Weather Experiments
Cloud in a Jar
You need:
- 1 Large Glass Jar
- 1 Cup of Hot Water
- 1 Ice Cube or Freezer Pack
- 1 Flashlight
What to do:
Pour the cup of water into the jar. Let it stand for a few minutes. Darken the room and place the ice cube or freezer pack over the mouth of the jar. Hold the jar in front of a flashlight (very close to the light) and observe the formation of a cloud within the jar.
Why it works?
Inside the jar, moisture from the water rises to meet the cold surface. As the moisture cools, it forms tiny droplets. All the droplets together make the cloud.
Create an Outdoor Sundial
You need:
- A large number of sunlit hours
- 1 stick (about 2 feet long)
- 1 hammer or mallet
- 12 rocks
- Paint and paintbrushes
What to do:
Paint the stick and also the rocks (numbering them from 1 to 12), then let the paint dry. Pound the stick into the ground in an area where there is plenty of open space around it. Every hour (during daylight), place a rock at the end of the sticks shadow. If you have painted the rocks (place rock #2, down at 2:00 o’clock.) At the end of daylight hours look at the pattern it creates. Make a record of how the pattern changes, as the sun’s path changes through the seasons.
Rainbow in a Bowl
You need:
- Milk
- Blue, Red, Green and Yellow Food Colouring
- Dish washing Liquid
- Toothpick
- Bowl
What to do:
Pour a little whole milk into a bowl. Add a drop each of blue, green, red and yellow food colouring. Now coat the end of a toothpick with a drop of dish washing liquid and dip it into the bowl. Instantly, the different food colourings will swirl around, creating a kaleidoscope of rainbow colours.
Jelly Bones
This experiment demonstrates the bone-building importance of calcium.
What to do:
Place a clean cooked chicken bone in a lidded jar, cover with vinegar, and leave it at room temperature. After three days, pour off the old vinegar and refill the jar, then begin checking the flexibility of the bone every day (use tongs). After a week immerse in vinegar, your chicken wing will have a serious case of “gelbow.”
What’s going on?
The acid in the vinegar dissolves calcium in the bone. Without the strengthening power of that hard mineral, your bones would become a pretty floppy excuse for a skeleton!