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Phenomenon on Elements

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Use in stars

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Vaping vs. smoking
https://www.georgiascienceteacher.org/phenomena/

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 A Johnson-ScofieldPhenomenon Task Template

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Soap Boat: J Chem Ed article

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Diffusion; Phase Change (release of Sulfur enzyme to a gas) 

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Diffusion; Phase Change (release of Sulfur enzyme to a gas) 

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Description: This phenomenon can be used to illustrate both chemical reactions and the particle nature of matter. Onions gather sulfur from the ground to form large organic compounds. When the cells in an onion are breached (during cutting or eating) they release sulfenic acid which becomes a sulfur containing gas that eventually reaches your eye. Your eyes produce tears to remove the irritant. Students could speculate on how the irritant reaches your eyes and even investigate possible solutions to this problem. This phenomenon was submitted by Brian Babulic.
Web Resource: Science News for Kids - Informational Text Article

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Why Does Cutting an Onion Make You Cry? - The Wonder of Science

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Description: This phenomenon can be used to illustrate both chemical reactions and the particle nature of matter. Onions gather sulfur from the ground to form large organic compounds. When the cells in an onion are breached (during cutting or eating) they release sulfenic acid wh

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Description: Milk is made up of water, fat, and proteins. Each of these molecules have charges and are held together by intramolecular forces. When the dish soap is added to the plate it quickly disperses across the surface as it is attracted to the water molecules and the food coloring is pulled along. This could be used as an anchoring phenomenon on matter, materials, or intramolecular forces.

Web Resource: Colors on the Mooooove - ACS

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Milk and Soap Experiment - The Wonder of Science

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Description: Milk is made up of water, fat, and proteins. Each of these molecules have charges and are held together by intramolecular forces. When the dish soap is added to the plate it quickly disperses across the surface as it is attracted to the water molecules and the food c

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Homemade Rock Candy - Sick Science! #188

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Boiling Water freezes instantly

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Evaporating Water in -30C in Yellowknife, NWT

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Formation of elements

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While it is quite clear that the heavy elements are produced by neutron capture, this process can also happen more slowly in stars that have passed the red-giant stage and evolve onto the so-called asymptotic giant branch during which they can produced slow pulses of neutrons. This process happens over millions of years and produces about half of the heavy elements, including gold. It is still believed that supernova trigger star formation so that any s-process gold in the interstellar medium would be melded into Earth's veins along with r-process gold. Interested in the r-process? Read this article that involves NASA's Swift telescope. The r-process is also discussed as one of the " top eleven questions of physics" in Discover Magazine.

Supernova only happen for heavy stars about ten times heavier than the sun. Heavier stars, like larger bonfires, burn more quickly. In lighter, more typical stars (like our sun, which is a so-called main sequence star) fusion of the light element takes billions of years but there is not enough material to synthesize elements beyond carbon and oxygen. Such stars end their lives as white dwarfs. The process of nucleosynthesis is described in the classic text book Cauldrons in the Cosmos, by C.E. Rolfs and W.S. Rodney (University of Chicago Press). Additionally, an excellent book introducing the relevant concepts for nucleosynthesis both generally and for gold in particular, is The Elements: A very short introduction, by Philip Ball (Oxford University Press).

Wikipedia has good entries for the s-process and the r-process. The landmark paper describing the various processes of stellar nucleosynthesis is referred to as B2FH (after the authors): E. M. Burbidge; G. R. Burbidge; W. A. Fowler & F. Hoyle (1957), "Synthesis of the Elements in Stars" Reviews of Modern Physics 29 (4): 547.

It is important to remember that we still have no direct proof that the rapid neutron-capture process happens in supernova. In fact, the site of the r process is one of the "top eleven questions of physics" (see question 3: http://discovermagazine.com/2002/feb/cover)

It is important to remember that we still have no direct proof that the rapid neutron-capture process happens in supernova. The Hubble space telescope brought tantalizing evidence for a so-called kilonova (brighter than a nova but fainter than a supernova) that would signal the creation of heavy elements from neutron-star mergers. After watching that video, check out the Kilonova Fireball and the Hubble version of this kilonova.

The deposition of gold on Earth is also debated in the scientific literature. As with iron, the heavy metals may have sank into the Earth's core. A plausible explanation for the presence of gold in the mantle would be a prolonged bombardment of metal-rich meteorites. This hypothesis is strengthened after measurements with old rocks, and is discussed in Where does all the gold come from? Another excellent source on gold, how it is mined, and the world's reserves can be found at this site.

Interested in studying the different elements? Visit the Photographic Periodic Table of the Elements. Compare the different elemental abundances here. Want to watch videos instead? A superb collection of videos (selectable from a periodic table) from the University of Nottingham provides a different view of each element!

For more TED-Ed lessons that address this topic watch:

What is the universe made of? and How to detect a supernova.

