The Young Meteorologist Award

Kaylee decided to work on the AHG Young Meteorologist Award. How fun!

(Let me apologize right now to all the teachers out there for probably making a mess out of this project.)

Here is what Kaylee (with the help of mom) accomplished:

Defined weather, made a windsock (more like wind ribbons), made a water gauge, and created a tornado in a jar. Kaylee (with Dylan as a volunteer assistant) observed and recorded the findings in Kaylee's AHG Journal.

WINDSOCK: (or wind ribbons) an "instrument" to determine which direction (with the help of a compass) the wind comes from in our area. To make the windsock Kaylee covered an empty tape roll with electrical tape to make it waterproof. She then made a handle with pipe-cleaners; and tied ribbon to the tape dispenser. We found the ideal spot in our yard to hang the windsock and observed for two weeks. Actually, we hung three windsocks - Dylan and I also made our own.

RAIN GAUGE: an instrument to keep record of the rainfall in our backyard (also for two (2) weeks). The rain gauge was very simple to make. This is how we did it:

• Taped a funnel to an empty tennis ball container (with the smaller opening to the inside of the container) 
• Drew the inch markers using a ruler as a guide (we made the markings on masking tape for better visibility)
• Taped skewers to the container to allow it to stay put in the ground even when wind was determined to pay us a visit.  
• Set the container in an area where it would get rain (only from the sky and not our roof top), was stable enough, and not at all disturbed by any of our wildlife friends and pet. Combining all those was a challenge but we managed. 

Side Note: We probably would have been just as fine leaving it under our roof since the rain did not cooperate and Kaylee collected 0 inches of water... She is determined to collect whatever comes down, so the rain gauge has now taken a permanent spot on our yard until it does it's job.

TORNADO IN A JAR: a fun project to simulate a tornado. Here is how we made it:

• Filled a jar 3/4 with water 
• Added 1 teaspoon of liquid soap 
• Added 1 teaspoon of vinegar 
• Covered the jar and swirl around to see the magic happen.

Another Side Note: Actually, no magic happened, in fact nothing happened and the kids were disappointed, so we tried again, and again, and again ... Until we just used a spoon to swirl the water and the fierce tornado made its appearance.

So, what did we conclude?

• During this time of year in our area the wind comes pretty consistently from the SW
• During this time of year in our area we had 0 inches of rain. We did have some moisture and a few gloomy days
• The temperatures change drastically from cold to warm from one day to another
• Recording findings in a journal is actually fun
• Tornado in a jar is pretty cool (even if it takes many tries to make it work)
• Kaylee is "officially" a young meteorologist - at least she likes to think so