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How Can Gravity Make Something Go Up?
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In this activity, learners use cheap, thin plastic garbage bags to quickly build a solar hot air balloon. In doing so, learners will explore why hot air rises.
Crunch Time
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In this quick and easy activity and/or demonstration, learners use two empty 2-liter bottles and hot tap water to illustrate the effect of heat on pressure.
Percentage of Oxygen in the Air
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In this activity, learners calculate the percentage of oxygen in the atmosphere by using steel wool's ability to rust.
Tumble Wing Walkalong Glider
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In this physics activity (page 2 of the PDF), learners will construct their own walkalong glider. They will explore how air, though invisible, surrounds and affects other objects.
Toasty Wind
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In this quick activity, learners use a toaster to investigate the source for the Earth's wind. Learners hold a pinwheel above a toaster to discover that rising heat causes wind.
A Pressing Engagement
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In this quick and easy activity and/or demonstration, learners illustrate the effect of the weight of air over our heads.
Wind Tube
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In this activity, learners explore moving air and the physics of lift and drag by constructing homemade wind tunnels.
Does Air Weigh Anything?
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The demonstration/experiment provides quick proof that air has mass.
If Hot Air Rises, Why is it Cold in the Mountains?
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This demonstration/activity helps learners understand why higher elevations are not always warm simply because "hot air rises." Learners use a tire pump to increase the pressure and temperature inside
Turning the Air Upside Down: Convection Current Model
Learners see convection currents in action in this highly visual demonstration. Sealed bags of colored hot or cold water are immersed in tanks of water.
Balloon in a Bottle
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In this physics activity (page 3 of the PDF), learners will see firsthand that air takes up space and has pressure by attempting to inflate a balloon inside of a bottle.
Go with the Flow
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In this quick and easy activity and/or demonstration, learners use two empty soda cans to illustrate Bernoulli's principle.
Fly a Hot-Air Balloon
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Learners assemble a hot-air balloon from tissue paper. The heated air (from a heat gun) inside the balloon is less dense than the surrounding air and causes the balloon to float.
That Sinking Feeling
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In this quick activity, learners observe how salinity and temperature affect the density of water, to better understand the Great Ocean Conveyor.
Mold Mole Molds
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In this activity, learners make different shapes that hold exactly one mole of gas (air).
Sizing Up Temperature
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In this activity, learners explore Charles' Law in a syringe.
Light as Air
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In this physics activity (page 6 of the PDF), learners will demonstrate air has weight by comparing an inflated balloon to a deflated one.
Heavy Air
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In this activity and/or demonstration, learners illustrate visually and physically that air has weight. Learners balance two equally-inflated balloons hanging from string on a yard stick.
Wind Power: Creating a Wind Generator
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This lesson challenges groups of learners to design and construct a wind generator with the most electrical output.
Mini Vortex
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In this activity, learners will build an air cannon out of simple materials you can find around the house. Although air is invisible to the eye, it is not by any means empty space!