Doghouse

We're Anna and Alex, and our dog, Rupert, needs a cool place to hang out when it's hot. We live in Arizona, so it gets really hot in summer. We can't buy an air conditioner for Rupert's doghouse, so we wondered what else we could do to keep it cool. We found some answers at the Arizona Science Center. How can we build a doghouse to keep Rupert cool?

How would you investigate this question?
Think about what factors might cause a doghouse to heat up in the sun. Is the shape of the house important, or its color, or maybe the materials used to build it? Work with shoebox-sized house models and a sunlamp. Pick one feature at a time to study, and develop a plan to investigate how well the model resists heating up under the sunlamp. Then design (and build!) a doghouse that will keep your pooch cool, using what you learned. Describe your investigation in your notebook and discuss it with your teacher, or go to Doghouse to learn what Anna and Alex discovered.