Hands-on Activity Air - Is It Really There?

Learning Objectives

After this activity, students should be able to:

• Understand and explain that air takes up space has mass, can move, exerts pressure, and can do work.
• Give examples that demonstrate an understanding of the properties of air.
• Explain why it is important for engineers to understand the properties of air.

Educational Standards

Each TeachEngineering lesson or activity is correlated to one or more K-12 science, technology, engineering or math (STEM) educational standards.

All 100,000+ K-12 STEM standards covered in TeachEngineering are collected, maintained and packaged by the Achievement Standards Network (ASN), a project of D2L (www.achievementstandards.org).

In the ASN, standards are hierarchically structured: first by source; e.g., by state; within source by type; e.g., science or mathematics; within type by subtype, then by grade, etc.

NGSS: Next Generation Science Standards - Science

International Technology and Engineering Educators Association - Technology

State Standards

Materials List

Each student needs a copy of the Air - Is It Really There? Worksheet

Demo 1 – Air Takes Up Space

• Part A: 1 paper lunch bag
• Part B: 1 balloon, and 1 empty one-liter plastic pop or juice bottle (it must have a narrow neck; remove the label)

Demo 2 – Air Has Mass

• 2 identical balloons
• 1 meter stick
• 1 straight pin

Demo 3 – Air Can Move (We Can Feel It)

• 1 electric fan (table or floor size)

Demo 4 – Air Exerts Pressure (It Pushes on Things)

• Part A - Student Activity: 1 sheet of 8.5" x 11" paper per student
• Part B - Student Activity: Each student needs 1 straw and 1 small cup containing water
• Part C: 1 medium sized jar with an opening smaller than an index card, 1 index card or piece of light-weight cardboard, 1 large bowl/dish in case of spills, paper towels or rags in case of spills
• Part D: 1 small juice glass, 1 tissue and 1 medium bowl filled with water

Demo 5 – Air Does Work

• 1 medium-sized plastic bag
• A stack of textbooks

Worksheets and Attachments

Introduction/Motivation

Most of the time, we hardly notice the air around us. We cannot usually see it or taste it. Air does not usually smell (but it does carry substances that we do smell). However, you can feel air when it moves and you can see the effects of air on your surroundings. When air moves, it has great power (to push sailboats, drive windmills and move clouds), and when it is compressed (squashed into a small space), it has great strength (air in a tire supports a vehicle and helps a helicopter to rise into the air).

We must have air to survive. Because of this, engineers work to solve our air pollution problems. There are many things that complicate these solutions, so engineers who work on air pollution problems must have a firm understanding of the composition, properties and behavior of air.

This activity focuses on the physical properties of air: Air takes up space, has mass, can move, exerts pressure and can do work. Engineers need to know the physical properties of air so they can determine the best way to remove pollutants from it. These properties are important to consider when designing a system or process to remove pollutants from the air. Many car exhaust systems, power plant emissions stacks and building systems utilize high-tech filter devices designed to remove pollutants from the air. Some systems that require air to move through pipes can treat only limited volumes of air at a time. Engineers study how quickly air moves and how much pressure it exerts so they can design filtration systems that are strong enough to efficiently move air through the system while still ensuring pollutants are removed before the air is released into the atmosphere.

Procedure

Before the Activity

• The demonstrations go more smoothly if you practice them in advance.
• If you have all the supplies organized and ready, it is possible to do all of these demos in one class period.
• Hand out the Air - Is It Really There? Worksheet for students to use to record their observations along with the demos.

With the Students

Demo 1 – Air Takes Up Space

Part A — Hold up a paper bag and ask the students if there is anything in it. Have the students open the lunch bag and look inside.

Next, blow into the bag and hold the top tight with your hand (see Figure 1).

Question: Ask the students, What is in the bag now? (Answer: Air)

Part B — Push a deflated balloon into a bottle and stretch the open end of the balloon back over the bottle's mouth (see Figure 2).

Question: Have the students guess what will happen to the balloon if you were to try to inflate it inside the bottle. Will the balloon break the bottle, pop or do nothing?

