Homemade Weather Station for Kids

[CZandbergen]

My 8 year old son has asked me to help him make a homemade weather station that he can help build and will be able to understand. I have done a lot of Googling and have seen some interesting and also some pretty poor designs. The goal is to have this be more of a teachable moment than something I would want for myself. Has anyone gone down this path and or have plans you would recommend?

Thanks is advance,

Casey

 

[Michael Nicolaou]

I don't have any ideas for this but I see a science fair project for my weather interested son (first grade next year) in the making.....send some ideas folks.

 

[rdale]

About that age I made a barometer out of a cup of colored water, a lid and two straws (one of them sealed at the top .) I blame that for turning me into a meteorologist

 

[Michael Nicolaou]

My first science fair project was "The effects of temperature on pressure". A couple of tumblers, baloons, straws, toothpicks and a hotplate and ice made me a very happy little boy.

 

[John Erwin]

I did a science project once that included a simple anemometer; it was made from wood sticks and paper cups and was connected to a motor (acting as a generator in this case). The output of the "generator" was connected to a meter, which indicated the speed at which the anemometer would turn (after some crude calibration).

*edit* I think I actually used "tinkertoy" as the construction elements for that project.. just added some paper cups. Actually worked reasonably well if I recall (at least to demonstrate a concept)

Later on I built a sturdier version with this method and used it for years. I also made a weather vane connected to a synchro-servo type setup which worked great (too complex for your needs...but a simple wx-vane is easy to make).

 

[Karen St John]

http://www.cocorahs.org/

There's always the CoCoRahs project, which does have things that a child (with a willing adult helping out) can do, and feel important doing in the process!

 

[Shawn Gossman]

http://www.worsleyschool.net/science/files/weather/instruments.html shows you how to build a homemade:
* Anemometer
* Hygrometer
* Barometer

another great link:
http://www.ehow.com/how_4793816_homemade-weather-instruments.html

I'd also suggest getting skywarn training, its free and for all ages and fun for the little ones. Not only will it help spark their interests in severe weather, but it teaches them safety and they feel like professionals afterwords good for character building if ya ask me!