Making Rain!

In the last two weeks, we have experienced some really bad weather! So much rain in the middle of summer!

Some parts of New Zealand have been affected by severe flooding - roads were closed in many places.

There had been so much rain, that we decided to read and learn about the weather - in particular, rain!

The lesson ended with a science experiment, where students 'made it rain'. The children really enjoyed this experiment. Some of the children decided they didn't need as much hot water - and they soon discovered that it did not 'rain' ... we discussed this together and the experiment was re-visited the next day. Some great hypothesising and analysing going on. Lots of discussion was had.

Here is the experiment:

Can you make it rain indoors?
What you need:

Ice cubes
Wide glass jar
Plate
Very hot tap water

How to:
Put the ice cubes on the plate.
Pour around 3 centimetres of very hot water into the glass jar.
Cover the jar with the plate and ice cubes.
Watch what happens.

Can you see droplets forming on the bottom of the plate? If you tap the plate they will fall down like rain!

We discussed what was happening...

As hot air hits the bottom of the cold plate, water vapour in the air condenses. The water vapour forms water droplets on the bottom of the plate. The water droplets drip down like rain.

The same thing happens in the atmosphere. Warm, moist air rises. The rising warm air meets colder air high in the atmosphere. The water vapour in the warm air condenses and forms water droplets. The water droplets fall to Earth as rain.