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NIce idea - but why do a flash animation at all when you can do some real demonstrations with real things to show how convection works?

If I was asked to demonstrate convection I wouldn't go anywhere near doing some kind of fake chatshow, which I think probably insults the intelligence of the kids. Id start by making and flying some hot air balloons.  You can easily make a hot air balloon launcher which will fill and launch 90 cm dia balloons at a rate of 1 a minute, and get them hot enough to fly to the top of a school hall. Sending a succession of balloons up, and then watching as they come down again basically makes the mechanism of convection visible to all. - The balloons are merely hitching a ride on the hot air.

And you can then show, with a steam iron, a light source , and a screen, currents of hot air rising from a heater.

And then I'd suggest doing a separate demo - the thing with the gas jars and water is pretty, but boring as its a static demonstration of a dynamic process, to show that convection also occurs in liquids.

One of the reasons that too few students study science in this country is that they think its boring, and has too much screen based stuff in it. Flash animations and other video stuff has its place in showing stuff you can't do for real in a school, but using an animation instead of doing something for real is a bit of a cop-out and rather adds to the perception that science is boring.  I got into science because when I was at school it was very hands-on, and in my shows I try to recreate some of that magic of experiencing real things with all their imperfections, rather than showing the edited perfection of an animation.

Cheers

Richard.

Richard Ellam
L M Interactive
Science Shows and Hands-On Stuff
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On 3 Dec 2010, at 11:07, Alessio Bernardelli wrote:

Hi All,
I have written a blog post about an interesting resource on Convection Currents that could encourage your pupils to talk about Physics in more creative ways!
Please have a look and let me know what you think.

http://alessiobernardelli.wordpress.com/2010/12/03/convection-talk-show/

Thanks,
Alessio.

Alessio Bernardelli                                                                                                       
IoP Network Coordinator
109 Maes Y Coed Rd
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Tel: 02920315988
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Blog: alessiobernardelli.wordpress.com
Twitter: twitter.com/aso.ber

 
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