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Movers & Shakers - Green
Theme 5: Air, Water, & Weather
Episode A: "Pumped Up"
Our story begins with the kids preparing to go swimming. Diego is hard at work pumping up an inner tube when Swoozie enters with bad news. Swimming is out. It's going to rain. Which leads the kids to wonder, how did the man on the radio know it was going to rain?
Tools of the Weather Trade:
- Thermometers measure air temperature. Thermometers work because matter expands when heated. Most thermometers are closed glass tubes containing liquids such as alcohol. When air around the tube heats the liquid, the liquid expands and moves up the tube. A scale that shows the temperature is on, or attached to, the tube.
- A barometer measures air pressure. An Italian scientist named Torricelli built the first barometer in 1643. People still use mercury barometers based on Torricelli's design to measure air pressure.
- A psychrometer measures relative humidity, using the cooling effect of evaporation. Two thermometers are used in a psychrometer. A wet cloth covers the end of one of the thermometers. Water evaporates from this cloth, causing the temperature on that thermometer to be lower than the other.
- An anemometer measures wind speed. The cups catch the wind, turning a dial attached to the instrument. The dial shows the wind speed. Wind speed can be estimated without special tools however.
Episode B: "Pressure, Pressure, Pressure"
With this video episode, your students will be exploring the effect of pressure. The big question continues to be, how did Jeremiah get that bottle to scrunch up? They rinse three bottles with hot, cold, and medium water and wait. Their patience is quickly rewarded as the bottle rinsed in hot water scrunches up. Could it be that the air contracts when the bottle get colder? Or, what if the bottle is crushed by all of the air outside of it?
Cross-Curricular Connections:
- Write directions on how to conduct the bottle scrunching experiment. You may want to draw pictures to go with your directions. Give your directions to a friend and see if they can conduct the experiment. (Language Arts)
- This would be a great time to initiate a correspondence with a classroom to compare weather data. Use the bulletin board to find willing partners and get your students involved in sharing their weather information via fax and e-mail. (Language Arts)
- Each experiment requires two quarts of water. If the kids pour the water they use in each experiment into a five-gallon bucket, how many experiments can they do before they fill the bucket? (Math)
Movers & Shakers - Purple
Theme 6: Above the Clouds
Episode B: "Moonlight"
The kids are assembling a big telescope in Grandpa's garage to look at Mars. They have just one problem. They can't see anything up in the sky until it gets dark. Or can they? Naomi spots the moon - in broad daylight! How can that be?
Moon Facts:
- The Earth's one natural satellite, the Moon, is more than one quarter the size of Earth itself (3,474 km diameter). Because of its smaller size, the Moon's gravity is one-sixth of the Earth's gravity.
- While there are only two basic types of regions on the Moon's surface, there are many interesting surface features such as craters, mountain ranges, rilles, and lava plains.
- The footprints left by Apollo astronauts will last for centuries because there is no wind on the Moon.
- The Moon does not possess any atmosphere, so there is no weather as we are used to on Earth.
- The Moon doesn't produce its own light, but looks bright because it reflects light from the Sun. Think of the Sun as a light bulb, and the Moon as a mirror, reflecting light from the light bulb. The lunar phase changes as the Moon orbits the Earth and different portions of its surface are illuminated by the Sun.
Episode C: "Starlight"
During their star party, the kids see all kinds of cool stuff through the telescope, including what appears to be a U.F.O., an unidentified flying object. What do your students think it is?
All too soon, it's time to come inside. Alex and Naomi return to Grandpa's Garage and record all their observations. There was so much neat stuff to see at the star party. But, the night isn't over yet, in fact, the grand finale is yet to come!
Hands-On Science: Sun Prints
In this investigation students are introduced to solar energy. We know the sun is powerful…look what it can do to comets. Solar energy is created deep within the core of the Sun. It is here that the temperature (15,000,000° C; 27,000,000° F) and pressure (340 billion times Earth's air pressure at sea level) is so intense that nuclear reactions take place. Energy generated in the Sun's core takes a million years to reach its surface. Every second 700 million tons of hydrogen are converted into helium ashes. In the process 5 million tons of pure energy is released; therefore, as time goes on the Sun is becoming lighter. Now it's up to your students to setup, conduct, predict, and evaluate the effect the sun will have on paper.
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