Question:


How do fish breathe in water Asked for a kindergarten classroom




TASQ adjudicated answer:
Breathing for fish, animals and humans is the act of taking in oxygen that the body needs. However, because fish live in water, they don’t breathe the same way as humans. Humans and other land animals take in air through their mouths, and that air contains oxygen. The air goes into our lungs, and the oxygen in the air is distributed (from there) throughout our bodies by our blood.

For fish to live, they need to be in water that also has oxygen in it, within air bubbles in the water. Fish don’t have lungs, but do have gills. When water passes through fish mouths and then gills, the air bubbles pass through as well. The gills take the oxygen from the air bubbles in the water and put it into the fish’s blood stream, much as our lungs puts oxygen in our blood. From there, the oxygen is distributed throughout the fish’s body.

Question: 


Where does the sun go at night? Asked for a kindergarten classroom



TASQ adjudicated answer:
The Earth rotates, meaning that it spins on an axis. Think of a tennis or other type of ball with a stick running through its center, from top to bottom. If you put a dot anywhere on that tennis ball, and then slowly spin the tennis ball around the stick, that dot will move around as well, eventually coming back to the place it started. You are the dot on that ball, as a person standing on Earth, at noon with the sun shining, meaning the sun is on the same side of the ball (Earth) as you are. When the ball (or Earth) turns, and the dot (you) is on the far side from where you started, it is nighttime because the dot (you) is on the opposite side from the sun. The sun is still there, but because the ball (Earth) turns, the sun is no longer shining on the dot on the far side (you cannot see it anymore.) As the ball (Earth) continues to turn the dot (you) will be able to see the sun again, because you will once again be on the same side of the ball as the sun and it will be morning. The sun did not go away. You stopped seeing it because the Earth turned, with you on it. If you put another dot on the opposite side of the ball from the first, you will see that when the first dot (you) see the sun, the second dot (someone on the other side of the Earth) does not. When they see the sun, you do not.  

Question:


Why does it rain? Asked for a kindergarten classroom




TASQ adjudicated answer:
Clouds are made of water. Not all clouds have the same amount of water, and clouds can grow by getting more water. When a cloud gets so much water that it becomes too heavy, the water falls as rain. Just like a sponge, a cloud can only hold so much water. When it gets full, the water has to drip out. That’s when it rains. Clouds get more water when the sun heats up water in lakes, rivers and oceans. Heated water rises as water vapor (like steam from a teapot, only not usually as easy to see). When it reaches the sky, it becomes water again as part of a cloud

Question:


Why do our stomachs make noises when we are hungry?




TAS Q adjudicated answer:
Teacher Background Information: Stomach noises are usually heard and associated with hunger and an absence of food in the stomach. Actually, it can occur at any time the stomach is empty or full. When the stomach is full, the noises are the stomach churning and pushing the food along the digestive tract (stomach, small intestine, large intestine). Noises (stomach growling) are more commonly associated with hunger because it is typically louder when the stomach is empty and the lack of contents do not muffle the noise. Cells in the stomach sense the absence of food that leads the stomach to move around. This movement produces the rumbling noise associated with hunger. Teacher Explanation to Students – Suggested Approach: Use a guided activity coupled with guided questions and an explanation. You can get containers like soda bottles (or small drinking glasses) and fill them with varying amounts of water and then blow over the tops. If you use small drinking glasses, use a spoon to tap the sides of each glass that contains different amounts of water. The container with the least amount of water or no water will make the loudest noise.

Question:


How do we make sounds?


TASQ-adjudicated answer: 

Sound is created when something vibrates and moves air particles back and forth in a pattern that travels out in all directions. The pattern is called a sound wave. When sound waves reach an animal that can hear, the waves cause changes in the animal’s ears. The ears send signals to the brain and the brain understands those signals as sounds. In human ears, the ear drum and three small bones inside the ear vibrate when sound waves reach them. This is part of the system that sends signals to the brain. Humans have an organ called a voice box in their necks. The voice box has chords that can vibrate and move air particles back and forth, creating a sound wave. When this sound wave moves out through the throat and mouth, a person can make changes in their throat and mouth to change the sound wave and create different kinds of sounds. Sound waves can also travel through water and other kinds of matter, but sound waves cannot travel where there are no particles that can move. So, sound waves cannot travel through space.

