Recent Sightings Recent sightings: Science learning with a big bang

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