Recent sightings: Science learning with a big bang
July 15, 2007
A group of high school students from the univeristy’s Pre-college Enrichment Opportunity Program for Learning Excellence (PEOPLE) react to the big bang of science on Friday, July 13, as they watch their instructors erupt a series of artificial “volcanoes” in a steel drum placed in the outdoor courtyard of Weeks Hall.
The instructors, UW-Madison geology graduate students, simulated the steam eruptions that occur in volcanoes by dropping small capped containers of liquid nitrogen into a drum of water. The temperature difference in liquids causes the contained nitrogen to turn into a gas and expand rapidly, exploding into a plume of water and steam.
Photo: Jeff Miller