Nice demonstration

Live demonstrations provide students a "show" in which they can learn a concept. Convection in a Fish Tank is a simple demonstration that gives students a visual of convection currents that... See More

Live demonstrations provide students a "show" in which they can learn a concept. Convection in a Fish Tank is a simple demonstration that gives students a visual of convection currents that can be created with a simple heat source. I found that mounding the pennies worked fairly well and if I had steady pressure, I could successfully make a pool of red dye at the bottom of the tank. This gave me a bit of time to talk before the "show"started and the red dye started to rise from the pennies. The addition of blue dye slowly sinking in the tank also fascinated students. I had them verbally predict what would happen when the blue dye would get near the heat source. I also invited students to come up and watch the convection cycle from above. All in all the demonstration did a lot in improving student understanding of convection.