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Air Pressure Class
Air Pressure Class
Wide Age Range
What is Nitrogen? It is a Chemical element that is essential for the growth of plants and animals; a gas constituting 79% of the atmosphere! What is Oxygen? This is an essential element in the respiration process to sustain life. This colorless, odorless gas makes up about 21 percent of the air. Air has volume! What is volume? The amount of 3-dimensional space occupied by an object |
Pin Wheel  We will learn that moving air molecules create a force. Materials: Ruler Paper Scissors Pencil Brads or Pins (The first 5 can be prepped ahead of time.) 1. Measure and cut a piece of paper to make an 8” square. 2. Use a ruler to draw a line from one corner to the opposite. Do the same with the other two corners. 3. You have divided your square into 4 equal triangles. 4. Put an X in the bottom left corner of each triangle. 5. Cut from each corner along the lines you drew halfway to the center of the square. 6. Decorate your pin wheel. 7. Fold each corner in to the middle. When you run with it, blow on it or hold it in the wind, it moves! WHY? The moving air molecules will strike the paper and make it spin. |
 Out of the Wind We will learn that a stream of air will follow a curved surface. Materials: Large bottle or jar, can use a series of different shapes Candle / candle holder Matches  1. Place the large bottle at the edge of a table. 2. Put a candle a couple of inches from the bottle. 3. Light the candle. 4. Blow hard on the side of the bottle. 5. Try different bottles of different shapes. Does the candle blow out? Does it do it on all bottles? It works because air follows along the surface. It is just pushing it’s way around the bottle and coming back together. Kite A kite flies because compressed air pushes the kite upward. Next time you are flying a kite, feel the power of the air pressure as it pulls the string in your hand! |
 Fountain Fun We will learn why and how air expands and contracts. Materials: Small soda bottle with a cap cold water Food coloring plastic straw Clay Small nail Bucket hot water Preparation: 1. Use scissors or a small knife to poke a hole in the bottle cap, large enough to push the straw through. (I used a drill) 2. Fill the bottle halfway with cold water. Add a few drops of food coloring and put on the cap. 3. Push the straw through the hole in the cap so that the end of the straw is about an inch from the bottom of the bottle. 4. Surround the hole with clay to seal it. (You can also use Hot Glue around the straw!) 5. Fill the top of the straw with clay, to create a plug. 6. Use the nail to make a small hole through the clay plug. 1. Place the bottle in a bucket or bowl. 2. Fill the bucket with very hot water. 3. Wait! What happens when the water warmed up? The air in the bottle is cold. That means that the air molecules are close together! The air is contracted when it is cold. When you add hot water to the bucket, you warm the air up in the bottle. The molecules now move farther apart, and the air expands! The expanding air pushes down on the water in the bottle and forces the water up the straw, and through the tiny opening at the top as a fine spray, because it does not have anywhere else to go! |
 How can you tell that the wind is blowing? Corilois Effect. We will be doing an experiment on the Coriolis effect (wind patterns) and make a simple anemometer (a device that measures wind speeds!) We will learn how fast the wind is blowing by building a simple anemometer. We will not actually find what the true wind speed is, but we will be able to track wind speeds. What is an Anemometer? It is a device that measures wind speed. Materials: Glue empty spool of thread 1 large piece of cardboard Scissors Small block of wood stapler Pencil foil muffin cups or egg carton cups Needle or thin nail 1 bright sticker (we painted ours) Stopwatch Prep: 1. Cut 4 egg carton cups for each anemometer. 2. Paint 1 of every 4. Or put a sticker on them. 3. Glue the spool of thread to the block of wood 4. Cut two strips out of the piece of cardboard. They should be at least 16” long and 2 “ wide. 5. With the scissors, cut slits in the bottom of each strip so that they fit together to make a cross. Start from the middle of the strip about 8” from either side and cut upward about 1”. Procedure: 1. Wedge the pencil, eraser side up, into spool in block of wood. 2. Stick the thin nail into the eraser. 3. Glue or staple 1 muffin cup to each arm of the cross, making sure that each cup points in the same direction. This will ensure that every cup will catch the wind. 4. Place the cross onto the nail so that it rotates freely. If you find that it doesn’t rotate, use the nail to make a slightly larger hole until it spins easily. 5. Place the anemometer outdoors where it can catch the wind. 6. Over the course of several days record the wind speed at different times of day. Activity: 1. Using a stop watch or a clock measure 1 minute. 2. Count the number of times the cup with color completes one revolution in a minute. 3. Use that number as you wind speed. 4. Each time you record a new measurement, compare it to the previous values. 1. What was the fastest speed you recorded? 2. What time of day was the windiest? The calmest? 3. Are there places at your house that are windier that others? 4. How can you test this? 5. How do you suppose meteorologist measure the true wind speed? |
PaulaOrdunez |
Latest page update: made by PaulaOrdunez
, Apr 15 2008, 6:20 PM EDT
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