Try to blow up the balloon!

After the experiment, discuss why the balloon did nothing. (Answer: Because air takes up space, the bottle was full of air. When you try to blow up the balloon, the air trapped inside the bottle prevents the balloon from inflating.)

Make the point that even though air is invisible, it still takes up space. Also, discus how engineers need to know how much space air takes up so they can design filtration systems that are large enough to treat the polluted air created by cars, power plants and factories.

Demo 2 – Air Has Mass

Hold up two inflated balloons of the same size attached to opposite ends of a meter stick. Ask the students if there is anything in them. (Answer: Air)

Balance the meter stick such that it is perfectly horizontal, showing that both sides have equal mass (see Figure 3). This may not be perfectly accurate, but it is close enough for the demonstration. Ask students to describe why it balances like this.

Question: Ask students what will happen if you pop one of the balloons. (Answer: They should predict that the end with the inflated balloon still attached will "go down" and the end with the deflated balloon will rise. They can usually relate this to the action of a playground see-saw.)

Pop one of the balloons with the pin.

Question: Ask students to describe what happened and why. (Answer: The side of the stick with the popped balloon rises, because the mass of air in that balloon was released, making that side of the stick lighter.)

Make the point that that even though air is invisible, it still has mass. Why is this important for engineers to study? (Answer: Engineers need to make sure the filtration systems they design are made from materials strong enough to hold the air that is being treated and not break under the weight of the polluted air.)

Alternatively, use a triple-beam or electronic balance, to measure the mass of the balloon before and after it is inflated. What is the mass of the air inside?

Demo 3 – Air Can Move (We Can Feel It)

Talk about air. Can the students see air? How do they know it is there? (Answer: We can feel it moving, for example, the wind.)

Direct an electric fan towards the students and turn it on (see Figure 4).

Ask the students what they felt when they were in front of the fan.

After their responses, explain that what they were feeling was air moving very fast. Explain how the fan makes air move very fast.

Make the point that even though air is invisible, it still can move.

Question: Ask the students to give other examples of when air is moving very fast. Why is it important for engineers to study moving air? (Answer: Engineers need to know how to move air through the filtration systems. A very good filtration system is useless if you cannot get the polluted air to go through it.)

Demo 4 – Air Exerts Pressure (It Pushes on Things)

Part A — Take the students to a place where there is plenty of room to run. If it is a nice day, the activity can be done outside on a playground or in a field. If not, use a gymnasium. At the activity area, pick a few volunteer students. Hand each a piece of 8.5" x 11" paper.

Ask the rest of the class what they think will happen to a piece of paper if the volunteer puts it against their stomach while walking forward without holding the paper in place.

Instruct one of the volunteer students to hold a piece of paper against their stomach. Have the student let go of the paper when they begin to walk forward (see Figure 5). (The paper should fall to the ground.)

Question: Ask the class if they have any ideas why the paper did not stay against the student's body.

Question: Ask the students what they think will happen to the piece of paper if they put it against their stomach and run in a straight line without holding the paper in place.

Select a second volunteer. Have the student place the paper against their stomach and hold it with their hand.

Tell the student to begin running in a straight line and let go of the paper when they begin running (see Figure 5). (The paper should stay in place.)

Question: Ask the class if they know why the paper stayed in place when the student ran. What caused the paper to stay in place?

Have the rest of the students who want to try it, do so.

Afterwards, explain that the force holding the paper in place when the student ran was air. Make the point that even though air is invisible, it exerts pressure. When you run, the air pushes against you, working to hold the piece of paper against your body. While walking, the paper did not stay in place because the air was not pushing very hard against your body.

Part B — Pass out straws to the students, along with small cups of water.

Allow the students to experiment with the straws by covering the tops with their fingers while withdrawing them from the water. They should note that the water does not fall out of the straws unless they remove their fingers.

Explain to the students that the water does not fall out when the top of the straw is sealed because the pressure of the air outside the straw pushes against the water through the open end of the straw. (If the water were to fall out of a covered straw, a vacuum would be created in the region vacated by the water. Since the vacuum has no pressure while the atmosphere does, the pressure differential keeps the water in the straw against the force of gravity.)

