Events Home | Outreach | Meetings | Site visits | E-mails
May 29, 2014 – Weston Middle School visits MIT. A group of middle school students (6th grade) from the Weston Public schools visited PAOC, as part of their annual trip to MIT. Lodovica Illari, Allison Wing and grad students, Morgan O’Neill, escorted the group on the top of the Green Building to measure the wind speed and direction. Profs John Marshall and Glenn Fierl together with grad student Yavor Kostov used simple laboratory experiments to show the students the effect of rotation on weather patterns. It was the largest group (42 students + teachers) visiting the Fluid lab. This required careful planning and a lot of helping hands. All of us enjoyed the interaction with the group. The students themselves seemed to like the experience – see here.
May 22, 2013 – Weather in a Tank on the Weather Channel – PAOC grad student Vince Agard explains how the Earth’s rotation is effecting weather…
April 13, 2013 – Cambridge Science Festival. PAOC staff, post-docs and students attended the festival at the MIT Museum. They performed several rotating fluid experiments, including the general circulation experiment and the Ekmam pumping experiment to illustrate the physics of weather systems and of the garbage patch. Staff answered questions about the Weather in a Tank project and shared interesting stories about Oceans at MIT, a new website providing weekly reporting on the ocean research at MIT and WHOI.
March 21, 2013 – Amit Tandon visits Darmouth’s Middle School – Amit showed the students several demos, including a convection experiment (2-layer, non-rotating) with partition and then the Hadley cell and eddies experiments – see Photos. The students very much enjoyed the “live” experiments.
March 8, 2013 – MIT Museum – Nautical Night. PAOC post-docs and students participated in aNautical Night at the MIT Museum, celebrating MIT and the sea. The science of the Great Garbage Patch was illustrated by performing the Ekman pumping experiment – see here.
November 14-19, 2012 – Saraceno: Conversations on Atmosphere – MIT visiting artist Tomas Saraceno was exposed to some of the weather in a tank experiments, illustrating the basic of the general circulation of the atmosphere. Saraceno showed great interest in these simple rotating fluid experiments. Fluid circulation often form circuit loops similar to the kind of Saraceno creates in his installations.
August 22-26, 2012 – MIT – DEAPS: Discovering EAPS – MIT freshman pre-orientation program. For the sixth year, Lodovica Illari led an exploration program in ‘Weather and Climate”. This year the program was extended to 5 days with a 2 day trip to Mt Washington, NH. The students seemed to enjoy the extended program – see DEAPS 2012: Extreme weather and Climate.
March, 2012 – MIT News: Water World-‘Weather in a Tank’ demonstration helps students grasp fluid dynamics – an article by Jennifer Chu and movie by Melanie Gonik appeared in the MIT News on March 21, 2012 – see here.
August 23-26, 2011 – MIT – DEAPS: Discovering EAPS – MIT freshman pre-orientation program. For the fifth year, Lodovica Illari led a three day exploration program in ‘Weather and Climate”. The program involved lectures, meteorological activities, rotating fluid laboratory experiments and an overnight trip to the MT Washington Observatory. This was a year of big extreme – read here.
May 7, 2011 – Cambridge Science Festival. Lodovica and grad students Ryan Abernathey and Dan Chavas attended the festival see here.
April 30, 2011 – MIT150- Open House. Lodovica and grad student Tim and undergrads Reena Joubert, Todd Mooring demonstrated some rotating fluid experiments – see here.
March 26, 2011 – Women in Science Conference: Algonquin Regional High School, Nothborough, MA. Lodovica attended this conference, intended to promote science career to middle school girls. The turntable was used to demonstrate the effect of rotation on weather. This was Lodovica’s fourth year at the conference and another success – see Fall_11.
March 11, 2011 – MIT Museum Nautical Night – Lodovica Illari, John Marshall and grad students Allison Wing, Morgan O’Neill and Michael Byrne presented some fluids experiments:
1 – effect of rotation, 2 – effect of rotation and temperature difference, 3- effect of the surface winds on the ocean circulation – see photo1, photo2 and photo3. The event was very well attended.
August 24-27, 2010 – MIT – DEAPS: Discovering EAPS – MIT freshman pre-orientation program. For the fourth year, Lodovica Illari led a three day exploration program in ‘Weather and Climate”. The program involved lectures, meteorological activities, rotating fluid laboratory experiments and an overnight trip to the MT Washington Observatory. The students seem to enjoy all of the activities, in particular, the interaction with the rotating fluid experiments. See photos of the 3 days.
November 16, 2009 – 1 and 2 class visits MIT – A group of young school children (1 and 2 grades) from the Cambridge Public schools visited MIT, as part of their study of weather. Lodovica Illari and grad student, Angela Zalucha, and undergrad, Elizabeth Maroon, escorted the group on the top of the Green Building to measure the wind speed and direction – see here. Two other grad students, Brian Abernathey and Laura Meredith, used simple laboratory experiments to show the group the effect of rotation on weather patterns. All of us enjoyed the interaction with this young group. The children themselves seemed to like the experience. We received a lot of colorful thank you cards .
October 12, 2009 – Boston Museum of Science – “Understanding Climate” – Events – Lodovica Illari, Amit Tandon and Amala Mahadaven presented some fluids experiments at the “Understanding Climate” – Events, organized by the Boston MOS, as part of the Earth Science Week. A sequence of talk and demonstrations on climate and related topics were presented during Sunday Oct 11. Three experiments were illustrated: 1 – effect of density difference, 2 – effect of rotation, 3 – effect of rotation and temperature difference – see photo1, photo2 and photo3. Several people attended the events, including several families with children.
