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This is the cup Rafael and I made in science class for the Cup Insulator Design Challenge. In the first photo, it’s a picture of our paper prototype of the cup design we were going to make, and in the second picture it’s a photo of the final cup design.

The hardest thing about making this product is probably cutting out the cardboard cap (it’s not in these photos) because huge cardboard pieces don’t really bend, and when you cut out a circle from a big piece of cardboard that doesn’t bend, it’s kind of complicated. Some new skills I learned in this project is probably that I learned about the whole design process. The purpose of the cup is that it keeps the hot drinks inside the cup warm and it doesn’t cool down so quickly. First, me and my partner drew a model of our cup design that we were going to make. And then, we made a paper prototype of our model we drew on the piece of paper. After that, we started making the cup design out of some materials and when we were done, we tested it out with the temperature probe and some hot water. I learned that no matter how great your cup is, the temperature will eventually go down. My evidence is that everyone’s data is the same (the temperature eventually goes down) so no matter how great your cup design is, the temperature will go down. My reasoning is that me and Rafael’s baseline temperature was 93.0 degrees Celsius, and then after 5 minutes it turned into 82.6 degrees Celsius, and at last (after 10 minutes) the temperature was 74.9 degrees Celsius. As you can see, the temperature went down 18.1 degrees Celsius in total and that is my evidence. My reasoning for my claim is that the temperature went down because of the room temperature which is cooler than the temperature of the hot water, so the cup of hot water absorbs the room temperature which also means the room temperature slowly cools the cup of hot water down.

One thing I am proud of is that the cup design we made worked pretty well and it sort of stayed warm (it didn’t drop from 93.0 degrees Celsius to 0 degrees Celsius).  Something I would do differently is maybe make the cap connect to the cup design because the first time Rafael and I tested our cup design with the probe and hot water, the cap got half wet. And the second time Rafael and I tested out cup design, the cap suddenly dropped into the hot water and it completely soaked so we trashed it.