The Great Weather Unit... Part 5

The Experiment That Stole My Lightning...

What do you do when the science experiment you have planned... doesn't go as planned?  When you just can't get the spark or the shock that you anticipated .

You have your kid rub the balloon faster...

Then you switch kid heads...

Then you round up everything in the house that just might give a charge if you rub it.

And when nothing works you may yell frustrated gibberish into the toilet.

(Lucky for you folks there is no picture of that!)

Then in a flash (pun intended) of brilliance you will explain the inner workings of a lighter.  Comparing flint and steel to water and ice droplets that create friction and electricity in a cloud.  

Then haul your children back into the dark bathroom to flick the Bic.

And your teacher gives you an A for effort! 

Science is saved today at Scott School!

The Great Weather Unit...Part 4

Watching Warm Air

Materials:

string

construction paper

pencil

scissors

candle

matches or lighter

adult supervision

Process: 

1. Draw a spiral on the construction paper and cut it  out so you have a snake like piece of paper. punch a hole in the center end of the paper and attach a short string. (see photo below).

2. Light the candle.

3. Observe the paper dangling in regular room air.

4. Observe the paper dangling above the candle. ( maybe obvious but just in case... don't catch the paper on fire.)

5. Write down your observations.

The Great Weather Unit... Part 3

Today we made pinwheels... a fun little way to explore the wind and experiment with air pressure.  

It really is an art to figure out just the right balance of breath to make the paper spin around.

We used the pinwheel template from the free weather unit over at 123 Homeschool 4 Me. (Seriously this unit has printables for preschool to grade 4... Wonderful!)

After designing the pinwheel we attached them to pencil erasers with tacks.  (Which makes them not exactly 3 and under friendly)

The kiddos used a brief window of opportunity when it wasn't raining outside to run around and make their new toys spin in the breeze they created.

The Great Weather Study Part 2

If you missed out on project 1 head on over and check it out: Build a Barometer

Build a Rain Gauge

Well the weather outside is rather cloudy and weirdly enough we are hoping for rain... so we can measure it of course!

Project 2: Build a Rain Gauge

Materials: 

• ruler 
• flat bottom jar
• a board
• glue (we used hot glue and a glue gun)
• packing tape

Howcast to the rescue with their How to Make a Rain Gauge video.

And now we wait for the rain...

photo credit: ViaMoi via photopin cc

The Great Weather Study Part 1

Build a Barometer

The Scott kiddos are kicking off science with a study on Weather!!!  
Project 1: Build a Barometer.
We used an instructional video from Howcast called How to Make a Weather Barometer.

Materials:

• a Jones Soda bottle (my fav is the cream soda)
• water color paint (we were out of food coloring)
• a glass jar 
• and a rubber bad

How it works: 

Well in Hudson's words:It the water is higher than the rubber band it means it will be sunny. And if it is below the rubber band it means rain.

We are keeping track of the barometer predictions and the actual weather this week.

What fun projects are you up to?

photo credit: ViaMoi via photopin cc