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Where does gold come from? - David Lunney

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Did you know that gold is extraterrestrial? Instead of arising from our planet's rocky crust, it was actually cooked up in space and is present on Earth because of cataclysmic stellar explosions called supernovae. CERN Scientist David Lunney outlines the incredible journey of gold from space to Earth.

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There are two ingredients inside a lava lamp: a watery liquid, and a waxy compound that collects at the bottom when the lamp is turned off. Turn on the light bulb in the lamp's base, and the waxy compound slowly comes to life, wiggling its way up to the top, and finally settling into a complicated dance of waxy globes, some floating up, others floating down. How come?

Density

Whether something sinks or rises in water is determined by its density. If something is more dense than the surrounding water it will sink. If something is less dense it will rise and float. The trick behind a lava lamp is that the waxy compound has almost exactly the same density as the water inside the lamp, and this density changes with temperature. When the wax is cool, it is slightly more dense than the water and it sinks. When it's warm, it gets less dense, and it rises.

Hot And Cold

When you turn on the bulb in the lamp's base, that heats the wax enough so that it starts to rise. When the wax gets to the top, away from the light bulb, it cools enough to sink again. It's this delicate balance of density and temperature that makes a lava lamp's magic.

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There are two ingredients inside a lava lamp: a watery liquid, and a waxy compound that collects at the bottom when the lamp is turned off. Turn on the light bulb in the lamp's base, and the waxy compound slowly comes to life, wiggling its way up to the top, and finally settling into a complicated dance of waxy globes, some floating up, others floating down.

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Fire Ant Rafts

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The science behind Houston’s fire ant flotillas

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Mentions "island of stability" and their identification through atomic spectra.

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Island of stability items may be in stock

Alan Dyer/Stocktrek Images/Getty

It is a fabled place, the " island of stability " at the edge of the periodic table, where superheavy elements are thought to live long lives without decaying. Now, a trio of astrophysicists suggest the place to look for such elements is in certain unusual stars.

Each element has an atomic number corresponding to the number of protons in its nucleus. Most elements heavier than lead, atomic number 82, are unstable and radioactive. But physicists have long speculated that there might be long-lived elements with 114 or more protons in their nuclei.

To create these superheavy elements, we smash atoms together to form larger nuclei. But particle accelerator technology, pushed to its limits, has so far only built atoms that decay in as little as a fraction of a microsecond.

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Stars are natural nuclear reactors, and most heavy elements are forged in supernovae, whose explosions spread them to the next generation of stars. Now, Vladimir Dzuba at the University of New South Wales, Australia, and his colleagues think an oddball star called Przybylski's star (HD 101065) could be harbouring superheavy elements.

Chemically weird

The star's discoverer, Antoni Przybylski, who found it in 1961, saw that it was chemically weird from the get-go. A variable star some 370 light years away in the constellation Centaurus, it has little iron or nickel, but a lot of heavy elements.

It is the only star believed to contain short-lived radioactive elements called actinides, with atomic numbers ranging from 89 to 103, such as actinium, plutonium, americium and einsteinium. Only one other star, HD 25354, has even come close, but its hints of americium and curium are on shakier footing.

It's hard to explain how these heavy elements could form there in the first place. One possible explanation was that Przybylski's star had a neutron star companion, which could bombard it with particles and create heavy elements in its atmosphere. But no companion was ever found.

"If such elements are indeed confirmed, it will remain a great challenge for nucleosynthesis models to explain their origin," says astrophysicist Stephane Goriely at the Free University of Brussels (ULB).

Decay chain

Dzuba suggests that the actinides are a sign that the predicted island of stability elements exist there, and that actinides are in fact the products of their slow decay. The half-lives are a clue: the observed elements all decay quickly relative to a star's lifetime. After millions of years, they ought to be gone unless there is some mechanism to replenish them.

"We can say that we already have indirect indication," Dzuba says.

To find out if they are right, Dzuba's team suggests searching the star's spectrum for five elements with atomic numbers of 102 or more: nobelium (102), lawrencium (103), nihonium (113) and flerovium (114). These could be intermediate steps in the radioactive decay chain between an island of stability element and the actinides.

It sounds simple enough, but it is hard to work out what the spectral signatures of superheavy elements would look like, because their half-lives are so short. Nobelium's most stable isotope's half-life is under an hour, for instance. That means some spectra aren't well defined yet.

"If and when such [spectral] lines are found, that would be very strong evidence for the existence of the long-living superheavy elements somewhere in our universe," Dzuba says.

But Goriely doesn't think the evidence for actinides is that strong.

"Przybylski's stellar atmosphere is highly magnetic, stratified and chemically peculiar, so that the interpretation of its spectrum remains extremely complex," he says. "The presence of such nuclei remains to be confirmed."

Reference: arxiv.org/abs/1703.04250v1

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Oddball star could be home to long-sought superheavy elements

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It is a fabled place, the " island of stability " at the edge of the periodic table, where superheavy elements are thought to live long lives without decaying. Now, a trio of astrophysicists suggest the place to look for such elements is in certain unusual stars.

