Supercooled Water
Description: Supercooling occurs when the temperature of a liquid is lowered below the freezing point without forming a solid. In the case of water it needs a seed crystal or a nucleation site to start forming ice. If the water has been filtered through reverse osmosis or chemical demineralization it can be safely cooled below the freezing point. Simply shaking the bottle forms solid ice.
Web Resource: Supercooling - Wikpedia
Programmable Droplets from MIT
Description: Researchers from MIT have developed a technique for moving droplets of fluid around using electric fields. This could allow biological tests and research (which normally use pumps) to move micro amounts of fluid around more economically. This design solution could be used as an anchoring or supporting phenomenon around electric charge, electromagnetic fields, and Coulomb's Law.
Web Resource: Programmable droplets - MIT News
Indestructible Coating - Polyurea
Description: In this video a watermelon is covered with a polymer and survives a drop from a large tower. The polymer is formed when two reactants join to make a flexible and durable polymer known as a polyurea. The chemical reaction is exothermic, releasing heat as the reactants combine. This phenomenon could be used in a unit on chemical reactions, extended structures or chemical engineering. The company Line-X uses this polymer to make bed liners for pickup trucks.
Web Resources: Polyurea - Wikipedia, Line-X
Gravitational Waves and LIGO
Description: Gravitational waves are disturbances in the fabric of spacetime and are generated by accelerated masses. Gravitational waves were predicted by Albert Einstein's general theory of relativity but were measured for the first time in 2016 by two LIGO and Virgo observatories. These first waves originated from two merging black holes 1.3 billion light years away. This cutting edge phenomenon can be used to introduce gravity as a fundamental force and to give a sense of scale of the Universe.
Web Resources: Gravitational Waves - Wikipedia, LIGO - Wikipedia
Blinking Eyes Send a Morse Code Message
Description: Jeremiah Denton was a naval aviator who was captured and became a POW for eight years in Viet Nam. In 1966 he was forced to take part in a propaganda video. During the filming he pretended to be bothered by the lights but was in fact blinking out the word torture in Morse code. This confirmed for the first time that captured servicemen were indeed being tortured. Mr. Denton went on to serve as a U.S. Senator from the state of Alabama. This secret message could be used as a starting point for a unit on waves and information. Students could create and send messages of their own, hopefully under much more enjoyable conditions.
Web Resources: Blinking Eyes Send a Morse Code Message - Awesome Stories, Jeremiah Denton - Wikipedia
A Bed of Nails
Description: Special caution should be taken when sitting down or getting up from a bed of nails. In this video, Steve Spangler used a motor to lift the entire bed of nails up and down safely. Each of the nails is pushing on the participant but since there are so many nails the force is distributed safely between all of the nails. This demonstration could be used in any physics unit discussing forces and pressure.
Web Resource: Bed of Nails - Wikipedia
Aerogels - World’s Lightest Solids
Description: Aerogels are a group of synthetic materials that are incredibly light and also amazing insulators. They have numerous applications such as insulators in electronics. Aerogels were used as thermal insulators in the Mars Rover and also act to filter space dust. This phenomenon could be used as an application of chemical engineering or as an example of a thermal insulators.
Web Resource: Aerogel - Wikipedia
The Gravity Light
Description: The Gravity Light converts potential energy that is stored in a weight into light. The principles involved in this design are very similar to the principles in a cuckoo clock, with the potential energy of the weight being converted to solar energy rather than kinetic energy. Gravity Lights can replace kerosene lights in the developing world with a safe alternative. The phenomenon can be used to illustrate the conversion of potential gravitational energy into other forms of energy. More importantly it conveys the message of sustainability and social responsibility.
Web Resource: The Gravity Light - Wikipedia, The Gravity Light Foundation
Runner’s High
Description: The "runner's high" is a feeling of euphoria that occurs during and after strenuous exercise. Research has show that this occurs when endorphins are released in the peripheral nervous system and eventually bind to receptors in the brain. Endorphins are mainly used to block pain in the body. This could be used as a phenomenon related to homeostasis and interacting body systems.
Web Resource: Neurobiological Effects of Physical Exercise - Wikipedia
Killer T Cell - The Cancer Assassin
Description: Researchers at the University of Cambridge captured this dramatic footage of killer (cytotoxic) T cells capturing and destroying cancer cells. These white blood cells identify chemicals on the surface of virally-infected or cancerous cells. They then inject chemicals which lead to the death of the infected or cancerous cell. This phenomenon can be used introduce the cell as a basic unit of life or be used in a larger unit on interacting systems or homeostasis.
