Weather Projects for Young Scientists: Experiments and Science Fair Ideas
The Atmosphere's Layers Pressure mb Pa Height mi km Approx Temp Layers of the of Layers F PC Atmosphere 36 000 60 000 3 600 6 000 360 600 2 200 1 200 T thermosphere 10 10 180 300 0 01 10 53 85 150 100 mesosphere ozone layer stratosphere 250 25 000 7 11 60 50 troposphere 1 000 68 20 100 000 Atmospheric Poster You can make a great poster for your room of the lay ers of the atmosphere Start by covering a section of a wall with paper or poster board Use the information in The Atmosphere’s Layers diagram on page 3 to help you draw the layers in correct proportions If you have about 10 feet 3 meters of wall height use the scale of 1 cm 1 km Once the layers are drawn and labeled find out
the characteristics of each atmospheric layer Then write up an informational caption for each layer and paste it onto the poster inside the correct layer Include the atmospheric layer's temperature gases atmospheric phenomena and what human made air craft travel in that layer You can also illustrate the layer with jets space shuttles meteorites satellites etc o Fast Fact The air around and above us the atmosphere weighs 11 000 000 000 000 000 000 pounds 4 950 000 000 000 000 000 kg Science Fair Spin Create a three dimensional diorama of the layers of the atmosphere The Weight of Air Air is invisible and may seem like it's made up of nothing at all But the gases in air have weight and
take up space The weight of the air pushes on the earth's surface just like a stack of blankets pushes down on a table This pushing force is called air pres sure At sea level air pressure is about 14 7 pounds per square inch 1 kg cm2 Air pressure lessens with height however halving about every 3 4 miles 5 5 km There's less air pressure on top of a mountain than at sea level We re literally living at the bottom of an ocean of air Air Is Everywhere Air may be made up of invisible gases but it takes up space Prove to yourself that air has volume in this activity You'll Need water funnel with a very narrow tip small clear plastic bottle such as a salad dress ing bottle sharpened pencil modeling clay 1 Set the funnel inside the neck of the bottle Think about what's filling up the inside of the empty bottle 2 Pour water through the funnel until the bottle is halfway filled Is there still air in the bottle What
happened to it 3 Empty the water out of the bottle and replace the funnel 4 Wrap a collar of modeling clay around the mouth of the bottle so that it seals in the funnel It needs to be airtight 5 Try again to pour water through the funnel into the bottle What happens What’s blocking the water from flowing in 6 Now use the sharpened pencil to poke holes in the clay collar What happens How did the air that was trapped in the bottle escape Science Fair Spin Design an experiment that repeats this activity using funnels and bottles of different sizes and compare their
