The Walking Table
Description: The walking table uses pushes and pulls to move the table wherever it needs to be. This phenomenon can be used in kindergarten to show the difference between the two main forces (pushes and pulls). In grade three it can be used to illustrate balanced (not walking) forces and unbalanced (walking) forces.
Web Resource: Scheublin & Lindeman Design Studio
Perplexus Epic 1-125 Demonstration
Description: In this video YouTuber UncleDaver safely navigates challenges 1-125. This toy shows how pushes and pulls can be used to change the motion of an object. It is a much simpler version of a Rube Goldberg device. A simple version of the perplexus can be build using a box, marble, tape and blocks.
Web Resources: Perplexus website
Timelapse of a Blizzard
Description: Various timelapse videos of severe weather can be used to show the importance of weather forecasting. Local severe weather (e.g. Oklahoma tornado, Minnesota blizzard, Dubai sandstorm) should be used.
Web Resource: Wikipedia - Severe Weather
How the Sun Sees You
Description: In this video artist Thomas Leveritt sets up an ultraviolet camera so that people could see what their skin looks like under ultraviolet light. One of the most dramatic parts of the video is when sunscreen is added completely blocking the UV light. This phenomenon can be used to show the Sun's impact on the surfaces in kindergarten. It also shows the importance of sunscreen in protecting our genetic material from mutations that may lead to cancer.
Web Resource: The Kids Should See This
Google Maps Timelapse
Description: The Google Maps Timelapse engine allows you to see the impacts of humans on local environments over the last three decades. Use the search box to find local human impacts.
Local phenomenon (e.g. housing developments, logging, shrinking water reservoirs, etc.) can lead to local solutions to human impacts on the land and water.
Web Resource: Google Maps Timelapse
12 Years in a Sealed Ecosphere
Description: The Ecosphere in this video has been sealed in a glass container for 12 years. No air or food was able to enter or leave the Ecosphere during this entire time yet the shrimp are all still alive. This phenomenon can be used in the elementary science classroom to introduce plant and animal needs. It can be used in middle and high school to address matter cycling and energy flow.
Web Resources: Ecosphere (aquarium) on Wikipedia, Ecospheres
Woodpecker Homes
Description: Woodpeckers drill holes in wood to catch and eat insects. They can also create entire homes in trees for the winter. These homes occasionally damage the tree itself. Some woodpeckers will confuse log homes for trees and try to build their homes inside human homes.
Web Resource: Audobon - Woodpecker Winter Homes
Magnetic Slime
Description: Students can create magnetic slime using iron filings. A powerful magnet can move and be consumed by the slime.
Web Resource: How to Make Magnetic Slime
Biological Weathering
Description: The roots of certain trees are able to break rocks over time. This is one type of biological weathering that can be seen around the world. Rocks can also be broken down by bacteria, algae, lichen, and small animals. Weathering of a sidewalk or the headstones in a cemetery are great places to find this phenomenon.
Web Resources: The Geological Society
Biological weathering, Harrison Rocks - geograph.org.uk
Floating Whiteboard Ink
Description:
I learned about this phenomenon when a teacher spilled their water on my whiteboard. Make sure to use a plate with an impermeable surface. It's a great phenomenon for intermolecular forces. Surface chemistry, temperature, color, ink type, polarity, salinity, and many more factors affect this phenomenon.
Web Resources: Drawing on Water - It is so surreal - YouTube
Dubai 24 Hour Timelapse
Description: This timelapse shows a day in Dubai compressed into a few minutes. The video includes day, night, and the movement of the sun and moon in the sky. Shadows can be seen moving across the ground. The sun is also reflected in the Burj Khalifa.
Web Resources: Dubai 24 Hour Time Lapse
Natural Fish Lure | Lampsilis Mussel and Bass
Description: The Lapsillis mussel must spend part of its life cycle within the smallmouth bass. It has evolved a lure that resembles a small fish so that it can squirt its young into the mouth of the bass. The mussel is even able to twitch the lure as the bass approaches.
Web Resources: Natural Fish Lure, Absurd Creature of the Week - Wired
The Twins that Everyone Can Tell Apart
Description: This Daily Mail article details the differences in twins Lucy and Maria Aylmer. According to the article, "One has straight ginger hair, a fair complexion and deep blue eyes. The other has masses of curls, far darker skin and her eyes are a sparkling brown".
Web Resources: Daily Mail Article, Non-identical Twins - Good Morning Britain
Ecosphere Sealed for Over 50 Years
Description: According to this Daily Mail article David Latimer has had a sealed ecosphere for over fifty years that he has only watered once.
Web Resource: Daily Mail article
The Arecibo Message
Description: The Arecibo message was an interstellar radio message containing information about life on our planet. The message contained 1679 (semiprime) bits of information that could be organized into the graphic seen below. The message contained information on our planetary system, genetic information, human dimensions, and the Arecibo telescope.
Web Resources: Arecibo Message - Wikipedia
Termite Olympics
Description: This video shows the behavior of worker termites released onto a piece of paper with the Olympic rings drawn in pen. Termites will follow a single line of ink as well.
Web Resource: Why do termites follow an ink line?
Magnetic Cannon
Description: The magnetic cannon contains four spaced neodymium magnets in a channel. Two balls bearings are placed between each ball bearing. When a new ball bearing is introduced a transfer of energy occurs and the final ball bearing leaves with a higher initial velocity than the first. This is a great phenomenon for studying transfer of momentum and the energy of an object based on its position within a magnetic field.
Web Resource: Magnetic Challenge with Bozeman Science
Limiting Reactant
Description: In this phenomenon both magnesium metal and hydrochloric acid are limiting reactants. I have used this in a chemistry class, framing it as "The Case of the Mixed Up Masses". I tell them that I added varying amounts of magnesium metal but I forgot to label the flasks. If done correctly they should get the curve seen below. I learned about this on the NSTA Resource page.
Web Resource: NSTA Stoichiometry Balloon Race
Easter Island Deforestation
Description: The island of Rapa Nui once supported a large community of Polynesians that are best known for the massive statues (moai) pictured below. However when sailors arrived on the island in the 18th century the people were barely hanging on. What is not pictured below are any trees. Deforestation led to the collapse of this culture.
Web Resource: How Easter Island Works - How Stuff Works
Ocean Acidification
Description: Ocean acidification occurs when carbon dioxide in the atmosphere is absorbed by the oceans. This process disrupts biological systems and has been described as the "evil twin" of global warming.
Web Resource: What is Ocean Acidification? - NOAA
