A coat for a snowman

In our investigation of good materials to use for insulation, we decided to see how we could stop a snowman from melting. Materials can be used to keep things cold as well as hot!
We learned that our coats trap our body heat and stop it from escaping, therefore keeping us warm, but a snowman's coat should keep it COLD and stop it from melting.
For our test we needed to choose different materials to try and we had to think of ways to make it a fair test.
We decided to measure the amount of water that was produced as a way to test the coats. We left one snowman with no coat as a control.

•  we made sure that the cups of water that were to be our snowmen were all filled to the same level.
• coats needed to be the same size and put on at the same time.
• snowmen kept in the same place at the same temperature
• measurements taken at the same time and at regular intervals

Most of us measured the water every 10 minutes although one group chose every 20 mins. Sometimes it was a bit messy! We discovered that some materials absorbed the water and the toilet tissue coat disintegrated! It was tricky getting some of the coats to stay on - especially the plastic ones.
Although the wool tended to absorb some water it seemed to be the one that was most effective at slowing down the melting.
It was interesting to see whose predictions were accurate too.