Weather Watchers

Here are some pictures from the K12 Science unit on weather.  The boys really learned a lot about weather-measuring tools, the water cycle, air pressure etc.  I learned that measuring and recording the weather everyday for weeks can be quite depressing when you live in the Great Northwest, especially when it's the end of winter and you're waiting for what seems like an eternity for Spring to start.  We remained faithful meteorologists, however, and whatever the weather we weathered the weather whether we liked it or not!

Below you can see our rain gauge peeking out of the Science box.  This is how I set up subjects that both boys do together.  We call them after lunch boxes.  We usually alternate these with history, music, and Spanish.  

Here is The Anchor testing out our wind/weather vane to find out what direction the wind was blowing.

 We had to use a compass to make the weather vane.  One minute we were recording wind direction, the next we were sailing the high seas trying to locate the lost pirate treasure.  

We made an anemometer to measure wind speed.  As you can see it consists of four cups, two straws, tape, a safety pin, and a big huge pencil.  

There was no wind that day so The Free One was blowing into it trying to make it spin.

"Staying Alive" with the anemometer.  Yes, that's the Free One!  He was making me laugh  :)

So that's just a small sample of our weather unit.  By the way, this was literally the only day we saw blue sky during our whole unit.  So even though it was still very cold outside, we sat on a blanket in the grass so we could enjoy seeing that big bright foreign object shining down on us from the sky.  What was that thing anyway?