real-world context, linking vegetation and water to cooling in an urban setting.

Through this activity, learners will understand that during a change of state, thermal stores of energy increase but temperature stays constant; observe evaporation in their surroundings, linking it to latent heat of vaporisation; and explore how plants and water help cool environments and reduce heatwave and climate impacts.

Mini activities

KS4

Physics

Preparation

What you need

Infra-red thermometer (optional)
FLIR™ or another thermal infra-red camera (optional)

Location

Indoors or outdoors

Step by step

Choose when to use this activity — either as a starter to prompt links between vegetation and cooling, or as a plenary to apply learning about latent heat of vaporisation.
Explore evaporation and latent heat using the school grounds—ideally on a hot day. Use observations, data, or thermal/infrared images to support discussion. You can use images and observations from your own school grounds or the example thermal images in the PowerPoint. Questions to prompt discussion are included in the activity guide.
Discuss why vegetation and water (“green and blue” areas) help protect against heatwaves.

Background information on common misconceptions, the science behind the observations and why this learning is relevant to our every day lives is provided in the activity guide.

Interested in exploring more real-world data with your learners? Check out the Nature Park Map and discover opportunities for collecting and analysing data on your site and beyond.