Simple Things II

Today my four geoscience classes conducted one of my favorite activities of the year. It is so simple yet evokes such wonder and interest in the students. They simply investigate how two fluids of different densities (hot red water and cold blue water) interact. The preceeding day they had diagrammed warm and cold fronts. They come away from this activity fully understanding that fluids of different densities DO NOT mix easily. They have to diagram the set up before pulling out the divider and then draw an “after” diagram. They have to make predictions and support their ideas and then get to “test” their predictions right away. After the blue slide under the red, they reinsert the divider, mix the one side (to produce warm purple water) and go again. There is often a chorus of “that’s sick Mr. W,” which I know means they are finding the experience interesting.