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Upper El (4/12-16): Convection!



This week we started a new story writing assignment about historical fiction, and we explored convection and its effect on our World.

Historical fiction is all about learning to do a little bit of research around writing our fiction stories. Finding something that excites us to want to know more and that presents opportunities to write something new. This week was all about our research.

For Science, our lessons this week were around convection. We used balloons to visualize pockets of hot air taking up space. We imagined how the air around the balloon might move when the balloon moved to a different position. It would rush in to fill that space!

Then, even though everyone knew that hot air rises, we needed to figure out why that is? Also, if hot air rises, why are mountain tops cold? We answered these questions together using our balloons to help open up our imaginations and visualize specific scenarios—like the balloon underwater.

Wednesday, we took convection further and explored how this process is responsible for the wind, weather patterns, the formation of mountains, volcanoes, and earthquakes!

On Friday, we did a small demonstration of convection currents in water. Students could see the hot water rising, but now we know why.

Next week we'll cook some S'mores in our Solar Ovens and introduce our final engineering project!

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