The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration has a lesson plan entitled "Build Your Own Weather Station," which allows students to experiment with weather data and instruments. The lesson plan has instructions to make a wind vane from a broom handle and aluminum foil pans to find wind direction as well as instructions to make an anemometer to measure wind speed. The lesson plan also includes instructions to make a barometer to measure atmospheric pressure, a rain gauge to measure rainfall, a hygrometer to measure humidity and a screened thermometer to measure air temperature.
Scholastic's online teaching resources offer a wind vane activity with plans to make wind vanes from clay, coffee cans, cardboard and a pencil. A printable weather data sheet in pdf format is included, which can be downloaded and used by students to log data gathered from the wind vane. The data sheet has spaces for the date, wind direction, rotations per minute, air pressure, temperature and rain and snow in inches. A similar wind vane data sheet and plans to make a wind vane from a pencil, pin and straw are also available from the TeachEngineering website.
Students can make wind vanes from soda bottles, sand or salt, a pencil, straws and index cards following the plans provided on the Salem Clock Shop's website. Students are also encouraged to discuss why the little arrow of the wind vane always points directly into the wind and to notice whether the clouds are moving in the same direction as the wind.
A physics word problem using a wind vane scenario is available on the Cramster website. The problem starts with a still wind vane while listing its inertia on the axis of its rotation. A particular weight of clay is then thrown at a certain speed and sticks to a stated point on the axis. The problem then must be solved in rads for the angular velocity of the wind vane just after it was struck.