weather bag
Equipment:
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Transparent tape
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A zipping plastic baggie
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A (thick!) marker
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Blue food colouring and a little cup to mix it
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Water
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Notebook to record your observations
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Make and deploy your bag:​
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Decorate your bag. Take some permanent marker and draw weather on it.
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Mix your food colouring with a little water and pour it in.
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Seal your bag up tight and stick it up onto the window **
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(**Hot tip! Seal most of your bag up and GENTLY squeeze out as much air from your bag as you can. Then blow new air into your bag. Why will this make a difference?)
Log your bag on the record sheet. Take a photo to show your bag in its location!
Fill this only when you make a new bag!
Make sure that that your weather bag has been set in the location when you take a photo. If you have put out weather bags in more than one location, please fill this form for each of your locations separately.
​Weather Diary
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Watch over the coming days. Does the amount of water increase?
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Does it change throughout the day?
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Make observations. Do you get droplets forming on the inside of the bag? When does that happen? What’s the temperature like? Is it sunny/cloudy?
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Investigate! What are the processes happening in your bag?
In your notebook, record your observations each day in the morning or as often as you like.
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If you are repeating the experiment, try keeping the bags out for a longer period of time before you make an observation.
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How to retrieve?
When you decide to take them down, take a photo of each of your bag from each location.
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Once you have made these observations, fill in the below form to submit your final remarks on the activity.
We would love to see the colours on your traps from various locations! Please do upload them below
Know the science behind it
The water cycle
Water is constantly moving through our environment as a solid, liquid or gas.
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What is water vapour?
When liquid water turns into gas, it is called water vapour. Water vapour in the air is invisible to our eye but the amount of water vapour in the air is commonly known as humidity.
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How does water vapour get in the air?
Liquid water changes from a liquid to a gas due to evaporation and becomes part of the atmosphere. All kinds of water can evaporate: Oceans, rivers, lakes, puddles and drops. Evaporation takes heat energy, so when it’s warmer there’s more evaporation.
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If water vapour is created due to heat energy, what happens when it gets colder?
Condensation is the opposite of evaporation. It’s when water turns from a gas to a liquid. It does this by losing heat. That’s why condensation happens when it’s colder. When water turns into a liquid it wants to stick to something. That’s why we get droplets forming on windows and other cool surfaces.
Where can you see water vapour condense?
When water in air hits a warm surface, it condenses back to liquid water. When the temperatures are low and winds are calm, several particles of water in the air condense on the surface to form fog. Water vapour in your homes can condense onto the walls creating moist surfaces. This can lead to the growth of mold on the walls. In your experiment, you saw water vapour condense onto your bags!
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If you want to know more,
start a discussion on seesaw blog!
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