If you are in my science classes I am sure (or really hope) that you know the defintion of an equinox. However, for those of you who are reading this that aren’t in my class, I will do my best to make it short and sweet. During an equinox the sun is directly over the equator and the Northern and Southern Hemispheres will have equal amounts of daylight and equal amounts of nighttime. This always occurs around the 22nd of September (Autumnal) and the 20th or March (Vernal or Spring). This is basically the changing of seasons for both hemispheres. As we are beginning to tilt away from the sun and lose some of the sun’s radiation, the southern hemisphere is slowly tilting more towards the sun and is simultaneously heating up.

There has always been a MYTH that you can balance an egg on the equinoxes of each year because of gravitational alignment. Just for fun, our science class balanced an egg…..and did it successfully! However, I did test this experiment this summer and found with some patience (lots of patience) you could get the egg to balance and stand straight up.

It’s really a cool site to see an egg sitting straight up and look like it is barely touching the surface. The egg we balanced is still standing proudly on my desk. I will post pics of my classes with the egg for you to see. Don’t be fooled by my egg-clock, Bob. he is also in the picture.

I hope you guys go home and try this out yourselves. Please ask your parents permission first because I don’t want to be to blame if you have a gooey mess!!

Happy Autumnal Equinox everyone!

We started by investigating vortices in a bottle and discussing how storms form.  We found that in the Northern Hemisphere storms with a vortex always rotate counter-clockwise and heat is needed to get storms brewing! We used beads and glitter to represent debris so we could see how heavier and lighter objects would move inside or outside of a storm’s vortex.

 In other investigations we studied different surfaces of earth and how those surfaces effected the temperature of air. We learned that the sun gives off radiation and directly heats earth’s surfaces; mostly water absorbs the sun’s heat. The remainder of the radiation is reflected. Students, do you remember why the sun’s radiation is reflected? Where do the radiation rays go when they are reflected? 

We also had an in-depth discussion about earth’s atmosphere and layered cake! Wait, what?! Yes! Layered cake. Our earth is like a yummy layered cake in that our atmosphere has many different layers, each with different characteristics and a variety of purposes. Students, in which layer do satellites and space craft fly? Which layer consists of our ozone layer? If I asked you to explain the Greenhouse Effect and talk about greenhouse gases, would you be able to do so? I sure hope so. You might see that on a test. Hint Hint.  

In our latest investigation we used punk sticks as a smoke source so we could visually see how air moves when it is cold and when it is hot. We used ice and boiling water for this inquiry and put each of these items inside a convection tube. From there we added our smoke source, the punk stick, placing it through a funnel. We then turned out the lights, turned on the flashlight, and watched our smoke billow and swirl! We even saw a few vortices! Students, go back and reflect how the cold air moved. How did the hot air move? Where did the cold/hot air come out in the convection tube? The top or bottom? Think of how this relates to the air around you!

I am posting pictures of the past few investigations we have conducted. Enjoy and feel free to leave comments. See you guys on Monday. I have missed you all and hated to be out sick!

We started off investigating the movement of cold air. We placed the ice in one convection tube. From there, we carefully put the smoking punk stick through a funnel connected to the convection tube. We then turned out the lights and shined a flashlight through the tubes to see how the air moved. We found that cold air moved very slowly and hovered around the ice. It looked very heavy and thick.  Also, a lot of the air was pushed out through the funnel, not the top of the tube.  This happened because heavy, dense air sinks.

We then repeated the entire process with hot water. Almost immediately, the smoke from our punk stick began rising out of the top of our convection tube. The air was moving quickly and had a wispy or light look about it. This makes sense because we know that light, less dense air will always rise. There was also a lot of moisture around the convection tube. A few students recognized this process as evaporation.

I was very pleased with every class today in the lab. Thank you students. You all did a very nice job in your investigation.

Apply what you know. If earth’s surface was cold, what would happen to the air above it? If the surface was hot, what would happen to the air above it? Do you think air takes on the temperature of the surface beneath it? Think about it and be ready to discuss this on Monday!

Pictures are below! Enjoy![rockyou 83288876]

Students, impress your parents with your knowledge! Explain to them the difference in a funnel cloud and tornado. Maybe you want to tell them why a vortex will shrink horizontally and stretch out vertically. If you loved the talk about hurricanes today, tell your parents about the eye and eye wall of a hurricane. Or really challenge your parents! Do they know the scale we use to measure the intensity of a hurricane? What about a tornado?

Pictures are posted below of group posters and presentations. Enjoy! Thanks for the multitude of comments so far. Keep it up guys. You are making your science teacher proud! Tomorrow be ready to go to the lab and find out which heats and cools faster…..soil or water?

[rockyou 82279704]