WIND
MATERIALS:
  • A toaster.
  • Bread.
  • A refrigerator freezer.

DIRECTIONS (PART 1):

  1. Put a piece of bread in the toaster.
  2. Press down the lever and toast away.
  3. Place your hands a safe distance above the slots and feel the air. You may eat the bread when it's finished toasting.
Toasty warm, right? Hot air from the toaster floated up to your hands, just like how hot air rises to make wind.

DIRECTIONS (PART 2):

  1. Open the freezer door of the refrigerator.
  2. Hold your hand over the top of the door and feel the air.
  3. Hold your hand below the door and feel the air.
Brrr. It's freezing down there. Air from the freezer sank down toward the floor, while warmer air rose up top.
HURRICANE
MATERIALS:
  • A clear glass
  • A tea bag
  • A spoon

DIRECTIONS:

  1. Fill the glass with hot water.
  2. Break open the tea bag and pour it into the water and allow the tea leaves to settle to the bottom.
  3. Stir the water with the spoon.
You've just caused a depression to form in the center of the glass. This is the eye of your storm. As the water slows down, notice the tea lives piling up in the middle of the cup. This happens because of the inward current along the bottom. It represents the low-level surface air flow that powers storms.
RAIN
MATERIALS:
  • One plastic soda bottle.
  • A pair of scissors.
  • Ice.
  • Some water.
  • A pan or kettle.
  • An adult.

DIRECTIONS:

  1. Cut the top off the soda bottle. Make the cut about one-fourth of the way down the bottle.
  2. Ask the adult to boil some water for you.
  3. Have the adult pour some of the boiling water into the bottom part of the bottle.
  4. Put the top of the bottle back on upside-down, so that the mouth of the bottle points to the water.
  5. Put some ice in the bowl formed by the upside-down top of the bottle.
  6. Watch what happens to the water.
Rain forms when water in oceans, lakes, and rivers turns into water vapor from the heat of the Sun. The vapor makes clouds in the sky, and when the clouds get a lot of water in them, it rains. You've done the same thing with this experiment. Steam from the hot water rises and hits the ice. The cold ice makes the steam form drops on the plastic of the bottle, and the water droplets fall back into the hot water.
BUILD A THERMOMETER
MATERIALS:
  • Plastic test tube with thin sides.
  • Thin, plastic pipette, about 4 inches long.
  • A single-hole stopper that can fit the test tube and hold the pipette.
  • A bottle or glass of water.

DIRECTIONS:

  1. First, fit the plastic pipette inside the stopper until it has a tight fit. Then fill the test tube half-full with water. Fit the stopper in the test tube and flip them over so the tube is pointing down.
  2. Lightly shake or flick the tube until you see a nice water level like the one seen in the picture. Why doesn't the water pour out of the tube through the pipette?
  3. To test the thermometer, hold the the test tube inside your hand and watch the water level. What happens? Why? Can you think why this thermometer isn't very accurate? What would happen at 0°C?