Gizmo_Convection Cells OL Lab-1.  C.d. Hylton High SCIENCE 101

Student Exploration: Convection Cells
Vocabulary: convection, convection cell, density, global conveyor belt, mantle, mid-ocean ridge,
subduction zone, vector, viscosity
Prior Knowledge Questions (Do these BEFORE using the Gizmo.)
You place a pot of soup on the stove. As the soup warms you notice some areas where soup is
rising up and other areas where soup is sinking down.
1. Why do you think some of the soup is rising up?
It’s being heated/boiled
2. Why do you think some of the soup is sinking down?
Its cooler on the sides
Gizmo Warm-up
When fluids (gases or liquids) are heated, they tend to move.
This motion is called convection. In the Convection Cells
Gizmo, you will observe and experiment with convection both
in a laboratory setting and in several real-world examples.
To begin, observe the laboratory setup on the MODEL tab. A
beaker of liquid is placed above a gas burner. Click Play (
). The burner is now heating the fluid.
1. What do you notice?
The liquid up flows above the burner, and down where it isn’t
2. Drag the eyedropper into the beaker just above the