ingridscience

Run two or more of the activities, back to back, or as stations. (Either way this is an intensive lesson for materials prep.)
Ideas for overarching themes: Water Flow; Indigenous People’s relationship with Water and its connection all Life; Ocean Current formation; Animals using Ocean Currents.

The stream flow and erosion activity shows how water flows downhill and carves out the landscape to make valleys and mountains. Flowing streams and rivers bring water to animals and plants and bring food to living things.

Water flow with temperature and salt variation activity shows how global ocean currents arise and circulate around the planet.
The ocean currents cause upwelling of deep ocean water, which moves nutrients to the surface for life there. Ocean currents are also used by animals for migration e.g. Loggerhead turtles migrate from Florida to the open ocean (where the young are safer), then return as adults. Atlantic Leatherbacks travel from Caribbean to Nova Scotia to feed on jellyfish. Pacific Leatherbacks have the longest migration on Earth: they are born in Japan, migrate to Mexico to feed on crabs, then head back to breed, nest. The Green Sea Turtle rides the East Australian Current, though does not go out into the open ocean (Crush in Finding Nemo).

Turbulence shows how winds change the flow of water on the surface of the ocean, and land masses change the flow of water to produce vortices (swirls of water). The movements mix up the water, bringing food to animals that can’t move, and moves nutrients and heat around.

Complex world-wide ocean currents result from the surface currents of the ocean conveyer belt combined with local turbulence - see them on the mesmerizing NASA perpetual ocean video: https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/10841 or https://www.pbslearningmedia.org/resource/buac17-912-sci-ess-perpocean/…
Use this video to show global surface ocean currents, as well as vortices formed by land masses that interrupt these large flows.

Forces make things move, or make moving things stop. Another name for a Force, which is easier to envision, is a Push or a Pull.

Start with coin game, either as a demonstration (on a hardcover book) or for students to do at their desks.
Focus students on where the force is actually happening - between the finger and coin, or between coins, as they touch. Friction slows the coin down as it slides on the surface.
Summarize that there is a chain of forces that make the coins move then stop.

Another chain of forces in a jumping stick toy or a catapult.
Grade 2 and up can make jumping stick
Primaries can make torsion catapult (adult assistance needed for youngest grades)
Grade 2 and up can make a more powerful tin can catapult (adult assistance needed for primaries)

Allow free play and optionally measuring and recording of distances, before regrouping to discuss the specifics of the chain of forces.
Forces make the parts move, and also make them eventually stop.

End with counteracting forces:
We have seen that forces make things move, and that forces make things stop.
The balancing of opposite forces determines whether something will stop or slow down. When something slides along the floor, the forward movement is balanced by the friction against the floor. When something is falling the force of gravity is balanced against air resistance, pushing up against the object.
Air resistance activity with the two paper plates works well as a demonstration with discussion.

A foam is a mixture called a colloid. It is made up of gas bubble suspended in a liquid (or solid).
This lesson makes some foams.

Make meringues.
While baking figure out which molecules in the ingredients made the foam with the foam molecule test (proteins).

Then make other foams and discuss the molecules that make the foam: elephant's toothpaste, then coke and mentos.

Summary of ideas:
All weather on earth originates with the Sun.
The Sun warms some areas of the Earth and the air more than others. Warmer air rises and cooler air sinks.
Pressure differences arise as the air masses move, and compress or thin out. Air moves from high to low pressure areas.
Moving air is wind.
As air moves, water in the air can condense or freeze, giving rise to precipitation.
Some air movement patterns give rise to weather phenomena, such as tornadoes and lightning storms.
We can forecast the weather by measuring air temperature and pressure, as well as humidity (amount of water in the air).
The systems are complicated, so predicting weather is not always accurate.

Suggested activity order:

Set up frost cans.

Seasons model to show why we have seasons: the Earth is tipped at an angle and so the Northern and Southern hemispheres get more or less light depending on the Earth's position around the Sun.
Summarize: Sunlight hitting the Earth and heating the land and water is how weather starts. Different amounts of sunlight on different parts of the Earth leads to different kinds of weather.

Return to frost - see the dew formed on the top of the can, and the frost formed on the botton of the can. Both the dew and frost came from the water in the air, either condensing (dew) or freezing (frost).
Summarize: Air has water in it, which condenses to a liquid or freezes to a solid when the air cools.

Four fast (5 minute) stations for student groups to move through, looking at why air moves, what happens when it moves, and how we can measure it.

1. Measuring temperature
Students use thermometers to measure water and air temperature.
After the stations, summarize: different air temperatures make air move.

2. Air pressure in a bottle.
A surprising activity that works by air pressure differences.
After the stations, summarize: air moves from high pressure to low pressure, creating winds and moving rain from place to place.

3. Turbulence activity in sealed bottles.
This activity uses water to model what happens when air masses move. If fast moving air meets slow moving air, or if air moves over a mountain range, the air will start to make swirls and eddies - called turbulence.
After the stations, summarize: Airflow can make complex patterns, sometimes hard to predict.

4. Tornados.
Sometimes moving air stays in a pattern for a little while, making a weather phenomenon.
After the stations, summarize: Air patterns make weather.

Review the station results, and summarize as above.
Bottom line: temperature differences give rise to pressure differences, which moves air, which along with the water in the air, makes weather.

End in a circle for mini lightning.

Alternative activities to fold in:

Show how the Sun heats the Earth unevenly:
Heating land and water activity shows how land heats up faster than water.
Sun's angle on earth demonstration shows how the Sun's light and heat hitting Earth depend on the position on Earth.
Summary: the equator is heated more than more northern or southern latitudes (because of the angle of the sun's rays), and the land is heated up more than the water (because the land heats up more quickly).

Question to students - what colour reflects light more - light or dark? Snow and ice reflect the light and the heat, whereas the darker forests absorb the light and heat, so are heated up more. The sun is also unevenly heating up the darker and lighter areas of earth.

The land heats up the air above it, and the result of the uneven heating of earth is that some areas will have warmer air and some areas cooler air. These warm and cool air masses move.

Show movement of warm and cold fluids: warm/cold/salty water flow activity models how air masses interact when some are warmer than others. It will also model how the water in the oceans moves around, when some parts of it are warmer or colder or more salty.
In the atmosphere, this movement of warm air upwards and cooler air downwards generates winds.
In the oceans the movement of colder and saltier water downwards and warmer water upwards generates ocean currents that moves heat with them and affect the climates on land.
A simpler demonstration showing how warm water (and air) rise is the convection demonstration.

Image of the global air circulation patterns showing the air rising at the equator and falling further north and south where it has cooled (e.g. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hadley_cell#/media/File:Earth_Global_Circ…)

Live interactive map of Earth’s winds across the surface: https://earth.nullschool.net/#current/wind/surface/level/orthographic=-…

Make the orange soda drink, using molecular models to figure out the chemical reaction.
Add baking soda to other juices, and correlate the amount of gas made with how many H atoms they contain.
Introduce the concept of something sour as something that has a lot of H atoms.
Students taste regular and sour skittles (or other candy) then predict and find out how many gas bubbles each will make with baking soda, OR add baking soda to skittles and predict which ones are the sour skittles (make the most bubbles).
End with looking at taste buds, which detect the H atoms in sour foods.

Show the dyes in plants by crushing them on paper, and learn about traditional Pacific Northwest Indigenous use of plant dyes.

Make red cabbage dye and experiment with how it changes colour in acid or base.
Use different red cabbage colours to dye cotton strips/cotton yarn, to later use for weaving.
Discuss how many plant colours vary with acid and base (as do colours in flowers).