What it shows
Weather changes from day to day. Writing it daily lets us see patterns, such as how many sunny days there were in a week.
The science
Weather means what the air outside is doing today: sunny, cloudy, windy or rainy. It changes because the Sun heats the air and water, and wind and clouds move. Keeping a record shows patterns. In the monsoon there are more rainy days and in summer more sunny days.
Materials
Cost: free. Many items come from home or from waste; spare parts such as LEDs, motors and wire are in the store.
- A notebook or a sheet of chart paper
- Pencil and crayons
- A ruler
- A thermometer if you have one
- Stickers or symbols you draw yourself
Safety
For this project: No special safety. Do not stare at the Sun when checking the sky.
Never use mains electricity: power models with cells, batteries or a low-voltage adapter. Sharp and hot tools, flames and lab chemicals need an adult or your teacher beside you. Keep magnets, button cells and small parts away from young children, and wash your hands after making.
All the safety rulesStep by step
8 steps. Do them in order, and test each part before you go on to the next. Write what you notice in a notebook as you go.
Rule your chart into fourteen boxes, one for each day, and write the dates.
Draw symbols for sunny, cloudy, rainy and windy at the top of the page.
At the same time each day, look at the sky and the trees.
Draw the right symbol in that day’s box.
Write if it was hot, warm or cool. Add the temperature if you have a thermometer.
At the end of the first week, count the days of each type of weather.
At the end of two weeks, make a bar graph of the counts.
Say which weather was the most common and which was the rarest.
What you should see
A fourteen day chart with symbols and counts, and a graph showing which kind of weather happened most.
Viva questions
A teacher or a judge will ask how it works. Try to answer each question before you open it, then compare.
1What is weather?
What the air and sky are like outside today.
2Why do we check at the same time every day?
So the readings are fair to compare.
3Which weather was most common in your chart?
Read it from your graph.
4Why does weather change?
Because the Sun heats air unevenly, so wind and clouds move.
Take it further
Keep the diary for a month and ask a grandparent how the weather was at the same time of year long ago.
Change one thing, measure what happens, and add a table or chart of your readings: that is what turns a model into your own investigation.
Free ebooks for this project
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