Sunday 19 June 2016

What is our big Question?

We are scientists and a scientist has questions

I wonder... do we know what our big science question is?

After a lot of chat we decided we have learned about:

  • Water going up and down, evaporation...
  • Rain
  • Wind
  • Clouds
  • Directions (NESW)
  • Temperature
but what is our big question?
Is it...what is wind? what is weather?

How can we use this information? Why have we learned all about the weather and the clouds and meteorologists?

Our big question is: 

Can we eat out lunch outside?

A scientist makes predictions:

we can use what we have learned about
  • Temperature
  • Wind (direction and speed)
  • Clouds
to make a prediction 

A scientist makes observations:

When we make an observation we are looking very closely and noticing... for example: There are 5 weaved stars on the wall, or Siena has a purple sweatshirt.
Our science question observations might be:
is it windy? is the deck wet? is it cold outside? what direction is the wind coming from? is it raining (hard)?

A scientist shares (reports) their ideas:

We need to record how often we can eat inside and outside, how often are our predictions correct?

Wednesday 15 June 2016

What is wind? part 3

Our Big Science Question:

Can we predict if we need to eat inside or out - is it going to be a wet lunch time?



Why do we need to measure the wind?

So we know if we can eat inside or not,
We need to know the wind direction, is the rain going to blow onto us? Like north south east or west.
We might be able to predict the weather for the rest of the day

We need to measure how fast the wind is so we know if it is going to move the rain... 

If it is going be really cold, is it going to blow the wind hard?


Can we make a wind vane? (to measure the direction of the wind?)



We gathered our materials: plastic plates, straws, a pencil, a paper cup and some sand. We had a close look at the picture of what a wind vane looks like and then in our groups we had a go at making them. 

 
We are being creative with our design
Our Wind Vanes,
They are fantastic!

Where do we need to put it?... Why?

Can we make an anemometer? (to measure the speed of the wind?)

 

The kids in Flo7ish have made anemometers so we borrowed one and had a really close look. Using straws, paper plates, a pencil and some sand we had a go at creating our own!

Very fiddly and delicate work!


We are working together!



Where do we need to put it?... Why?

We can use our tools to help us predict the weather!
SaveSave

Friday 10 June 2016

What is wind? part 2

Our Big Science Question:

Can we predict if we need to eat inside or out - is it going to be a wet lunch time?

We have looked at the clouds and can make some weather observations and predictions using the clouds... what about the wind? We know that wind is an important part of the weather, so we have another question...


Does the wind effect wether we can eat outside and get some fresh air?


Do we want to measure the wind? 

Yes

Why?

So we can be safe - is the air pressure right for tornadoes to form (Reagan) or if storms are coming
So we know if it will be nice at the beach (Lucy)
So I can get my washing dry (Kerri)
For planes so they can be safe (Oliver)
Post people need to know the weather (Alexander)
So we can predict what the weather is going to do…


What do we want to measure?

We need to measure how fast the air is moving (that is the speed of the wind)
We need to measure where the wind is coming from (that is the wind direction)

What do we need to know?

What is north, south, east and west - the compass points



Can we make our own wind vanes?


Tuesday 7 June 2016

What is Wind?

Our Big Science Question:

Can we predict if we need to eat inside or out - is it going to be a wet lunch time?

We have looked at the clouds and can make some weather observations and predictions using the clouds... what about the wind? We know that wind is an important part of the weather, so we have another question...


Does the wind effect wether we can eat outside and get some fresh air?


What is wind?

Wind is air that you can feel (Lucy) because it is blowing (Max) it is air that is moving
“Air that is in motion” and motion is moving (Oliver)
Hot air goes up and cold air goes down (James and Ryder)
There is a land breeze and a sea breeze (Reagan) it is to do with warm air and cold air moving

Can we see the air moving and the warm air rising and cold air sinking?

no... so can we make a model?  

We used blue ice and warm water with some red food colouring.

Prediction: 

Galaxy think the cold air (water) is going to move to the top ….
Ice is cold - it is solid water (Alexander), 
We will see a little bit of purple (Lucy)
The ice will melt and turn into liquid (Reagan)
Blue is cold and water from the hot tap…. Red (hot)

Investigation:

We put the warm water in a big glass container and Kerri added some blue ice, Then Kerri added some red food colouring to the warm water.

Observations:

We could see the cold blue water sinking to the bottom of the container.
The red drops kind of went down a bit first and then the red spread out really fast towards the top.
We could see the blue spreading and moving across the bottom of the container and the red staying on the top.
After a while the water went purple becasue the cold water got warmer and the warm water got a bit colder.

Conclusions:

Cold water sinks and warm water rises. This is like in the movie, where the warm air form the beach rises and the cold air sinks over the sea.
The cold air moves into the space where the warm air was.
Moving air is wind!

Here is a link so we can try this again at home Model of warm air rising...