Saturday 11 January 2014

Rain, Rain, Go Away


Has anyone else in the UK noticed that there's been a lot of rain around us lately?  In my typical fly-off-the-seat-of-my-pants approach to learning what catches our interest at any given moment, I thought it would be most relevant to learn more about rain.


For example, why does it rain?


We also learned that rainfall can be measured using the high-tech way via radar, or the low-tech way of a rain gauge:


Since the low-tech rain gauge looked simple enough to do, we decided to make one ourselves following the instructions here:


This is our version, which according to the explanation here, may not be yield the most accurate measurement since the top and bottom widths of our rain gauge are not exactly the same.  Nonetheless, it serves as a rough and ready version to give us a sense of how much rainfall there has been.


Since it has been so wet, we thought it would be interesting to learn how to measure the humidity in the air at any given moment:


Compared to the natural, pinecone hygrometer we made a few years ago, the bottle hygrometer we've made this time offers us a more accurate reading of the relative humidity in the air.


By putting the readings that we got off of the wet bulb (3 degrees Celcius) and dry bulb (11 degree Celcius) into the computation website found here, we can see immediately that the relative humidity of that day was 17%.  We think that is pretty cool.


This post is linked up to:
  1. Nature Study Monday: January 2014 NSM! Link Up
  2. Geography and History linkie #1
  3. Entertaining and Educational - Atoms
  4. Collage Friday - No Spend Month, Marriage, Menus, & Miscellany
  5. Weekly Wrap Up: The One Where Dad Was Home
  6. The Homeschool Mother's Journal {January 11, 2014}
  7. Science Sunday: The Difference Between a Science Demonstration and a Science Experiment
  8. Hip Homeschool Hop - 1/14/14

13 comments:

  1. That IS pretty cool! And yes, we have noticed the rain! We've had one of C(10)'s friends staying over the last two days - his home is without power and accessible only by kayak!! Love all your rain experiments and how you've brought maths in too. Bookmarking, as usual! Stay dry :-)

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    1. I hope C(10)'s friend's home hasn't suffered too much damage. It must be horrible having to deal with the inconveniences of flood and all the clearing up afterwards. Good to know that you're on higher grounds and are staying dry. :-)

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  2. That is pretty cool. I always find it interesting how weather affects who lives somewhere and when. For instance Texas wasn't really all that popular a state before air conditioning was invented.

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    1. Thanks, Ticia. :-) With all its heat and dryness, I'd imagine Texas to be a rather difficult state to bring up a family without air conditioning. I'm glad you've enjoyed reading this post, since it's almost a cliche for people in England to talk about the weather! :-)

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  3. Yes, I agree, that is cool. I have had trouble with our homemade weather instruments. Maybe we will try this one. Thank you for linking up to Sunday Science.

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    1. It's my pleasure to link up, Phyllis! I know what you mean about homemade weather instruments. I find it difficult to make them to be very robust, so we settle for what we can make to the best of our ability, while seeking to understand the principles behind how the instruments work. :-)

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  4. For flying by the seat of your pants, you created a great lesson plan! Very cool! Love the hygrometer!

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    1. Thank you for stopping by, Lisa. The hygrometer is an easy one to make, and it's very effective! :-)

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  5. Love it! This is home schooling by the swing of your pants (I'm not sure I've quite got the right saying there!), but what I mean is you are so flexible and able to go with the flow. These are brilliant lessons and all because England seems to be flooding everywhere!

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    1. Thank you, Claire. :-) I just thought it a shame not to do something related to the weather since we do live in England after all, and talking about the weather is almost a cliche here. There's a lot to learn, nonetheless.

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  6. i'm totally gonna check out the humidity measurer! i wish it would rain more here! it's too hot!! your spontaneous learning looks like a lot of fun and very productive! :)

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    1. Thank you, Amy. I often dream of visiting Peru, so I think you're really lucky to be living in such an exotic place! The weather there is so unique. I'm sure there must be plenty to learn there as well. :-)

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  7. It's a great time of year for a rain gauge.

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