Question:

How is it that we have fossils of dinosaurs that lived millions of years ago?

TASQ-adjudicated answer:

When an animal dies, it is often eaten by another animal. If this does not happen, the dead body will decay, or rot. But sometimes a dead animal is buried by mud or sand or other sediments before it can be eaten or decay. The buried body decays more slowly than it would out in the open. The soft parts of a body usually still decay, so most of the time the hard body parts such as bones and teeth are what remain of the buried animal. Millions of years ago, when dinosaurs lived and died on Earth, some of them were buried in sediment after they died. Sediment layers sometimes turn into rock very slowly over thousands or millions of years. If this happens to a layer that contains a dead dinosaur body, the bones could be preserved as fossils in the rock. Often minerals from the rock take the place of some of the bone, and so fossils can be different colors depending on the sediment they are buried in. People find dinosaur fossils when the rock layer that contains the fossil are worn away so that some of the fossil can be seen on Earth’ surface. Sometimes a tiny bit of a fossil shows on the surface and people dig carefully around it to find the rest of the skeleton. There may be types of dinosaurs we don’t know about because they did not die in places where their bodies were buried in sediment. And there may be types of dinosaur fossils that humans have not yet discovered!    

Question:


How do thermocouples work and what do they have to do with cooking for the holidays?

Adjudicated answer:


What is a thermocouple, how does it work, and why it’s important for holidays?

Electricity powers most of our modern devices. Metals conduct electricity, which means that electricity can move through them. However, different metals have different abilities to conduct electricity. Some metals, like copper, have high conductivity. More electricity can flow through copper which is why many electrical wires are made of copper. Other metals, like iron, are less conductive. Iron conducts, but not nearly as well as copper. We do not have iron wires in our homes!

Thermocouples make use of the differences in conductivity of different metals to measure temperature. When two metals of different conductivity are in contact with each other and are heated, they produce a small amount of electricity. The amount of that electricity is directly related to the temperature of the heat source. These thermocouples can therefore be used to directly measure the temperature of a specific heat source.

Why is that important for holidays? Many people hosting celebrations will be using their ovens to roast some form of protein. For many, that will be turkey or ham. For those who eat only plant-based meals, that might be a vegan roast. Some, maybe most of these people will use instant read thermometers to make sure the meat is cooked enough to be safe to eat, or for non-meat foods, hot enough to be enjoyable. These thermometers all use thermocouples to determine the temperature. The probe end of the thermometer contains the thermocouple. When it is placed in the food—the heat source— it reads the temperature of the food based on the electricity generated by the two metals that have different conductivity.

Have a peaceful holiday and a happy new year. And no matter what, the next time you have a roast of any kind, thank the scientists and engineers that discovered this property of metals! 

Question:

What are lake effect snows?

Adjudicated answer:

In many places in the world, people have hot, humid summers and cold winters with relatively less humidity. The difference in humidity is because cold air usually contains less water vapor than warm air, so winters in most of the U.S. are less humid.

The dry cold air and the warmer water in the lakes drive lake effect snows that the Great Lakes regions of the U.S. have been experiencing this winter. Cold air blowing in from the north crosses the relatively warm Great Lakes, heating up the air just above the lake. The warmer air can now take up more water vapor. Colder air above that layer is denser, so the colder air sinks and pushes the warmer, more humid air higher. That air cools as it rises, and the water condenses, forming clouds, and then often relatively heavy snow. This snow often occurs in bands on the windward sides of the lakes (the sides the wind is blowing toward), and towards places where the land rises, such as hills.

In a really cold winter, the surface of the Great Lakes can freeze. When that happens, there can be fewer or more mild lake effect snows. As of this moment, Lake Erie is over 90% frozen!

