Today in science we were looking at how heat can cause some solids to become liquids.  We looked at how ice can become liquid when heat is applied.  Then we looked at a challenge.  We read the story Cool It, Dude from More Everyday Science Mysteries.  In the story there were 2 people in a sub shop complaining that they did not like crushed ice in their drinks.  They felt they changed to a liquid faster and watered down their drinks.  They complained to the employee of the sub shop and they told them their boss told him that crushed ice lowed the temperature the drink off faster.  The two characters in the story were not sure if that was true.  The class had to decide if they felt it would not matter ice is ice or if the boss was right.  They went to two different points in the room and discussed with other people that agreed with them.  They they picked one student to try and convince the other group that their thinking was correct.  At the end of the discussion there was only two students left in the crushed ice was faster group.  We tested the theory and found that crushed ice does lower the temperature of the drink quicker.  Congratulations to Manny and Parker for their thinking.  Here is the explanation that Manny gave for the group before we tested.
"The crushed ice lowers it faster because it is spreading around and more drink touches the edges of ice it so it lowers quicker.  On a cube only a little drink is touching the outside of the cube."Manny