Cloud in a Bottle

The little voyagers are learning about clouds as part of their DIY Meteorologist badge.

We tried a "cloud in a bottle" experiment to learn about cloud formation last week, but we weren't happy with the outcome:

Lighting a stick on fire to create smoke...

When the stick didn't work, we tried paper. 

Squeezing the bottle, then releasing to get smoke sucked down inside...

And a little bit of a cloud. We could actually see it better than it appears in this photo, 

but I was still a bit disappointed, and I think the little voyagers were, too.

If I can find some matches, we might try another version of this experiment.

In the meantime, how about some cloud poetry?

This first poem is a hint for our art project for today. 

Does it remind you of It Looked Like Spilt Milk?

This poem by William Wordsworth is short, but lovely.

 

This final cloud poem is by Percy Bysshe Shelley. 

Long, but nice!

DIY Friday: Texas Tornado!

Project #3 for our DIY Meteorologist badge was to make a TORNADO! I decided to personalize our tornado project to really make it hit home with the little voyagers. As the family historian, I had already researched Sherman's Black Friday, the deadly cyclone (tornado) that killed the little voyagers' great-great-great-great grandparents back in 1896. 

First, we located Sherman, Texas on our little United States map. The big map is a blown up aerial map of Sherman, Texas, drawn in 1891, five years before the tornado.

I showed the little voyagers a family photo of the surviving daughter, their ggg-grandma, and her family. This grandma happens to have the same given name as their mommy.

Next I gave them a brief version of the account in the book linked above, including a few gory details to emphasize the dangerous powers of tornadoes...

Then we looked at some pictures of the wreckage left by the tornado.

We then located the street the grandparents lived on and a few landmarks mentioned in the book to help us re-trace the approximate path of the tornado through town.

Next, Rosetta marked the wind directions,just prior to the tornado according to witness accounts in the book. (The book states a weather vane on a Presbyterian church showed the wind blowing one direction, and across town at the Oil mills, it was blowing in the opposite direction.)

Finally, we watched a couple of real tornado videos to get an authentic sense of how powerful the winds can be.

Then it was time to build our own tornado!

Materials Needed:

two plastic bottles - 1 or 2 liter (the openings must match up exactly)

water

duct tape

food coloring (optional)

glitter (optional - represents debris)  

Fill one bottle about 3/4 full, then add a few drops of food coloring, if desired.

Then add your glitzy debris, like Saralina is doing here.

Invert the empty bottle, line up the mouths, exactly and tightly tape them together with duct tape. Make sure this is very secure; you don't want "blue" water spilling out and staining your surroundings!

Time to create a tornado! 

Flip the bottles and give a swirl.

See the tornado?

The little voyagers really enjoyed this activity, and they each got several chances to swirl it themselves. There is a bit of a knack to getting a "tornado swirl" going, so it takes a little practice.

 

But as you can see, mama voyager's got it mastered!

Things are Heating Up!

A big part of "WEATHER" is the temperature, and so, our little voyagers are learning to read a thermometer and record their findings. They are trying to do it everyday, morning and afternoon, and, have been mostly successful.

This was project #2 for the DIY Meteorologist badge:

To spark interest, and introduce the "temperature" concept, we started off with our own version of  this (DIY recommended) thermometer project from Instructables:

We didn't have any film cannisters, but these protein scoopers were a similar size, and we had some Zero Water lids that were a tight fight, so... this is what we used:

Materials Needed:

small plastic containers with tight fitting lids

thin straws (we used the stir straws for coffee)

food color

modeling clay or hot glue gun for sealing

water

First, drill a hole in the center of lid. This is where you will stick the straw.

Now, insert the straw...

See - Like this!

Next, add water...

Add food color...

And more water -- We added a little water, the dye, then more water, 

so we wouldn't have to stir it.

Put the lid on -- Make sure the straw is way down in the container, but not touching the bottom. Then use the modeling clay or hot glue to create a good seal around the straw.

We first tried using our hands to warm the "thermometers," but that didn't do anything! We tried cold water -- uneventful. But the hot water worked! Especially in the case of Spiderman's blue thermometer! 

His worked the best out of the three --maybe because he just had to add "a little extra" dye, which made the rising water easier  to see in the straw. He also pushed his straw down in a little further than the girls, and that might have helped, too! So much for following the adult's directions, and good thing he didn't, or we would have been sorely disappointed.

Although this was a fun project, if I were to do it again, I would probably try a different homemade thermometer. This one from EnergyQuest is VERY similar, but looks like it would have more potential for success:

I think using a bigger bottle would make it easier to see the temperature change. Has anyone made this type of thermometer before? How did it work?