Students get lesson in heat convection

Batavia Middle School eighth grade science students received a fun demonstration of the principle of heat convection Thursday, Sept. 20.

Science teacher Paul Moore used a sky lantern to demonstrate the principle that drives not only hot air balloons, but earthquakes, volcanoes, the movement of the earth’s tectonic plates, and tsunamis.

The rising of the balloon due to the heated air inside it is the same process by which molten rock moves in the earth’s mantle.