Evaporation Videos

This morning it was frosty, very frosty. Upon looking out of the window, I noticed that in the rising Sun's sunshine, the evaporating frost was visible. So, I went outside to try to film it.

Teaching evaporation and condensation to primary age pupils is always a challenge as it (usually) can't be seen and, for some, is a process that's hard to comprehend or believe. That may explain why we've made a number of videos to support our teaching of this scientific processes:

Make Use of Time Lapse Video

I've always enjoyed watching time lapse videos. There's something about time passing along quickly and witnessing something that happened over hours or days in a matter of minutes or seconds.

Image credit: www.psdgraphics.com/psd-icons/white-webcam-icon-psd

Earlier this year, I planned to carry out an investigation with my class to prove that evaporation existed. The plan was to make puddles on the playground and then monitor and measure them throughout the day. The problem was that on the morning of the science lesson it had rained heavily over night. This meant we would not be able to create puddles to measure. However, I quickly realised nature had created one large puddle for us across the playground, so I set up a web cam looking out of my classroom and set it to take a photograph every minute between 07:30 and 15:45. The result was the video below, which my class loved watching and evoked a thoughtful discussion afterwards about what we could see happening on screen. I'm now looking for other ways I can make use of time lapse in the classroom...