Welcome sign!

On May 21 and 22, 2022, the DIYnamics Lego table was in action at the New Jersey Ocean Fun Days weekend events. The Princeton University Program in Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences (AOS), along with the Princeton University Cooperative Institute for Modeling the Earth System (CIMES), ran a table with three demonstrations including our rotating tanks. Sonya Legg of AOS/CIMES organized things, and volunteers to help out were Aakash Sane, Yushi Morioka, and me on Saturday at Island Beach State Park, and Akshaya Nikumbh, Sofia Menemenlis, and Yang Wang on Sunday at Sandy Hook, NJ.

Spencer performing the classic rotating v. non-rotating fluids demo with Yushi’s enthusiastic oversight.

These events for the public included many other booths with information about New Jersey’s oceans and beaches. Our table included the classic rotating vs. non-rotating demo using the DIYnamics lego kit, as well as the beloved tornado-in-a-bottle and a really nice demonstration of the effect of salinity on the rate of ice melt.

Sonya Legg at our table on the Saturday event at Island Beach State Park.

The DIYnamics lego kit shined in being so portable and easy to use. In fact, other than myself none of the other presenters had ever used rotating tanks at all, but within minutes everyone was able to get the demo working and use it to, we hope, teach and inspire some children and adults about our oceans and atmospheres.

Yushi made friends!

Sofia performing a demo at the Sunday event at Sandy Hook beach.