Question:
Why does baking soda fizz when mixed with vinegar?

Adjudicated answer:

When baking soda and vinegar are mixed together, the mixture fizzes and we see bubbles. This happens because when vinegar and baking soda are mixed, chemical changes take place and carbon dioxide is formed. Carbon dioxide is a gas at room temperature, and so it forms bubbles as it leaves the vinegar mixture. Vinegar is a liquid that is mostly water, and also contains some acetic acid. The acid in vinegar is what causes changes when it is mixed with baking soda. So, mixing baking soda with another liquid that contains acid, such as lemon or lime juice, would also cause fizzing and bubbles. The changes that happen when baking soda mixes with an acid are important in baking and cooking. The carbon dioxide that forms creates bubbles in batter that makes baked goods and foods such as pancakes lighter and fluffier than they would be without the bubbles. Baking powder is a mixture that contains baking soda and one or more acids. Baking powder is usually added to a batter that does not already contain some acid. Together, the baking soda and acid in baking powder cause changes that produce carbon dioxide and form bubbles.

Going further:

Another name for a chemical change is a chemical reaction. That is, a change that takes place during which the type or types of chemicals, for example, baking soda and acid, change to a different type or types of chemicals. A chemical reaction can begin with just one chemical or with more than one chemical.

Question:
How does soap clean my hands?


Adjudicated answer:

Sometimes if we rinse our hands off with water there can still be some dirt, grease, or oil left behind. We might see the dirt and feel the grease or oil. If we use soap with the water to wash, our hands will be much cleaner. Why is this? Most substances can be divided into two categories: water-loving or water-avoiding. The two kinds of substances don’t mix well. For example, water and oil don’t mix because oil is a water-avoiding substance. A particle of soap is useful for cleaning because one end is water-loving and the other end is water-avoiding. So when soap is mixed into water, the water-avoiding ends tend to gather together to form the inside of very tiny balls. That leaves the water-loving ends hanging out on the outside of these tiny balls, in contact with the water. Grease, oil, and some kinds of dirt are not easily washed away using water alone because they are water-avoiding, so they are not rinsed away with water. They tend to stay where they are, stuck to our hands. When we use soap, the dirt, grease, and oil on our hands are attracted to the water-avoiding parts of the soap and get trapped inside the tiny balls of soap particles. Then, the soap balls carrying dirt and oils can be easily rinsed off because the water-loving outside of the soap balls mix easily with the water we use to rinse off the soap.

Going further: 

Water-loving substances are also called hydrophilic. Water and other hydrophilic molecules are polar; that is, they have positive and negative electric charges in different parts of the molecule. Water-avoiding substances are also called hydrophobic. These molecules are non-polar; that is, electric charge is evenly distributed with no areas of positive or negative charge.

Question: 
Why do earthquakes happen?

Adjudicated answer:

Earthquakes happen when sudden movement in Earth’s crust causes motion in the ground. Earthquakes can happen on land and on the sea floor. The motion of an earthquake could feel like the ground is trembling, or moving up and down, or moving side to side, and sometimes all of those in the same earthquake.

Earth’s crust is the outer layer of Earth, a little bit like the shell of an egg. Although the crust is very thin compared to the size of the whole Earth, it varies from about 3 miles to 60 miles thick in different places on Earth. The crust is broken into pieces, a bit like a cracked egg shell. There are 9 large pieces of Earth’s crust and a few smaller pieces. They move very, very, very slowly. In some places these pieces push against each other, in some places they pull apart, in some places they slide past each other, and in some places one piece slides underneath another piece.

Sometimes, instead of moving slowly, the rock at places where pieces of Earth’s crust meet jerk suddenly. The sudden movement releases a lot of energy and that energy traveling through Earth is what causes the ground to shake during an earthquake.

Most earthquakes happen where these large pieces of crust meet, but some happen in the middle of the large pieces if there are cracks in Earth’s crust where sudden movement can happen.

Going further:

The large pieces of Earth’s crust are called tectonic plates. They move at rates of between 1 and 6 inches per year.