The Icebox (Ⅰ)

5 The Icebox (I) Our science teacher always enjoys giving out peculiar and challenging assignments to our Grade 10 science class. Unlike other teachers who hand out page upon page of textbook questions, Mr. Hussey seems to prefer having the students learn science through a more hands-on, do-it-yourself approach. " Today, " said Mr. Hussey, “ everyone will be making an icebox! " As we sat in awe, trying to imagine what kind of device he was referring to, Mr. Hussey handed out the project specifications. In groups of two, we would design a storage device that was capable of keeping its contents at a constant temperature for a certain period of time, regardless of the outside temperature. Because the teacher would not provide any supplies, we could use any material we wanted and build the box any way we liked. The evaluation would be done in class in a week, when everyone would bring their work to class for a competition. The competition was quite straightforward: every contestant would receive a cube of ice. The team that had the biggest piece left the next day would win!

As always, I partnered with my faithful sidekick, Vlad. That afternoon we went straight to the library. After an intense discussion, we agreed on the basic idea of having the ice cube inside a box, which would be put inside another bigger box. Between the two boxes would be the heat insulator. I knew that a vacuum layer was the best insulator. And Vlad insisted that Styrofoam itself would make a good insulating shell too. But soon, we realized that it was impossible to make a vacuum inside blocks of Styrofoam, even with a pump, valves and gauges. After slight modifications, our first design was made: a small Styrofoam box inside a large Styrofoam box and, of course, air between the two. Building the device was much harder than anticipated. Originally expecting that it would be an easy task, I couldn't believe how hard it could be to cut a straight line through a piece of Styrofoam! Regardless of the tools I used-scissors, a knife or a ruler-and regardless of how straight the pieces of Styrofoam looked, there were always gaps when I put them together.