Web Resources: Body’s ‘serial killers’ captured on film destroying cancer cells - University of Cambridge, Cytotoxic T cells - Wikipedia
Synesthesia
Description: Synesthesia can be used as an anchoring phenomenon when designing a unit on the hierarchy of life and sensation. Students find this perceptual phenomenon interesting and to properly understand what is going on they will have to understand a specific living system (the nervous system) in much greater detail than what is presented in the video. Students could even develop a test to determine if they, or their classmates, have synesthesia.
Web Resource: Synesthesia - Wikipedia
Protecting the Earth from Killer Asteroids
Description: Asteroids have the potential to cause catastrophic loss of life on our planet upon impact. In 2013, the Chelyabinsk meteor injured 1500 people when it exploded over Russia. If researchers could identify potential asteroids early enough they could change their orbit to eliminate the threat to Earth. This phenomenon could be used to explore the motion of orbiting objects in the solar system or to gain a better understanding of gravitational forces and fields.
Web Resource: Asteroid Impact Avoidance - Wikipedia
Mysterious Glowing Ball
Description: The mysterious glowing ball contains a red, green, and blue LED giving the ball a purple appearance. When the ball is stationary your brain perceives them all as one color. When the ball is spinning your brain can perceive individual LEDs turning on and off. The persistence of vision allows technology like movies possible and is a wonderful phenomenon to use in a unit on vision and light.
Web Resource: Persistence of vision - Wikipedia
The Ten Most Useful Lego Bricks
Description: In lower elementary science, students will learn that objects are made of pieces which can be disassembled and reassembled into new objects. The pieces that most students are familiar with are Legos. A good way to use this phenomenon is to ask your students the following question: "What are the 10 most useful Lego bricks?" or "What are the 10 most common Lego bricks?" The answer is less important than the idea that object are made of pieces (2-PS1-3) and that properties of different materials are used for different purposes (2-PS1-2).
Web Resource: Gizmodo - The 10 Most Useful LEGO Bricks
By Alan Chia (Lego Color Bricks) [CC BY-SA 2.0 ], via Wikimedia Commons
Corn Cob Sprouting in Water
Description: This dramatic time lapse shows corn kernels sprouting over time. Each of the kernels represents a new corn plant and so corn cobs represent a wonderful organism for studying genetics. In elementary this phenomenon can be used to show what plants need to survive. In secondary students can investigate specific crosses, analyze patterns in the offspring, and could even study transposons "jumping genes".
Web Resources: Why Is Our Corn Changing? - Next Gen Storylines, Corn Genetics - Biology4Friends, Corn Genetics - Wikipedia
Male Water Bug with Eggs
Description: Water bugs show parental care for their offspring. The eggs are laid on the back of the male and he guards them for roughly a week before the nymphs emerge. This phenomenon could be used to show how the behavior of parents helps the offspring survive. Offspring of these (and other invertebrates) could also be compared to show inheritance and variation.
Web Resource: Water Bug Breeding - Wikipedia
Amazing Rube Goldberg Machines
Description: Rube Goldberg machines are named after American cartoonist Rube Goldberg who drew complicated steps involved in doing a fairly simple task (like pouring milk in a glass). Students can study these machines, or build their own, to show how energy can be converted through a series of interactions. In lower elementary classes they might be shown or built to show how pushes or pulls can change the motion of objects. As they move through school they should start to identify specific collisions, interactions, and conversions of energy.
Web Resources: Rube Goldberg Machines - Wikipedia
Weighing the World
Description: The Schiehallion experiment was an attempt to measure the mass of the earth using a pendulum and a mountain (Mount Schiehallion). The mass of the mountain was approximated and the deflection of a pendulum due to the gravitational force of the mountain was measured. Students could attempt to do the calculations or even repeat the experiment on a nearby mountain.
Web Resource: Schiehallion Experiment - Wikipedia
Reaction in a Bag
Description: This video shows a chemical reaction of sodium bicarbonate (baking soda), calcium chloride (road salt), and an indicator phenol red. The chemicals react to form calcium carbonate, sodium chloride, and carbon dioxide gas. This changes the pH inside the bag resulting in a color change in the phenol red. As much air as possible should be removed from the bag as possible to show the production of the gas. This could be used as an example of chemical reaction that releases energy (exothermic). Since the bag is sealed it could be massed before and after to show the conservation of mass (atoms). This phenomenon was submitted by Brian Babulic.
Web Resources: Reaction in a Bag - Flinn Scientific, American Chemical Society - Explanation
Burning Steel Wool
Description: This is an excellent phenomenon to discuss chemical reactions and the conservation of mass. Steel wool is burned leading to an increase in mass. When doing this in class show the students the burning steel wool to begin with and have them predict the change in mass. Most students believe the mass will either increase or decrease. This phenomenon can be used at the beginning of a unit on chemical reactions and students can investigate their individual models. (e.g. mass comes from fire, oxygen, carbon, etc.)
Web Resources: Combustion of Iron Wool - CFNS Experiment 36