Sep 30, 2009 – New Bedford Working Waterfront Festival – Amit Tandon presented tank experiments at the Working Waterfront Festival 2009 at the New Bedford harbor as part of the School of Marine Science UMass Dartmouth exhibit. Graduate Students Ann-Marie Brunner, Sonaljit Mukerjee and Debbie Schwartz helped with the demonstrations, which were well attended.
August 25-28, 2009 – MIT – DEAPS: discovering EAPS – MIT freshman pre-orientation program. For the third year, Lodovica Illari led a three day exploration program in ‘Weather and Climate”. Rotating fluid laboratory experiments were used to accompany the investigations. The program ended with an overnight trip to the MT Washington Observatory – see photos of the 3 days.
August, 2009 – Quarknet science teachers at JHU – Thomas Haine gave 2 lectures on Ocean Circulation and Climate to a group of high school science teachers as part of the Quarknet particle physics outreach program, organised through Johns Hopkins Department of Physics and Astronomy. Demonstrations included nutating and precessing gyroscopes, and the dye stirring tank experiment. The Quarknet teachers were very interested in the effects of rotation on fluid flow, and the connection to ocean circulation and altimetry. Several teachers wanted to know how to use Weather in a Tank resources in their own classes. See photo.
April 25-May 3, 2009 – Cambridge Science Festival and Sally Ride Festival – Lodovica Illari organized two workshops targeting the public and middle-school students in which simple rotating fluid dynamics experiments were used to illustrate basic principles that underlie the formation of weather and its role in climate – see here.
November 8, 2008 – Women in Science Conference: Algonquin Regional High School, Nothborough, MA. Lodovica attended this conference, intended to promote science career to middle school girls. The turntable was used to demonstrate the effect of rotation on weather. This was Lodovica’s third year at the conference and another success – see Fall_08.
September 27 and 28, 2008 – Amit Tandon used the turntable to perform the dye-stir experiment as an interactive demonstration at the Working Waterfront Festival, New Bedford MA. It was a big success: despite heavy rains, many people came to see the experiments.
August 19-22, 2008 – MIT – DEAPS: discovering EAPS – MIT freshman pre-orientation program. For the second year, Lodovica Illari led a three day exploration program in ‘Weather and Climate”. Rotating fluid laboratory experiments were used to accompany the investigations. The program ended with an overnight trip to the MT Washington Observatory – see photos of the 3 days.
June 30, 2008 – John Marshall visited Lt Jon Andrechik of US the Coast Guard – New London, CT – Rotating turntables and ‘Weather in a Tank’ curricula materials are used in the teaching of cadets – see photo.
June 18-20, 2008 – Workshop on Teaching Weather and Climate Using Laboratory Experiments, University of Chicago – see program and University of Chicago article.
May 11, 2008 – Tom Haines visit his son’s kindergarten class – see here
Spring, 2008 – John Marshalll visit Concord Academy. One of MIT turnatable has been lent to high school science teacher John Pickle to test out curriculum materials with rotating tank equipment.
October 29, 2007 – Women in Science Conference: Melida Middle School, Nothborough, MA. Lodovica attended this conference, intended to promote science career to middle school girls. The turntable was used to demonstrate the effect of rotation on weather. The students loved the experiments and we had great fun together. This was Lodovica’s second year at the conference and another success – see Fall_06 and Fall_07.
October, 2007 – Monona Grove High School in Madison. High school teacher Juan Botella is using the turntable in a new ‘Weather and Climate’ course he is giving at the Monona Grove High School in Madison. Reactions of the students are strongly positive. Initial focus has been on density currents, cylinder collapse under gravity and rotation and discharge of water through a hole in a spinning bucket. See photograph of Juan’s students in action here.
August 23-25, 2007 – MIT – DEAPS: discovering EAPS – MIT freshman pre-orientation program. Lodovica Illari lead a three day exploration program in ‘Weather and Climate”, covering common subjects of interest: hurricanes, blizzards and other climate issues. Rotating fluid laboratory experiments were used to accompany the investigations. The program ended with an overnight trip to the MT Washington Observatory – see here, a student blowned away at the observation tower .
April 12, 2007 – MIT – Campus Preview Weekend: dye stir and general circulation demos.
Lodovica Illari demonstrated the dye stir and the general circulation experiments to prospective students and their parents visiting MIT for Campus Preview Weekend in an 1 hr long interactive demonstration in the MIT Rotating Fluid Lab. 15 students with their parents were engaged in a discussion of what makes weather. The demos worked well in illustrating the main ingredients of weather: rotation and pole-equator temperature difference.
April 6, 2007 – UMass Dartmouth – New Science Building Opening: dye stir demo.
Amit Tandon used the turntable to perform the dye-stir experiment as an interactive demonstration at the inauguration of the new science building at UMass Dartmouth.
April 6, 2007 – MIT – EAPS Freshman Open House: dye stir demo.
Lodovica Illari used the portable turntable at an Open House showcasing the activities of the Earth, Atmospheric and Planetary Sciences Department to MIT Freshmen choosing their majors. The demo was successful and attracted the attention of several students.