Experiences

Science can be fun through experiments

S.a.

Romania

Lower Secondary School

Science

Teaching in class

Direct

Science can be fun through experiments. Experiments are incentives raising students’ motivation to learn. You can teach your students how to make a tornado in a bottle with this fun science experiment. You need: water, a plastic bottle with a cap, glitter, dish washing liquid. Ask students to: fill the plastic bottle with water until it reaches around three quarters full, add a few drops of dish washing liquid, sprinkle in a few pinches of glitter, put the cap on tightly, turn the bottle upside down and hold it by the neck. Quickly spin the bottle in a circular motion for a few seconds, stop and look inside to see if you can see a mini tornado forming in the water. You might need to try it a few times before you get it working properly. Spinning the bottle in a circular motion creates a water vortex that looks like a mini tornado. The water is rapidly spinning around the center of the vortex due to centripetal force (an inward force directing an object or fluid such as water towards the center of its circular path). Vortexes found in nature include tornadoes, hurricanes and waterspouts (a tornado that forms over water).