Demonstrate ocean currents and density currents in a lunch box

'Atmosphere and ocean in a lunchbox; a model for all pupils – of hot, cold and cloudy density currents

This ELI develops an earlier teacher demonstration in 'Atmosphere and ocean in a tank' into a smaller-scale model for pupil group use.

It explains how warm ocean water, or warm air, rises upwards while cold ocean water or cold air, sinks. It then demonstrates how density currents flow in the water, or air, and can be used as an analogy of density currents in the oceans and atmosphere.

Related activities can be found in our Oceanography category.