Student Post: 6th Graders learn about Convection!

by Alphie Devita, 6th grade reporter

 

This week in our 6th grade science class we tested a type of heat transfer: convection!

We started by filling two jars with water: one hot and colored red and one cold and colored blue. We made our prediction of what would happen when we put the hot water jar on top of the cold water jar (see below).

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Then we pulled out the card that kept the liquids separate. We watched as the blue stayed at the bottom and the red stayed at the top! We then diagrammed our findings. Then we repeated the process, but with the blue water jar on top. This time the colors mixed as the blue went down and the red went up and formed a solid shade of purple.

We learned that this happened because of convection. Convection causes hot less dense fluids to rise and colder more dense fluids to sink.