Discovery Lab
1 Grade – Weather
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*Hose is just outside lab door to refill water at stations. Make sure it is connected to school.
Introduction (10 minutes):
Thank PTA and fundraising efforts of students.
Safety rules, lab coats, follow directions, hand sanitizer (1 squirt)
Ask students what they know about magnets. Take 5-7 answers.
Tell students they will be looking at weather. List on board (Rain gauge, cloud, thermometer)
At the end of the lab they will come back to the carpet to discuss what they learned!
Students rotate through each station for 15 minutes each.
Station 1: Movement of Air Masses
1. Fill a plastic box with 4 inches of water and let the water sit for 30 seconds until still.
2. Place a blue ice cube at one end of the plastic container and add 2 drops of red food
coloring t the water at the opposite end of the container. Do not shake the table or bump the
box. Watch what happens to the red and blue food coloring. Using red and blue
crayons/pencils, draw what you see happening. You may need to bend down and look
through the box at eye level to see the difference between red and blue.
3. Read students questions so they can circle the answer.
4. Discuss: How does this resemble a weather front? The red food coloring is warm – warm
air rises. The blue ice cube is cold – cold air sinks. When 2 air masses f different
temperatures meet, they form a border or front. This meeting of two fronts produces
clouds, rain, thunder, or other types of storms.
Station 2: Cloud Formation/Rain Gauge
1. Give each student a cotton ball to hold. Tell them to pretend they are holding a cloud.
How does it feel? (light, soft)
2. Show poster of water cycle, point out clouds. Instruct students to place the cloud gently
over the cold water. Explain that water that has evaporated has traveled up to the cloud and
it is a lot colder up in the sky, so the vapor turns into water, and it is filling up the cloud.
How does the cloud feel now? (heavy, wet)
3. Ask students to gently pick up cloud from the pan. What is happening to the water? (water
is dripping from the cloud) Why? (The cloud cannot hold all that water, it is too heavy)
What do we call it when water falls from the clouds because they are too heavy? (Rain)
What happens to the water? (It goes back into the pan, and the pan could be a river, stream,
ocean, or the ground.
4. Have students write numbers starting with #1 next to the large line, bottom to top (see
example). Use tape to secure strip to cup. (Students can take home rain gauge.)
5. Now ask students to fill cloud again. This time have them squeeze “cloud” into cup. This is
like a thunderstorm. Now look at markings on cup. Measure how much rain fell. This is
called a rain gauge, it measures rainfall.
Station 3: Using a Thermometer
1. What do we use to tell us about the weather outside? (lots of instruments: barometer, air
pressure, thermometer, etc.)
2. What does a thermometer measure? (hot/cold temperatures)
3. Use big thermometer to show students how to read a thermometer. Do a few different
numbers. Tell students they are using the Fahrenheit scale to measure.
4. Students should have three cups of water: sample A (ice water), sample B (room
temperature water), and sample C (very warm, not hot) water.
5. Together have students put their thermometer in sample A. Have them read the
thermometer, try not to take the bottom out of the water. Why? (The bottom of the
thermometer is what we rely on that makes the mercury expand or contract) Check the
student’s readings. Do sample B and C together too.
6. What kind of water is sample A, B, and C? (cold, room temp, hot)
7. What happens if you put your finger over the bottom of the thermometer? (relate to #5)
Station 4: Dew and Frost!
1. Ask: What is the difference between dew and frost?
2. Making Dew: Fill one can half way with water. Wipe the outside of the can to be sure it is
dry. Add enough ice to fill the can.
3. Making the Frost: Fill the other can about half way with ice. Next add ¼ cup or rock salt
and ½ cup of water. Add enough ice to fill the can. Wipe the outside of the can to be sure it
is dry.
4. When air is cooled it forms water droplets (dew). When the rock salt is added it makes the
ice colder and turns the water droplets into frost.
5. If time discuss other types of weather – snow (water droplets are semi-frozen by the cold air
when they fall to earth), Fog (land is cooler than the warm, moist air above it), hail (rain
droplets frozen and refrozen as they fall closer to the earth, some are small and some are
big!)
Closure (10 minutes):
Have students take off lab coats and sit on floor.
Ask students a question about each station relating to what they learned. Example: At station 1,
Cold air does what? (sinks); Warm air does what? (rises). At station 2, What happens to make rain?
(water vapor forms clouds, clouds condense, when the clouds get too full of water droplets they fall to
the earth – rain). What measures rain? (rain gauge) At station 3, When the thermometer raises it gets
what? (warmer), When the thermometer falls it is? (colder) At station 4, when air is cooled is forms?
(water droplets) Great!
If you have a little extra time:
Demonstrate: Air Pressure – Predict: What will happen to the books or brick when you blow air
into the bag? Ask for one volunteer to blow into the straw. (The books or brick will rise). Ask the
students if they can think of another example of the strength of air. (cars are supported by the air in
their tires)
Did they have fun? Tell your parents about it tonight!
Thank volunteers. Give teacher survey form to complete.
Any questions? Ann Lachmann 770-619-2853, cell 404-291-4123