Ouch!

At school we are learning about heat. They learn that heat can be transfered in three diffe
rent ways:

Conductions - through contact

Radiation - through air

Convection - through mixing/hot and cold cycling

I wanted to do something fun to help them remember these three things. I decided to make popcorn for them. You can make popcorn through each of the ways heat transfers:

Conduction - on the stove

Radiation - in the microwave

Convection - an air popcorn machine

I set each of these up on the table and plugged them all in. I then continue to talk to the class about how these represent each of the three heat transfers.

Touching the microwave "What kind of transfer is used to pop popcorn in the microwave?"

"Radiation!"

"Yes!"

Touching the popcorn machine "What kind is used when popping in the air-pop machine?"

"Convection!"

"Exactly!"

Reaching to touch the hot plate stove "What method is used when...AHHHHHHH!" (a yell/gasp)

Little did I know that the hot plate was left on, so when I plugged it in, it had heated up to the highest setting. It only took that microsecond of touch it to give me a nice 2nd degree burn. I immediately put cold water on it and a student went and got me a bag of ice. I continued with the lesson.

If I do not have the bag of ice on my hand, it burns! Of course it was my right hand, so it will have a few nice blisters that will make it hard to do anything with that hand.

I had to continue teaching through the day. It sure was hard to write anything on the board. I tried doing some with my left hand and eventually figured out I could write pretty good with holding the ice bag and the pen in the same hand. I didn't wa

nt to try and give a huge long math lesson so I gave a shortened version and gave them extra time to work on their assignment. One of my girls came up to me and says "I know this sounds mean, but could burn your hand every day so we can have extra time to do our math homework?" Oh thanks for the sympathy.

So here is my wound: