Environmental Engineering Activities

Heat it Up!

The transfer of heat is an important phenomenon engineers have to take into account when designing and building structures for a specific environment. In this activity students will learn about heat transfer then observe this phenomenon for convection. Students will be able to connect how density and temperature affect the flow of heat during convection heating of a liquid environment.

 

Fog Chamber

Ever wonder how clouds form? Clouds are composed of tiny water droplets that have cooled from water vapor in the air. As moisture from the air rises to higher altitudes where pressure is lower, the moisture in the air will expand leading to a cooling effect and result in cloud formation. The same event can be observed with this simple activity where students will understand the dependence pressure plays on the temperature of water vapor leading to the creation of clouds.

 

Humidity

The most common way water moves from the ground to the atmosphere is through bodies of water, however plants also play a role in the movement of this water. In this activity students will observe this phenomenon known as transpiration where water travels through plants into the atmosphere. From this activity, students will understand how temperature and humidity play a role in the transpiration effect.

 

Magnetic Atmosphere

Air behaves much like a spring, when more force is applied to a spring it becomes more compressed. This is the same effect air has in our atmosphere where lower elevations will have a higher amount of molecules while higher elevations will result in a lower amount of molecules leading to less compressed air and lower pressure. In this activity, students will observe the difference in pressure exhibited at different altitudes in the atmosphere through the use of magnetic forces.

How to Make a Barometer

Meteorologists are able to predict the weather with a number of various tools. One of the most important tools they utilize is a barometer. A barometer is able to measure atmospheric pressure that can be used for forecasting the weather. In this activity, students will build their own simple barometer. For this activity students will observe how the change in weather affects the amount of pressure present from the measurements taken by their barometer.

 

Cleaning the Air

One of the biggest challenges engineers face is creating new technologies to prevent industrial air pollutants. Engineers have designed and created new tools that include air filtration systems. In this activity, students will create their own filtration system with a set of constraints that must be followed.

 

Weather

As commonly known, the water cycle goes through the process of evaporation, condensation, and precipitation. In this activity students will observe this process on a much smaller scale where water vapor will come in contact with a bag of ice causing it to condense and form precipitation in the form of water droplets.

 

Inverted Bottles

When water begins to evaporate, it’ll evolve into a gas-like state known as vapor. This vapor then rises up to the atmosphere and cools leading to condensation. In this activity, students will observe what mechanisms lead to the rinse of vapor into the atmosphere by comparing the densities of hot and cold water and the reactions that occur when mixing them together.

I Can't Take the Pressure!

Pressure is an important factor engineers have to consider. When moving through the atmosphere, there are lesser and lesser molecules leading to lower and lower amounts of pressure. In this activity, students will observe how pressure changes with altitudes by stacking cookie wafers. Students will then observe the magnitude of change in pressure by heating an aluminum can then rapidly cool it.

 

Analyzing Sea Level Changes

Climate change causes the Earth’s temperature to increase leading to the rise in sea levels. Through this activity, students will follow a step by step process of how NASA is able to utilize tools that can monitor and predict trends of rising sea levels through computer simulations. Students will then follow with two hands-on activities to observe how heat causes water levels to rise by thermal expansion.

 

Build an Anemometer

A valuable tool engineers utilize to monitor the weather is an anemometer. An anemometer is a device that can track wind speeds as well as direction the wind is traveling in. In this activity, students will design and build their own anemometer then test it to observe how different areas lead to changing wind conditions. From these conditions, students will determine the best area to place a wind turbine.

 

Pie Pan Convection

The transfer of heat is an important phenomenon engineers have to take into account when designing and building structures for a specific environment. In this activity students will learn about heat transfer then observe this phenomenon for convection. Students will be able to connect how density and temperature affect the flow of heat during convection heating of a liquid environment.