Air Movement

Using a dry cleaner bag and a blow dryer, create a hot air balloon! The materials list suggests obtaining one dry cleaner bag per student, but since this is probably inconvenient, consider doing this as a demonstration during a lesson on...

What is an air current, and what does it have to do with the sun? This is the focus of a video that explains how air currents are driven by the sun's energy to high and low pressure areas.

Introduce your class to air masses and how they affect the weather with a lesson that focuses on the differences between high and low air pressure systems. The class explores actual weather data using archived weather data.

Humans aren't the only species to build structures with air conditioning—we weren't even the first! The video explains how a variety of species that live under and above ground design their structures to allow for air circulation. It...

Blow your class away with a gust of humor as they watch this video about air pressure and wind. Along the way, they find that the density of air (as determined by temperature, altitude, and water vapor content) leads to air pressure...

It's amazing how easy it is to forget that every second of our lives we are being pushed on by an uncountable number air molecules. Explore with your class the concept of air pressure and how it affects our bodies, the earth's...

How high did the ball go? Engineering teams build a working pneumatic system that launches a ball into the air. The teams vary the amount of pressure and determine the accompanying height of the ball. An extension of building a device to...

Sixth graders experiment to understand the ocean's currents.  In this ocean current lesson, 6th graders complete an experiment with two bottles of water and an index card to discover information about the ocean current. ...

Investigate what is pushing on us. An intriguing lesson has pupils calculate the amount of force on various squares due to air pressure. Using the data, individuals create a graph in the third lesson of the Up, Up and Away unit...

Do not let the pressure get to you. The first lesson in a unit of 22 introduces the concept of air pressure. Using background knowledge, the resource gives teachers the information they need to discuss how people measure air pressure and...