WACO FOC BOOTH AT THE 2024 STEMFEST AT THE MAYBORN MUSEUM: SST & HURRICANE STRENGTH
Waco Friends of the Climate TABLE at the 2024 STEMfest, held at the Mayborn Museum Complex July 20. STEMfest is a FREE community event for all ages with interactive booths, informative talks, and food trucks, by many community organizations. The theme for 2024 was WATER. FOC table consisted of an experiment which visually demonstrated the greater energy of hot water than cold water. A short PowerPoint accompanied the experiment. The climate connection is that the greater the SST (sea surface temperature) the greater incidence of high level hurricanes, especially category 4 and 5. The experiment consisted of 2 test tubes, one with cold water and one with hot water. The visiting children added 1 drop of food coloring simultaneously to the tubes. We observed that the dye spread more completely and uniformly in the hot water. This was a simple but elegant experiment which provided a visual display of the higher energy in hot water. The PowerPoint explained how hurricane s
