Grenoside School Weather Watchers

 Our third week of experiments focused on the power of floods and what we can do to prevent damage to property. We started by looking at the various ways floods can occur and indeed how quickly they can change a landscape. We then looked at how some nations have adapted and created special defences to prevent the devastating impacts that floods can bring ☂  Maeslantkering storm surge barrier near Rotterdam.   So our task was set... we were to create our own flood barrier using cocktail sticks! With the children in small groups, they had a foil tray and some sand to start. Once they had created a beach with the sand, we then added a few small houses made from cardboard to set the coastal scene. Adding the finishing touches to our beach houses.  I then added some water to the other side of the foil tray to act as the flood water, and each group was tasked to create a suitable defence system using cocktail sticks...  A plastic bottle was used to simulate waves with...

 For our second week of experiments, we looked at how clouds precipitate by exploring the water cycle. Cue the messy experiments! First we used cotton wool balls in an empty yoghurt pot (which had been spiked with numerous holes)... the cotton wool balls acted as clouds and, once they'd taken on a certain amount of water, they could hold on no longer!  The real star of the session though was the shaving foam. A messy yet fragrant experiment with the shaving foam being sprayed on top of a glass jar of water, not dissimilar to a coke float!   To get the shaving foam clouds to 'precipitate', we used pipettes and coloured water, adding a few squirts to the top of the foamy clouds. Eventually, we noticed the coloured water would soak through the shaving foam clouds once the foam had reached its saturation point and... it started to 'rain' 🌧  Having coloured water was essential as we could see the exact point when the foam clouds could hold no more! We will continue ...