Embedded Files
A cylinder of ice chills the water, Hot water fills the cylinder at the other end of the tank. Food coloring helps show the motion of the water.
Modeling Convection Currents
Modeling Convection Currents
September 2025
8th graders investigating how temperature differences can drive global convection currents, helping transfer energy through the Earth system.
Massachusetts STE Standards:
8.MS-ESS2-6. Describe how interactions involving the ocean affect weather and climate on a regional scale, including the influence of the ocean temperature as mediated by energy input from the Sun and energy loss due to evaporation or redistribution via ocean currents
Getting a closer look at the thermometer.
Heating earth's surface
Heating earth's surface
October 2025
How do the heating and cooling rates of sand and water compare? 8th graders use quantitative data to compare the heating and cooling rates of sand and water.
Temperature differences, created by differences in heat capacities, create pressure differences in the air above land and water. The lab helps build an understanding of one of the causes of the global circulation of air masses. Students also witness first hand the tremendous heat capacity of water, and gain a better understanding of the ocean's ability to store and distribute energy. On a local level, the unequal heating of Earth's surfaces can explain the land and sea breezes we experience.
Massachusetts STE Standards:
8.MS-ESS2-5. Interpret basic weather data to identify patterns in air mass interactions and the relationship of those patterns to local weather.
8.MS-ESS2-6. Describe how interactions involving the ocean affect weather and climate on a regional scale, including the influence of the ocean temperature as mediated by energy input from the Sun and energy loss due to evaporation or redistribution via ocean currents.
Reading the water and sand temperatures every minute.
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