Joy P. - Due to the high density and low thermal conductivity, corks or Eva foam would be the best out of all of the insulators. 

Elliot C. - I think that a good insulator for heat is anything that won't be easy for energy to be transferred (Heat is thermal energy). Since air is a good insulator for heat, we can use air to insulate the ice cube. Although direct air inside won't work as heated air will rise, we can use items that have air gaps inside like styrofoam, bubble wrap, etc.

Our experiment contains the following variables:

Independent variables -  The different insulators

Dependent variables -  Ice cubes

Controlled variables -  The hotplate temperature and consistency of Metal containers. The amount of time kept on the hotplate.

Firstly, we will take 4 clean metal containers and add the different insulators into them. Then we will put equal-sized ice cubes and close the containers. Next, we will put all the jars on a hot plate one by one, set tempreture, to speed up the process. We will set a timer for 5 minutes and after the timer is complete we will see how much water has been melted from each container. Lastly, the result will be based on how much water has been melted from each container. Hence this experiment will prove the efficiency of the different insulators.

During our experiment, we observed how much water had been melted from the ice cubes in each container, and measured that water with a syringe. We also observed if any water had seeped into the insulators. EVA foam, Bubble Wrap, and Silver foil did not soak any water at all but Cork did soak a little bit of water.

We conclude that EVA foam is the best insulator since it is dense, has less air pockets and less thermal conductivity than other insulators. Meaning it could keep cold/hot or vice versa, wherever applicable.

This study can be used in real life since it shows the efficiency of insulators. For example: If you are using an insulator to insulate a cold/hot pipe this study shows which insulators are best at keeping cold/hot, according to our inference the best one would be EVA foam in 1^st place and Cork in 2^nd place.

1. Human Error-For example when we are removing the containers from the hotplate the time taken for removal could slightly vary for all containers.
2. For the lining of the containers-There could be air pockets(connecting to human error).
3. The temperature of the hotplate- Since the dispersion of the thermal energy cannot be even and reaching to all the containers at the same time.

Citations

We have cited from different webpages-they are all attached below

1. https://study.com/academy/lesson/what-are-variables-in-science-definition-types-examples.html 

2. https://www.scribbr.com/methodology/hypothesis/ 

3. Talking to our partner and our parents.

4. Also to see the meaning of "citations", "application" and "acknowledgement" in a science fair I have used Bing AI.

I would really like to thank my Science teacher for enrolling us into the science fair and who always reminded us for the deadlines for completing this project. I would also thank my parents for supporting and guiding me in this journey from start to finish.