two roads

:: Saturday, July 10, 2010 :: A Taste of Convection

During the spring semester 2010, during the Earth Science unit, my team teacher and I taught our 6th graders the idea of convection. Hot (being less dense) rises while cold sinks. One of the kids even thought of "hot head and cold feet" as a very creative way to remember.

This past week, it has been sweltering here. Now, first off, coming from TX, where summers are almost certainly in the high 90s/low 100s with very high humidity, I never expected it to get so hot in the Northeast. However, this past week, the high was 100 with about 55% humidity - in other words, uck! Now, in TX, this is all fine and good since we typically go from air-conditioned house to AC car to AC destination and so on, rarely staying in the heat for more than minutes at a time. (This lack of "exercise," combined with other factors, of course, is what contributes to much of the obesity seen down south, something which is made very obvious when you come up north.) The problem here, though, is that the dorms are not air-conditioned! That in itself is already quite disgusting in the heat, but couple it with the fact that I am on the 4th (topmost) floor and you see why I talked about "convection" in the above paragraph.

I had already thought of some of the pros and cons of 4th floor prior to this heat. There are only 4 people on this floor, so it has much more privacy. On the flip side, there are no elevators, so we had to haul our luggage up the stairs (luckily, I only had one medium sized suitcase).

Now while the RAs are required to sleep in the same halls as the kiddos, the admin/instructional staff are not so limited. When this heat hit, some of the admin/instructional staff thought about sleeping in our classrooms, which are in buildings that have constant AC. Some of us thought about crashing in the lounge of the office building. Few, if any, of us did either. Luckily, the admin heard the staff and students' voices (whining) and purchased new box fans for each floor. They were also kind enough to give the 4th floor staff keys to lower floor rooms, and I spent Thurs and Fri (and will almost certainly spend tonight) in a 1st floor room. It has been much cooler and you can definitely feel the change in heat as you come down the stairs.

Unfortunately, I must "move out" (I never really moved in - just brought the laptop and some bedding) by Monday. The forecast doesn't expect the heat to hit 100 again, though, just the lower 90s.

That is all.

:: posted by diana.4:21 PM :: ::

two roads diverged in a wood, and i--
i took the one less traveled by,
and that has made all the difference.