So we had a complete agreement that we didn't make fog on Friday. While we thought we made something (most likely steam), we definitely had consensus that it wasn't thick enough or long-lasting enough to be considered fog.
So...students mentioned in their reflections over the weekend that we should investigate a bunch of things next, and the vast majority said the following:
1. Look into that fog machine! What does it do differently than what we are doing to make our fog?
2. Research natural fog more in depth--what is it that makes natural fog thicker and last longer than the fog we made? Is there something more to it than high humidity?
3. Change the temperature more--it seems like we couldn't make the water hot or cold enough when we wanted to and this might make the water clump together more.
So Mrs. Brinza decided to investigate student ideas and went to a Halloween Store to investigate the fog machine. The store manager was kind enough to let her see the "info sheet" in a new fog machine box (Mrs. Brinza scored one on clearance and it didn't have an "info" sheet like a brand new one). She took a picture and distributed the findings to students in class on Monday.
So...students mentioned in their reflections over the weekend that we should investigate a bunch of things next, and the vast majority said the following:
1. Look into that fog machine! What does it do differently than what we are doing to make our fog?
2. Research natural fog more in depth--what is it that makes natural fog thicker and last longer than the fog we made? Is there something more to it than high humidity?
3. Change the temperature more--it seems like we couldn't make the water hot or cold enough when we wanted to and this might make the water clump together more.
So Mrs. Brinza decided to investigate student ideas and went to a Halloween Store to investigate the fog machine. The store manager was kind enough to let her see the "info sheet" in a new fog machine box (Mrs. Brinza scored one on clearance and it didn't have an "info" sheet like a brand new one). She took a picture and distributed the findings to students in class on Monday.
The "Fog Juice" info sheet suggested that the fog machine doesn't just use water! This totally made sense since we figured out that when we used just water in our fog machines, we didn't end up with fog! It seems like fog juice is a mixture, made up of water and glycerine. Is glycerine what's in natural fog? Would research help us? Mrs. Brinza found some neat articles on natural fog to help us with this wondering... |
From each of these articles where fog was present naturally, we uncovered some things. First off, there always seemed to be humid air (which we already have figured out). There was something to do with warm/cold air (which we're not really sure about). And there was something about something else being in the air, like smoke, dust, tree particles, dust, or pollution. Maybe these are the "missing factors" of what causes fog to happen!?!?! What can we do next to see if this helps us make thick, long-lasting spooky fog?