Grade 6 · Science · Lesson 13

Heat Transfer: Conduction, Convection, Radiation

Heat is energy on the move. It always travels from a hotter place to a cooler place, and it can take three different paths to get there. A spoon stirring hot soup gets warm. Boiling water churns and bubbles up from the bottom of a pot. Sunlight warms your face on a cold morning even when the air is still freezing. These three everyday scenes use three different mechanisms of heat transfer: CONDUCTION, CONVECTION, and RADIATION. Once you know what to look for, you can spot which kind is at work in any heating or cooling situation.

What this lesson teaches

1Define conduction as heat moving through direct contact in solids
2Define convection as heat moving through flowing liquids and gases
3Define radiation as heat traveling through space as invisible rays
4Identify which type of heat transfer is happening in everyday examples

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