Ice cube melt

The video and worksheet set out a measurement challenge for students that can be carried out at home or in school. Students use ice cubes (coloured with food dye to visualise the melting process easily) to represent ice masses found in the sea, freshwater lakes or on land (glaciers.) The ice cubes (of similar dimensions) are placed in empty dishes (land) and in salted water (sea) and freshwater (lakes). They are required to monitor the melting process and can take temperatures at mid points and at the end when the melting process has ceased if they have access to an infra red device. All findings can be submitted to the NPL website, via a link in the worksheet. This resource could be used as a context to investigate how sea currents affect average ocean levels.