Convection Currents

                On the ninth of May, our science class did a lab on convection currents. We are learning about weather these last few months, and this lab helps us see how heat affects the movement of water or air. These currents help produce wind and weather. Before the lab we were asked what our hypothesis was. "If air or water is heated, it rises," was the answer. To start the lab, we filled a cup with hot water that was colored yellow.  We secured plastic wrap over the top and placed it in a big beaker of cold water that was not died. I poked a hole in the plastic wrap. It took me a few tries to get the hole big enough, and it was still a little small. I watched as the warm water rose up to the top of the beaker. This shows that the warm water is less dense and more spread out than the cool water, so the cool water sinks and the warm water rises, just like in my hypothesis. This lab is a great model to show how weather works because you can actually see the usually invisible effects of heat on water or air. We could have improved this model by making it easier to poke a hole in the plastic wrap. We also could have shown both sides of convection currents by holding a cup full of cold water upside down in a beaker full of hot water and then letting the cold water go, showing us that it would sink. That would of shown us how cool air would sink under warm air, also causing wind. The original experiment helped our class learn about how heat effects how air moves. When air heats up, it rises, and the cool air that was above it before rushes down to fill the space that the warm air left, just like the water did in our experiment.