PACK/DEN ACTIVITIES

Fog Formation in a Bottle
York Adams Area Council

Purpose: To illustrate how fog forms.

Materials: A 2 liter bottle, water, and a match.

Procedure: Put a very small quantity of water in the bottle. Light a match and drop into the bottle to create a small amount of smoke. Cap the bottle tightly and squeeze and release rapidly and repeatedly until fog appears in the bottle when released.

Principle: The air inside the bottle is saturated with water vapor. The smoke provides a nucleus upon which the water droplets can form.  The droplets will form on the smoke particles at the lower pressure.

Fog Formation #2
York Adams Area Council

Purpose: To illustrate how fog forms.

Materials: One gallon glass bottle, water and a match.

Procedure: Place a small amount of water in a bottle. Drop in a burning match. Use your mouth to increase and decrease pressure in the bottle. A fog will form quickly under low pressure..

Principle: The air inside the bottle is saturated with water vapor. The smoke provides a nucleus upon which the water droplets can form.  The droplets will form on the smoke particles at the lower pressure.

A Jillion Ideas
York Adams Area Council

I realize not everyone takes advantage or can take advantage of the Internet to help plan their den meeting activities, so I try to include non-internet activities/ideas throughout the Pow-Wow book. But I can’t help it this time! There are a jillion ideas on the Internet for weather/meteorology activities out there.

So, for this one month, I am providing just one of the many valuable websites. But I am including some of the lesson plans from this site for those that can’t get to the Internet. Go to http://askeric.org/Virtual/Lessons/ and use the menus and picks to get to the information you need.

Weather Detective
(AskEric Lesson Plan)
York Adams Area Council

Grade Level(s): 2, 3, 4

Subject(s):

 Science/Meteorology

Description: This is an introductory lesson to a second grade weather unit. Basically what the students will be doing is observing the weather each day for one week and recording their observations in a chart. The students will be integrating information learned in English by using adjectives in their descriptions. After the students have collected data for a week, in cooperative groups, they will predict the weather for the next week. The teacher will show the students guides or weather reports from past years for that particular week in order to guide them in a direction of an accurate prediction.

Goal: The students will understand how observational skills can help them evaluate the weather.

Objectives:

1. The students will record 5 daily observations in their observation charts for 5 days.

2. The students will learn to read a thermometer and record the daily temperature two times each day in

their observation chart for five days.

3. In cooperative groups of 3-4, the students will make a three day prediction of the weather which includes the following: temperature morning and late afternoon, sky conditions, precipitation, and wind speed.  These predictions will be recorded in the observation chart in addition to writing the basis for these predictions.

4. The students will be able to determine what types of clothing are necessary for the present weather conditions by writing a clothing suggestion to accompany their observations and predictions.

Background Information for the Teacher: I created this lesson to arise an awareness of weather being all around us. In addition, it will also give the students a little taste of other major concepts that will be covered in the lesson such as temperature, air changes, wind direction and speed, in addition to cloud cover. I also believe that this is a good lesson to practice and utilize observational skills.

Concepts Covered in the Lesson:

1. Reading a thermometer.

2. Weather observations.

3. Temperature differences (could be integrated into the math area).

4. Adjectives as describing words (could be integrated into the English area).

5. Charting.

6. Prediction skills.

Materials Needed:

1. Observation chart

2. Writing utensil

3. Thermometer

Procedure:

1. Each student will bring an observation chart and a pencil outside.

2. At the start of the day, the teacher and students will stand outside for approximately 5-10 minutes making group observations of the weather. The teacher may ask the students questions like what they think is the reason behind the air feeling hot or cold, or how come clouds are different shapes.

3. The students will then record observations into their charts and return to the classroom.

4. Then when the students return to the classroom, the teacher will demonstrate how to read a thermometer. The students will the read the indoor/outdoor thermometer that is provided in the classroom and record the temperature.

5. While the students are out at recess, they will make more observations and record any differences from the morning results, in addition to recording the temperature when they return from recess.

