We've been taking a bit of a tour of earth sciences lately. We've done some reading about the layers of the earth, talked about earthquakes, volcanoes, hurricanes, and tornadoes, and more about weather. Our Usborne Internet-Linked Planet Earth Encyclopedia (and no, I don't sell Usborne but I love it!) put us onto a neat site from National Geographic where you can make your own simulation of a tornado, earthquake, and volcano. You choose certain conditions and get to see how it affects your natural disaster. (www.nationalgeographic.com/forcesofnature/interactive/index.html?section=v)
We did a fun and simple experiment this morning that demonstrates what happens when air heats up. We took a large soda bottle and put a balloon over the opening. When you put the bottom of the bottle into hot water, the air inside the bottle warms and rises as demostrated by the balloon filling with air. Take the bottle out, the air cools and the balloon deflates. We had fun seeing how fast we could make the balloon fill or deflate by changing the water temperature or taking the bottle outside so the air cooled faster.
We did a fun and simple experiment this morning that demonstrates what happens when air heats up. We took a large soda bottle and put a balloon over the opening. When you put the bottom of the bottle into hot water, the air inside the bottle warms and rises as demostrated by the balloon filling with air. Take the bottle out, the air cools and the balloon deflates. We had fun seeing how fast we could make the balloon fill or deflate by changing the water temperature or taking the bottle outside so the air cooled faster.