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Scientific American article: https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/make-your-drawings-float/

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Dancing Marker Man - How to bring your stickmen to life!

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Acid Base how does the substance help a bee sting? (Baking soda paste on bee sting)

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Law of Conservation of Matter; Combustion Rxn; Gas Laws

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Law of Conservation of Matter; Combustion Rxn; Gas Laws

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Flint River Water Crisis: Removing Lead from Water

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Georgia Science Teachers Association - GSE Phenomena

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communications@georgiascienceteacher.org if you have any questions about this resource.

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Why do Northern states use salt trucks? sand trucks? Do they serve the same purpose?

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LEGO/Pop Bead Lab

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LEGOS Pop Bead Lab (with particulate drawings)

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How does a glowstick demonstrate chemical kinetics?

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Since their invention 25 years ago, light sticks have become a Halloween staple. They're perfect as safety lights because they're portable, cheap and they emit a ghostly glow. Light sticks are also extremely popular on the rave scene (as are light necklaces, light glasses and light rope), and they make an ideal lamp for SCUBA divers and campers.

While it may seem like supernatural magic, the technology behind light sticks is actually very simple. In this article, we'll look inside a light stick to find out how it gives off such a strong light with no bulb and no battery.

Light is a form of energy, which can be emitted through a variety of processes. These processes include:

Incandescence - The emission of light due to heat (as in an ordinary light bulb or a gas lantern)

Fluorescence and phosphorescence - The emission of light in response to radiation energy (as in a fluorescent light bulb or a television)

Laser generation - The concentrated emission of light using stimulated emission (see How Lasers Work for details).

All these processes work on the same basic principle: An outside source of energy excites atoms, causing them to release particles of light called photons. When you burn something, for example, heat energy causes the atoms that make up the material to speed up. When the atoms speed up, they collide with each other with greater force. If the atoms are excited enough, the collisions will transfer energy to some of the atom's electrons. When this happens, an electron will be temporarily boosted to a higher energy level (farther away from the atom's nucleus). When it eventually falls back down to its original level (closer to the nucleus), it releases some of its energy in the form of light photons. (See How Atoms Work and How Light Works for more information.)

A light stick does the same basic thing, but it uses a chemical reaction to excite the atoms in a material. We'll look at this reaction in the next section.

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Since their invention 25 years ago, light sticks have become a Halloween staple. They're perfect as safety lights because they're portable, cheap and they emit a ghostly glow. Light sticks are also extremely popular on the rave scene (as are light necklaces, light glasses and light rope), and they make an ideal lamp for SCUBA divers and campers.

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Why does the flame go out? Why does the candle float?

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This site is a curated collection of science phenomena for the NGSS, along with phenomenon based learning resources and help for how to use phenomenon to drive student questions in the classroom centered around 3 dimensional teaching and learning.

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What causes the water to form a "hat"?

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Dehydration of Sugar Demo

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Flying Tea Bag

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There is nothing like a cool science experiment to get kids excited about learning something new.

This flying tea bag experiment has to be one of the most fun ways to teach kids about heat energy-between the fire and flying they are sure to be captivated.
It's also way easier and less messy than you think!
Flying Tea Bag Experiment Supplies
Here's what you'll need to try the flying tea bag science experiment:

Single serving tea bags

Matches

A small bowl

A solid stone or metal surface

Flying Tea Bag Science Experiment for Kids
How to do the flying tea bag experiment:
* Adult supervision is advised at all times. Only adults should handle matches and conduct this experiment for kids to watch.

1. Conduct this experiment on a metal or stone surface. Make sure that you have enough space above the surface for the tea bag to float up and extinguish itself.

2. Open the tea bags, and carefully unfold them.

3. Empty out the tea leaves into a small bowl, and save them for use in other ways if you like. Tea leaves make great garden compost!

4. Hollow out the center of the tea bags with your fingers, and stand them up on end on the solid metal or stone surface.

5. With a match, quickly light the top tip of each standing tea bag.

6. Watch as the tea bag burns to the bottom, and then quickly floats up into the sky.

See the flying tea bag experiment in action!
How the Flying Tea Bag Experiment Works

The flying tea bag experiment is really a heat experiment masked as a super cool trick. As the flame burns is heats the air inside the hollow center of the tea bag. As the air gets hotter the molecules become less dense and move around.

The less dense warmer air rises above the more dense cooler air around the tea bag. Since the tea bag is so light it rises with it and appears to fly. This is a fun, hands on way for kids to see how heat effects air molecules.
If you like this one you'll also want to try A Simple Heat Experiment too!
You only need a couple supplies and it helps kids visualize how temperature can change how air and water molecules react.
But don't let the fun and discovery stop there! We have TONS of science experiments your kids will love on our Super Cool Science Experiments for Kids page!
Take me to the experiments -> Super Cool Science Experiments for Kids

Pin it for later-> Huge List of the Very Best Science Experiments for Kids

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The flying tea bag experiment is a super cool heat science experiment for kids! Gather your supplies and show kids how exciting science can be!