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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.
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.
Pie-Pan Convection
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It's difficult to see convection currents in any liquid that's undergoing a temperature change, but in this Exploratorium Science Snack, you can see the currents with the help of food coloring.
What Causes Pressure?
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In this kinesthetic activity that demonstrates pressure, learners act as air molecules in a "container" as defined by a rope.
Energetic Water
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In this activity, learners explore how hot and cold water move. Learners observe that temperature and density affect how liquids rise and fall.
Melting Ice
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In this activity, learners explore density, convection, stratification, and, by inference, the melting of icebergs. Learners make hypotheses, test their hypotheses, and explain their observations.
Sinking Water
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In this experiment, learners float colored ice cubes in hot and cold water.
Differing Densities: Fresh and Salt Water
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In this activity, learners visualize the differences in water density and relate this to the potential consequences of increased glacial melting.
Convection Demonstration
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In this quick activity (located on page 2 of the PDF under GPS: Balloon Fiesta Activity), learners will see the effects of convection and understand what makes hot air balloons rise.
Cooling Off
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In this activity, learners are introduced to challenges of maintaining temperatures while living in space.
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.
Inverted Bottles
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In this activity, learners investigate convection by using food coloring and water of different temperatures.
Solar Convection
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In this activity, learners add food coloring to hot and cold water in order to see how fluids at different temperatures move around in convection currents.
Weather Stations: Winds
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In this activity, learners use a toaster to generate wind and compare the appliance's heat source to Jupiter's own hot interior. Learners discover that convection drives wind on Jupiter and on Earth.
Causes and Effects of Melting Ice
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In this activity, learners explore the concept of density-driven currents (thermohaline circulation) and how these currents are affected by climate change.
Changing the Density of a Liquid: Heating and Cooling
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Learners investigate how the temperature of water affects its density.
Global Climate Change and Sea Level Rise
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In this activity, learners practice the steps involved in a scientific investigation while learning why ice formations on land (not those on water) will cause a rise in sea level upon melting.
Ocean Currents
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In this activity, learners will explore how density is affected by temperature and how that can create currents.