School Weather Lab Projects

Cloud Watching

• Observing clouds is a project that is easy, interesting, requires no special equipment and is appropriate for students of any age. Take your students outside on a cloudy day and observe the clouds. This is a good project to do after learning the names of various cloud formations. Different formations occur during different weather patterns, and can indicate upcoming weather. For an ongoing project, ask students to observe the clouds every day for a week and keep a record of what they do or do not see, along with the time and temperature.

Demonstrating Weather

• You can demonstrate some weather phenomena on a small scale, which is particularly useful for younger students. Put a little warm water in a jar, hold a lit match over the opening, then drop the match in and quickly cover with a bag of ice. The jar will form a small cloud inside; clouds form when cool air causes condensation. You can also drop an ice cube into a glass of hot water to show how fog is caused by the meeting of cold, moist air and warm air. For both of these demonstrations, a flashlight or a piece of dark paper behind the demonstration can make it show up more clearly.

Recording Rain

• Students can make their own rain gauges and record rainfall. This is a fairly simple and is good for a long-term project. Set out a container where it can catch rain, then use a straw that has been marked in inches to determine the depth of the rain. A useful addition to this project would be to record the temperature and cloud types observed, as well. If you continue the project for long enough, you can record trends in your area.

Temperature Variation

• Outside temperature can vary quite a bit from one location to the next. Ask all of the students to record the outside temperature at their homes at the same time on the same day, and report it to you the next day. Make a graph of the recorded temperatures. What variations do you see? If there are extreme highs or lows, what about the location of that student's home might cause the difference in temperature? How do these temperatures compare to the predicted temperature for that day?