Nail a 1-foot-square piece of pegboard to a 3-foot-long stake. Fasten a thermometer, rain gauge and barometer to the pegboard with wire. Draw a compass on a 3-inch square board and nail it to the top of the stake, leaving a half-inch gap between the nail head and the board. Fasten a windsock to the nail with fish line. Find an open area for your weather station and dig a hole about 18 inches deep. Place the stake in the bottom so that the thermometer is facing north. Fill the hole back up with dirt.
One of the most widely used climate classification systems is the Koeppen system. Let students research this system and describe a few of the different climates it covers, such as arid or polar. Identify places where these climates are found. Choose a country or continent and have students prepare a climate map for it. Have them create two more maps of the same area -- one of population and one of resources. Ask students to make observations and then draw conclusions regarding what effect climate has on population and human activity.
When a mass of cold air meets a mass of warm humid air, millions of tiny droplets of water form. This is called fog. Create fog by filling a glass jar about one-third full of very hot water. Add a few drops of rubbing alcohol. Put the lid on the jar and let it sit for a minute while the water heats the air above it. Next, place several ice cubes on the lid of the jar to chill the air directly below it. Now, sit back and wait for fog to develop.
Push a thumbtack through the center of an aluminum pie pan from the bottom up. Make a handle for the pan by pushing a pencil, eraser end first, through the thumbtack. Place a Styrofoam plate upside down on a table. Rub the top (which is really the plate's bottom) hard and fast with a piece of wool for one minute. Pick up the pie pan with the pencil handle and place it on top of the Styrofoam plate. Now, touch the pie pan with your finger and watch for a spark.