6. Repeat steps one through five for five days.

7. After the last recording on the fifth day, divide the students into cooperative groups of 3-4, and have them compare their data. During their group time together, the students will predict what the weather will be for the next three days and write it into the observation chart.

8. The students will then write a short paragraph explaining how and why they came to the predictions that they did.

Assessments:

1. The observation chart in itself can be used as an assessment tool for each student.

2. The prediction paper will also be used in assessing their knowledge of weather, in addition to observational skills.

Example of observation chart:

Mon Tues Wed Thurs Fri

Sky conditions

Temperature-morning/noon

Wind speed (guess)

Prediction

Actual

Difference between actual and prediction

Weather Forecast Aired from Pack Meeting
York Adams Area Council

Contact one of the local television stations to come to your Pack Meeting to broadcast the weather live from your meeting. You may have to move your meeting time around to accommodate it, but look at the fun the boys would have!

Middle Tennessee Council

Rain Gauge
With this rain gauge you can be the one who can tell exactly how much rain has fallen at any time. Materials needed include: test tube or plastic tube, block of wood about 3" by 8", a 6-inch ruler, wire, small tacks, and a little clay if your tube is not flat on the bottom.

Drill small holes in the ruler; then tack it to the block of wood with 0-inch mark at bottom of rain gauge. Then fill the bottom of the tube with clay if using a round bottom type. Make flat surface for more accurate measurement. Lay tube alongside rule to make holes for drilling.  Drill holes for wire, and attach tube, being sure bottom is level with ruler. A small scrap of wood may be nailed below the tube if needed to keep the tube from slipping.

The gauge may be propped up in an open area of the yard, or a stake may be tacked to the back of the gauge so it can be driven into the ground to hold the gauge straight up for most accurate measurement.

Water-Proof Container For Matches

As long as you do not punch a hole in the canister it makes a great waterproof container for matches.

Sun Dial
Middle Tennessee Council

Most animals and plants use the sun as their natural time teller. Cub Scouts can too, by building their own sundial.  Cut a piece of wood about 11 inches square. Then take a compass and draw the largest circle that can fit inside the square. Mark the center of the circle with a dot. Drill a hole and glue a long, thin stick into the center. This will be the pointer that will cast a shadow on the sundial. Draw a line straight through the center of the circle, perpendicular to the top edge of the wooden block. This will be the 12 o'clock marking. Set the sundial so that the 12 o'clock mark points north. (Use a compass to get north.) Attach the sundial to the top of a flat object or post and put it in a place that gets full sunlight.  From 6 am to 6 p.m. make a dot each hour where the shadow hits the outside of the circle.  Decorate your sundial with some sunny pictures.

Travel Sewing Kits

I always save those little sewing kits you get in hotels and they can be made to fit into a film canister.

Survival Kits

You can make a neat survival kit, which contains: waterproofed match, birthday candle, sugar packet, beef bullion cube, band-aide, needle, piece of tin foil etc.

Trapper Trails Council

Fun roll calls for everyone, instead of the boys saying here, have them answer in the following ways:

Types of weather

Names of weather instruments

What months does it snow?

Names of weather forecasters

Type of clouds

Water weather conditions, such as hurricane, blizzard, monsoon and so on.

Telling Time by the Sun
Central New Jersey Council

Early sailors used the following technique to estimate how long it would be until sunset.  Hold your hands out at arm’s length so your palms are facing you and your fingers are parallel to the horizon.  Keeping your fingers close together, let the sun rest on your index finger.

Each finger between the sun and the horizon equals approximately 15 minutes.

Burrometer
Central New Jersey Council

Materials: Cardboard, Construction Paper, String, rope or colored yarn.

Trace or enlarge drawing.  Add Letters and a tail. If you are going to hang burrometer outside, cover with plastic before adding tail.

If the words are hard to read in the following graphic they are:
If tail is dry—Fair
If tail is wet---Wet
If  tail is swinging---Windy
If  tail is wet and swinging—stormy
If tail is frozen—Cold
If tail is gone---Tornado