Elephant Toothpaste

Description:  Elephant toothpaste is a dramatic chemistry demonstration that involves the decomposition of concentrated hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) into water and oxygen. Potassium iodide is used as a catalyst to speed up the reaction. Soap is added to trap the escaping oxygen gas and food coloring is often added to the experiment. This phenomenon can be using in elementary science classes to illustrate non-reversible reactions and can be studied in more detail in middle and high school.

Web Resource:  Elephant toothpaste - Wikipedia

The Mystery Of The Missing Bees

Description:  The specific cause (or causes) of colony collapse disorder has not been found but the fact that a number of bees are dying is clear. This will have massive economic impacts since many of the foods we eat are pollinated by bees. Since humans are both impacting and being impacted by this problem it can be used as an engineering problem in need of a solution.

Web Resource:  Colony Collapse Disorder - Wikipedia

Air Plants - No Soil Needed

Description:  Air plants (Aerophytes) don't require soil to grow so they can use used as an introductory phenomenon as your students explore plant needs. Air plants live in areas with high humidity and are generally epiphytes (plants that live on but are not parasites of) living on larger trees. Air plants obtain the water they need to survive from the environment so they must either be misted or occasionally dipped in water.

Web Resource: Air Plant Care - HGTV, Air Plant Supply Co.

Glacier National Park Is Melting Away

Description:  Glacier National Park used to have 150 glaciers and it now has 25. Photographic evidence in this video shows how drastically the glaciers are being shaped by a warming planet. This phenomenon can be used to show two forms of freshwater (ice and water) in elementary science and as evidence for global warming in secondary.

Web Resource:  Retreat of Glaciers Since 1850 - Wikipedia

Towing An Iceberg To The United Arab Emirates

Description:  The National Advisor Bureau Limited plans to tow icebergs to the UAE for a source of freshwater. The majority of freshwater on the planet is frozen in glaciers and ice caps. This solution would provide adequate freshwater to the UAE but it would present many engineering challenges. The smaller icebergs would melt along the way and the larger ice bergs would be pushed by the large currents in the ocean.

Web Resource:  Science Alert Article  

Epic Mudslide Caught on Camera

Description:  Various forms of mass wasting (e.g. creeps, slumps, landslides, mudflows) can be used to show that earth events can occur quickly or slowly. Mass wasting occurs as gravity acts on the soil and rock in an area. The amount of water in an area greatly affects the speed of the mass wasting.

Web Resources:  Mudflow - Wikipedia, The Nelson Daily article

Why Do Rivers Curve

Description:  A meandering river is a great example of a phenomenon of water changing the shape of land. When it is surrounded by steep rock a river rarely curves but when it open up in large valleys it will weave back and forth. Water on the outside of the river will travel faster and erode the land more quickly. Eventually it will curve too much and lose speed. A stream table can be used to model a meandering river.

Web Resource: Meander - Wikipedia

Augmented Reality Sandbox

Description:  The augmented reality sandbox uses technology to visualize earth science processes. A camera measures the depth of the sand which is then projected with different colors on the sand by an overhead projector. The technology allows a topographic map to be manipulated in real time. Water can be added to the system to show the interaction between the geosphere and the hydrosphere.

Web Resource: Augmented Reality Sandbox - UCDavis

How Was The Grand Canyon Formed?

Description:  The Grand Canyon is a mile-deep and was carved by the Colorado River over millions of years. This phenomenon shows how consistent weathering and erosion over a long period of time can radically shape the earth. Even though the work of the Colorado took millions of years this is relatively rapid compared to the billions of years of deposition revealed by the Canyon. A trip down into the Grand Canyon is literally a trip back in time written in the rocks.

Web Resources: Grand Canyon National Park, Grand Canyon - Wikipedia, Grand Canyon: Location, Formation & Facts - LiveScience

Shatter A Wine Glass With Your Voice

Description:  You can shatter a wine glass with your voice but it isn't easy. The pitch must match the natural frequency of the glass and the volume must be high enough t0 physically vibrate the glass. The video below documents how long it takes Mike Boyd to achieve this task.  Most students understand that vibrating materials create sound but they don't realize that the opposite is true as well.

CAUTION: When the glass breaks tiny shards of glass can enter your eye and so eye protection should always been warn when attempting this phenomenon.

Web Resource:  Fact or Fiction?: An Opera Singer's Piercing Voice Can Shatter Glass - Scientific American  

There Is No Sound In Space

Description: A famous physics phenomenon is included in the video below. A bell ringing in a bell jar will become quiet when the air is removed from the bell jar. Since sound is caused by vibrating material and all of the material has been removed from the bell jar there is no sound. This means that there is no sound in space. Recent discoveries from NASA has shown that there may be sound in space (due to oscillating interstellar gases) but it is not a sound humans can perceive on their own.