Part C — Question: Ask the students if they think the same result (as Demo 4B) would occur if instead of a straw, they used a container with a larger diameter.

Fill a jar completely with water. Cover the mouth of the jar with an index card. Be sure to get the rim of the jar slightly wet. The best way to do this is to have a slight excess of water on top before you put the card on.

Keeping one finger on the cover, invert the container. Carefully remove your finger. Slowly rotate the jar through a complete circle so the mouth faces up and then down again (see Figure 6). The card should stay on the jar regardless of orientation, showing that air pressure is exerted on the card from the top, bottom and sides.

Part D — Crumple a tissue and push it down into the bottom of a glass so that it does not fall out when you invert the glass.

Turn the glass upside down and place it under the water in a bowl (see Figure 7). Do not tilt the glass. You should find that the water does not enter the glass and that the tissue stays dry.

Question: Ask students to suggest ideas for why the tissue does not get wet. (Answer: Water cannot get into the glass [provided you do not tip it] because the glass is full of air.)

Question: Why is this important to engineers? (Answer: Engineers need to determine how much pressure air exerts so they can design filtration systems that are large enough for all the air to flow through without exerting so much pressure that it breaks the system. Just like when you were running, the air pushed a piece of paper up against you. This same type of pressure is felt by all of the parts of the filtration system as the air moves quickly by. Therefore all of the pieces of the system must be strong enough to not break under this pressure.)

Demo 5 – Air Does Work

Question: Ask students if they can suggest a way to lift a pile of books using only their breath.

Question: If the air is strong enough to push a piece of paper and hold water in a straw or jar, is it strong enough to move and hold books?

Place a plastic bag under the textbooks such that the open end is sticking out slightly. Carefully blow air into the bag, being sure to close the end each time you put in a new breath. The air in the bag should lift the books (see Figure 8).

Question: Ask the students to describe is happening. (Answer: The air in the bag lifts the books.)

Make the point that even though air is invisible, it still can do work.

Question: Ask the students to brainstorm other examples of when air does work. (for example, supporting airplanes, floating hot air balloons, moving windmills, inflating tires that support cars and bicycles, etc.).

At the end, instruct the students to complete the Air – Is It Really There? Worksheet.

Assessment

Pre-Activity Assessment

Discussion Question: Ask a discussion question to get students to think about the upcoming activity concepts. Record their answers on the board.

• What are the properties of air? How would you describe air? (Tell them that they will learn more about the properties of air in this activity.)

Activity Embedded Assessment

Question/Answer: During the course of the activity demos, have students answer a series of questions. These are labeled "Question:" throughout the Procedure section.

Worksheet: During the course of the activity demos, have the students record their observations of the demos on their copy of the Air - Is It Really There? Worksheet.

Post-Activity Assessment

Writing: Have the students write a summary about the properties of air demonstrated in this activity. They should include at least one example (either from the activity or discussion) of each of the properties discussed (air takes up space, has mass, moves, exerts pressure, does work). They should also explain why it is important for engineers to study the physical properties of air.

Safety Issues

• Make sure students remain seated during all demonstrations. Many of the demos use glass so extra care is required to ensure it does not accidentally get broken by wandering hands.

Troubleshooting Tips

The demonstrations go more smoothly if you practice them in advance.

Be prepared with paper towels or rags for clean up.

Activity Scaling

• Younger students enjoy these demonstrations. Ask them to draw pictures to show each of the properties of air (air takes up space, has mass, moves, exerts pressure, does work).

References

Copyright

Contributors

Supporting Program

Acknowledgements

The contents of this digital library curriculum were developed under a grant from the Fund for the Improvement of Postsecondary Education (FIPSE), U.S. Department of Education and National Science Foundation GK-12 grant no. 0338326. However, these contents do not necessarily represent the policies of the Department of Education or National Science Foundation, and you should not assume endorsement by the federal government.