Experiment revealed and after school adventure

Today we started with Vera’s grade 6 class, where we introduced ourselves and the pyranometer.  Afterward, we went to Pat’s grade 1 class.  First we pretended we were little molecules in the cold night air moving very slowly.  As the sun came out we got more energy and sped up.  It got warmer still and we moved around faster and faster until *FREEZE* it was night again.

Pat's grade ones pretending to be molecules.

 After the molecule settled down, the kids went to different stations in their room to measure the temperature of various cups of water.  After our 30 minute spare, we went to Darlene's grade 3 class.  We introduced ourselves and talked about wind, then did the awesome experiment (that you should definitely try at home).

Take 4 bottles, fill two with cold water and two with hot water.  Dye the water so you can tell which is which.  We dyed the hot yellow and the cold blue.

Dying the hot water yellow.

 I then put one of the hot bottles on top of the cold (so the water could mix) and one of the cold bottles on top of the hot (what do you think happened?).  I was able to flip the bottles over by placing a card over the bottle's mouth, flipping it upside down, then letting go of the card.  The kids were amazed that the water didn't all spill out!

Ta da! A card holds the water inside the bottle, even when the bottle is upside-down.

 And finally, the spectacular results!

The system on the left started with cold on top and the system on the right started with hot on top.

 Since cold water is more dense than warm water, it sinks to the bottom of the bottles.  If the cold is at the top, it will flow to the bottom and the two colours will mix (as seen on the left).  If the cold starts at the bottom, it stays put.  If we left the two systems for long enough, all of the bottles would contain the same shade of green water, as the water in the bottles came to an equilibrium.

After lunch, we visited Leah's grade 5s, Tammie's grade 6s, Yvonne K.'s grade 5s, and Yvonne W.'s grade 7s.  With the classes we already saw, we showed them how to use their pyranometer and went outside to do some tests.  With Yvonne K.'s grade 5s, we sorted pictures of the sky according to how much radiation we got and Niall explained radiation.

Sorting through photos.

Niall giving a presentation about the sun and radiation.

 While at school, I did find the bulletin board describing how to build an igloo.

How to build an igloo.

 After school, Maren (the grade 4 teacher) invited us to meet "The Dream Team"--her dog sled team.  We took Skidoos out to greet the eight beautiful dogs.  For those of you that read yesterday's post, the dogs out on the ice around the town are only for dog sled purposes.

The Dream Team lead dogs.

Four more members of The Dream Team.

The remaining two members.

 Aurora (pointed out later) is my favourite.  She is the only one with a substantial amount of brown in her coat and such a sweetie pie!  It is a lot of work to own a dog sled of your own!  We had to set up all the lines, greet the dogs, convince some to come out of their house, put on their harness, then rope them into the sled.

Setting up the lines.

Preparing the sled.

Two excited dogs!

Ashley greeting Aurora.

Hiding from the harness.

Ashley and Maren putting on a harness.

Aurora, after I put her harness on.

 To set the dogs up, they are first each clipped to the sled on a very short rope so that it is difficult for them to run off while you try to get the remaining dogs on.  Then we brought the long ropes to the dogs and clipped them in.

The Dream Team all clipped onto the sled.

And we're off!  A view from the sled itself.

 These dogs are so smart, they don't need anyone to tell them where to go (they just follow the Skidoos), but they do need encouragement every now and again.  After we got back from the ride, we returned the dogs to their chains, took the ropes off of the sled, cleaned up their area, fed them, and said goodbye.  The whole extravaganza took us 2.5-3 hours.  Now imagine doing  all of that work alone (which is what Maren does quite often)!

Luna (left) and Aurora (right).