Web Resources:  Bell in a Bell Jar, There Actually Is Sound in Outer Space - Gizmodo

Tin Can Telelphone

Description:  The tin can telephone is made of a string connecting two tin cans or paper cups. When the sender talks into one side it vibrates air in the cup which vibrates the bottom of the cup. This vibration is transferred through the string and received at the other end by sound. This phenomenon can be used to address sound as vibrating materials and can be used as an example of a communication device.

Web Resource: Talk through a String Telephone

By This is from Project Runeberg book called The key to science In swedish., Public Domain, Link

By Robert Benson [CC0], from Wikimedia Commons

Why is Space Black?

Description:  This phenomenon can be used in elementary to explain darkness and illumination. Even though light travels between the Sun and the Earth space appears black because there is nothing (e.g. gas, dust, etc.) for the light to reflect off of. This can also be used as a much deeper phenomenon. Since space is filled with billions and billions of stars and each of them give off light why isn't space completely light? The answer lies in the expansion of the Universe.

Web Resource: Ask Ethan: Why does space appear black?

Vantablack - The Darkest Material on Earth

Description:  Vantablack is an synthetic material created by Surrey Nanosystems. It consists of a series of carbon nanotubes that are aligned vertically. It absorbs nearly 100% of the light that enters the tube giving. Since nearly all of the light is absorbed by the material it appears black. In the video below a bronze statue is covered in Vantablack and it disappears from view. This phenomenon can be used to illustrate the idea of illumination. Even though a light source is present none of the light reflects back to the viewer and so all that remains is darkness.

Web Resources: Vantablack | Surrey NanoSystems , Vantablack - Wikipedia

How Do Sundials Work?

Description:  The simplest sundial consists of two parts: a flat plate and a gnomon (or stick) that casts a shadow on the plate. When the sundial is properly aligned it will tell the local solar time. This may have to be adjusted to find national clock time due to longitude, season, and daylight savings time. Students can build their own sundial by tracing the shadow on paper (or in the dirt) at different times of the day.

Web Resources:  Sundials - Wikipedia, How Do Sundials Work? - Yale Scientific

Total Solar Eclipse

Description:  The total solar eclipse of 2017 is an excellent phenomenon to use in an astronomy unit because many of the students will have heard of, or even experienced, the most recent eclipse. During a total eclipse the shadow of the moon completely blocks out the light from the sun. This phenomenon can be used to establish an accurate model of the Sun-Moon-Earth system.

Web Resource: NASA - Eclipse: Who? What? Where? When? and How?

Polar Bears are Actually Black

Description:  The skin of a polar bear is actually black. The black skin allows them to absorb more UV light to stay warm. The hair of the polar bear acts like a fiber optic cable directing the light to the surface of the skin. The clear hair reflects all wavelengths of light giving them a white appearance that blends with their surroundings.

Web Resources: Earth Rangers

Gecko Feet

Description:  The foot of a gecko has folds upon folds upon folds. This increases the surface area between the foot of the gecko and the surface it is climbing on. Intermolecular forces between the two surfaces allows the gecko to scale vertical surfaces. This phenomenon can be used as an introduction to biomimicry or as an application of intermolecular forces.

Web Resources: Gecko Feet Inspire Climbing Space Robots, How Do Geckos’ Feet Work?

Cute Baby Animals

Description:  Why are baby animals (e.g. kittens and puppies) so cute? This phenomenon can be used in Grade One to show that baby animals look like, but not exactly like their parents and how their appearance leads to parental care that allows them to survive. The reason that we as humans find most baby animals cute has its roots in evolutionary biology. Humans babies are helpless when they are born and require parental care for years. We find baby animals cute because they resemble cute baby humans.

Web Resources:  BBC - Why are baby animals so cute?

Windcatchers

Description:  Windcatchers are just one example of desert architecture that can be used as a phenomenon in a unit on the warming effects of the Sun. Humans have been living in desert climates for thousands of years and have developed many engineering solutions to the problems of desert heat. According to Wikipedia windcatchers can function in three ways by "directing airflow downward using direct wind entry, directing airflow upwards using a wind-assisted temperature gradient, or directing airflow upwards using a solar-assisted temperature gradient."

Web Resource:  Wikipedia - Windcatcher

By Diego Delso, CC BY-SA 4.0, Link