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Listed under:  Science  >  Forces and energy  >  Heat
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Convection Currents

This activity invites students to explore convection currents in water. Warmer water rising through cooler water bends light, allowing students to project its motion onto a screen and observe the flow. The activity includes a list of tools and materials required, what to do and notice, an explanation for the underlying ...

Video

The physics of invisibility cloaks

Could an invisibility cloak actually work? Prashanth and Maria from MIT explore this idea and demonstrate the cool ways that light bounces, bends and mixes. How do the wings of the Morpho Butterfly give clues about how an invisibility cloak could work? How would light need to be channelled in order for something to seem invisible?

Video

Catalyst: How will fire change the climate?

Considering the impact of a changing climate on the severity and frequency of fires is one thing, but how about the impact of fires on climate? Why does Professor David Bowman describe this scenario as a 'fire spiral'? What are the consequences of a world with fewer forests? As Professor Craig Allen explains, drought and ...

Video

Colourful Weather, Ep 1: What shape is a rainbow?

All you need is water, the sky and sunlight and you’ve got something that’s colourful – with a pot of gold at each end. What is it? A rainbow! Find out what happens to sunlight inside a raindrop, why rainbow colours are always in the same order and the real shape of a rainbow. Tip: it’s not an arch!

Video

Colourful Weather, Ep 3: Why sunsets and sunrises will never be blue or green

Can you guess how many sunsets and sunrises an astronaut on the International Space Station sees every 24 hours? Sixteen! Imagine seeing all those spectacular colours so many times a day (even if the view lasts only a few seconds as they zoom by). Find out exactly why sunrises and sunsets are red, orange and golden but ...

Interactive

Oresome world

This interactive resource takes students on a journey of discovery in the energy and mining world. Oresome world contains five games or modules: Coal, Energy, Gas, Low emissions and Mining, and within each of these there are several facilities to explore, such as the Underground mining site, Hydroelectric power station, ...

Interactive

Thermal comfort – sustainability action process (Years 7–10)

This thermal comfort learning resource will guide students through an extended school based investigation. Students will develop and implement a chosen sustainability action and then evaluate and reflect on their success and their learning.

Interactive

Why is it cooler up the mountains?

'Ask an expert' ABC article about why is it cooler up in the mountains though it's closer to the sun and hot air rises. An excellent explanation that elicits discussion about solar radiation and heat energy and how energy is transferred and transformed.

Interactive

Series and Parallel Circuits

Students use this resource consisting of three slides with diagrams, written explanation and voice-over to understand how to the arrangement of bulbs in series and parallel circuits and understand the differences between them. There is a two-question quiz and a summary slide.

Video

Measuring Voltage

In this simulation students select to measure the voltage across one, two or three light bulbs in series to measure the voltage drop across one, two of three bulbs.

Interactive

Sites2See: Surf safety

A webpage about surfing safety, dangerous waves and rips, and the history and science of surfing. A 'For Kids' section provides games and quizzes for young swimmers and surfers.

Video

Earthshine

This six and a half minute video segment from Catalyst explains Earthshine as light from our own Earth reflected back from the Moon's dark side. A PhD student is studying it to learn about how light reflects from a planet that contains liquid water as well as land. Her work may one day lead to the discovery of other planets ...

Video

Solar Prints

This 6 minute video segment from Catalyst is an excellent introduction to the science behind photovoltaics. A useful comparison of the efficiency of energy conversion. Discussion of other issues considered in producing devices to use renewable energy to make electricity.

Online

Heat changes everything

In this learning sequence, students explore a simple particle model for matter, heat energy and thermal expansion. They apply their learning to the context of expansion and contraction of rail lines and investigate ways that this is mitigated in real situations involving rail lines. They subsequently explain this to young ...

Video

Can photons and atoms generate laser?

Electrons around atoms can absorb and emit photons of particular colours of light – see three different atomic models explain what's going on.

Video

Meet the BFFs: Four fundamental forces

We all know something about gravity, but what about the other fundamental forces of physics? Explore the properties of two familiar forces experienced in daily life, and of two less familiar ones. How do they interact, and what keeps everything from falling apart? This video was Kate Dent's entry into the 2013 Sleek Geeks ...

Video

Elliot and the Surfing Scientist: Picking up ice cubes with string

Imagine trying to pick up a slippery ice cube with just a piece of string. Watch the Surfing Scientist team demonstrate how it can be done, using a surprising additive.

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How do prisms create rainbows?

Zoom inside a glass prism and see why glass makes light bend, and how the glass molecules make different colours of light bend different amounts.

Video

Catalyst: Electromagnetic radiation

Do you know how radios transmit sound, or how ultraviolet light travels through the air? Listen to Bernie Hobbs explain electromagnetic radiation and discover what radios, ultraviolet light, x-rays and nuclear blasts have in common. Find out about their energy levels, how they travel from place to place, and at what speed, ...

Video

Can We Help?: 3D is back!

Andrew Woods from Curtin University answers the question 'How are 3D movies made?' Discover how how 3D glasses work. You might be surprised to find out how long ago people started making 3D movies.