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Project Summary

Difficulty  7 
Time required Average (about one week)
Prerequisites None
Material Availability Readily available
Cost Low ($20 - $50)
Safety No issues

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Objective

The objective of this experiment is to find the most accurate way to predict the weather without using advanced technology, like satellites and computers. The two methods compared are the scientific (using homemade instruments) and the traditional (using observations of nature) methods.

Introduction

  Weather Science Project kite
 Figure 1. Kite for meteorological observations.

Predicting the weather has become a science in itself. Through the use of satellite images and a variety of data-collection tools, we can now develop fairly accurate predictions of our weather patterns. Before the development of these more-advanced techniques, people used basic tools and/or stories and sayings to capture nature's signals of changes in weather, such as:

Watch DragonflyTV forecasting video
Click here to watch a video of this investigation, produced by DragonflyTV and presented by pbskidsgo.org


If you want to see how well this and other folklore predicts the weather, join Mari and Lindsay in the DragonflyTV video on the right as they watch the sky, make a homemade barometer, and put cows, bees, bones, and hair to the test for nine days, to see if natural signals can tell you what the weather is going to be like the next day. Which is more effective as a tool for prediction: our homemade instruments or nature's indicators?

Terms, Concepts and Questions to Start Background Research

In order to properly conduct this science fair project, you will need to learn the basics about weather. What is weather and what are the major factors that cause our weather to change?

Some key terms to understand:

Since you will also be constructing some homemade instruments to help you capture data, you will need to understand how each of the following instruments works:

Bibliography

Basics of weather:

Glossary of weather terms:

Some sites that discuss weather lore:

How to build your own weather instruments:

Materials and Equipment

Materials image

Experimental Procedure

For the scientific method:

For the traditional (weather lore) technique:

Control:

Variations


Last edit date: 2009-04-29 12:00:00


Career Focus

science career image If you like this project, you might want to think about career opportunities in Weather & Atmosphere.

The atmosphere is a blanket of gases, surrounding Earth, that creates our weather. Meteorologists study the measurements and motion of the atmosphere, and changing events within it, so that they can predict the weather. This weather forecasting helps the general public and people who work in industries such as shipping, air transportation, agriculture, fishing, forestry, and water and power better plan for the weather, and reduce human and economic losses. Learn more about this career: Meterologist.




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