This is a fun activity for kids and a great way to involve the whole family in a project. Instead of buying a rain gauge, you can easily make one at home with recycled items.
Rain gauges are great tools for gardeners and weather enthusiasts to track how much rain is falling. Children can enjoy using a rain gauge to track rainfall over time. Here’s everything you need to make your own rain gauge.
Whether you’re a gardener, lawn perfectionist, or just a weather nerd, there’s plenty of reasons to track rainfall at your home. Keeping on top of the rainfall amounts will help you maintain a healthy lawn and garden, preventing overwatering and drought stress. A rain gauge makes it easy, with affordable low-tech options or cool high-tech gadgets. Check out the comparison chart to see all of our favorites and then scroll down to read the reviews in the next section. Continue reading 5 Best Rain Gauges for Weather Nerds→
One of the best ways to nourish a child’s curiosity and imagination is to give them gifts related to their interests. If your son or daughter is obsessed with space, there are plenty of cool and educational astronomy gifts to help inspire them. We’ve gathered space gifts perfect for a variety of ages, whether they like science fiction or dream of one day blasting off themselves. If you want to get your kid interested in science and astronomy there are lots of cool options. The gifts are perfect for children who dream of being an astronomer, an astronaut, or any child obsessed with space.
Coolest Space & Astronomy Gifts for Kids
1. MaxUSee Kids Telescope
One of the best gifts for child aspiring astronomers is a telescope of their own. This one is made especially for kids and is very affordable. This easy to use telescope comes with two lenses and a finder scope which makes it easier to locate objects in the sky. It also includes a moon mirror, which makes it easier to see a full moon without glare. Perfect for backyard viewing or portable enough to take to the park.
Summertime can be pretty hard without air conditioning. But we’ve got several tips to help keep your home cool during summer even without A/C. Alternatives to air conditioning can range from simple fans up to lifestyle choices to help you keep your house or apartment cool in summer without A/C.
10 Tips: How to keep a house or apartment cold during summer without air conditioning
Each of these tricks to keep a home cool in summer may be useful by themselves but you may get more mileage if you combine different techniques at the same time.
1. Close your blinds, shades or curtains
A tremendous amount of heat can enter an apartment or house through its windows in summer. By closing your blinds or curtains or shades in the morning before things get hot, and keeping them closed during the day until things cool off, you can typically lower the temperature in your house by several degrees. This is even a good cost-saving strategy for those with air conditioning because keeping your curtains closed will reduce the amount of work that your A/C unit has to do to keep the temperature cool. Continue reading How to keep your apartment or house cool during summer without air conditioning→
Are you looking for the perfect weather-themed gift for the weather nerd in your life? We’ve got some ideas for weather-related gifts whether you’re shopping for a storm-chaser, weather nerd, bad weather lover or just a dad who’s obsessed with checking the meteorological forecast.
Weather Geek Gift Ideas
1. I Love Rain T-shirt
Do you know somebody who loves rain or “bad” weather? This shirt is the perfect gift for anyone who can’t wait to run out and jump in puddles after a rainstorm. Or for those kids who refuse to come in and want to dance in the rain (or, really, a person who loves bad weather of all ages). With a cute illustration of an umbrella and raindrops, this t-shirt proclaims: I love rain!
With adult and youth sizes, this is perfect for kids of any age who enjoy a good summertime thunderstorm. Get it as a gift for aspiring meteorologists, storm chasers, and weather enthusiasts. This shirt makes a great gift for people who aren’t disappointed by rain and like storms!
Getting your kids interested in science is very important. Today there is a shortage of people going into STEM fields (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math). But beyond possible career directions, developing an active curiosity and interest in science can yield all sorts of benefits for children. It can lead to them becoming better critical thinkers and rational adults later on. Because of under-representation issues, these days many parents are also wondering how do you get girls interested in science or STEM careers? And how do you get kids interested in STEM or science more generally?
In this article, we’re going to list several ideas you can try to ignite an interest in science and STEM.
Tips to get children interested in science
The example ages listed below are suggestions but the age-appropriateness of each activity will differ with each child. Let’s begin!
Give your kids STEM toys and science kits (Age 3+)
For children of all ages, play is a great way to learn and develop interests. If you’d like your child to become interested in science, you probably aren’t buying them a bunch of princess toys to begin with. Buying STEM aligned toys might take many forms, from explicitly science-oriented toys to buying toys that require them to use their brains.
A century ago, if you wanted to know which direction the wind was blowing, your only choice might be a creaky old weathervane. But today there are several types of wind speed and direction instruments available. In this article, we’ve rounded up the best wind direction and speed meters for your consideration. We’re going to list the least complicated and most simple wind direction meters first and then move on to progressively more complex and fully featured wind direction gauges. Let’s get started!
This simple windsock is the most basic type of wind direction meter that exists. This airport-style windsock is a large easily visible wind gauge that will make the wind direction very obvious and to anyone looking at it. On the pro side, this sock needs very little setup and is pretty hard to misread and doesn’t require any batteries (though you will need to buy a wind sock pole separately if you don’t already have one). On the other hand, there is a small possibility that the sock might rip, and it doesn’t give you numeric measurements like some of the other wind speed meters in this article. And if the breeze is too light you might not be able to tell that there is a wind blowing at all, because it takes a certain minimum wind speed to elevate the windsock.
Anemometers or wind speed meters are terrific tools for teaching science to kids because they are easy to understand even from young ages. Everyone who has experience windy days and less windy days is familiar with the concept of fast wind vs a slow breeze no matter their age. And, it stands to reason, that there ought to be a way to measure the speed of wind, right? By equipping a young person with an anemometer they’re in the driver’s seat to answer that question themselves. Science can often be abstract but with an anemometer, kids can experience it in a hands-on way.
In this article, we’re going to be suggesting some of the best anemometer kits for kids as well as exploring some related topics like making an anemometer themselves. If you’re only interested in our recommendations, you can skip straight down to the recommended products section.
If you’re a sailing enthusiast you probably are no stranger to needing accurate wind speed and direction information. There are a slew of wind meters available today for just about every need: from handheld anemometers (wind speed meters), to sailboat mounted wind direction indicators and more. In this article, we’re going to do a roundup of the best wind meters for sailing, wind vanes for sailboats, the best anemometers for sailing, and more.
This floating anemometer is one of the best wind speed meters for sailing. It can measure wind speeds ranging from 0.5 miles per hour all the way up to 99MPH at user-selectable intervals of every five, ten, or 13 seconds (in addition to calculating the average wind speed and tracking peak speed for you). Plus it can also measure wind temperature and wind chill in both Fahrenheit and Celsius. One other nice feature about this sailboat anemometer is that it comes with a durable build and a bright yellow flip-shield. Naturally, it’s also water-resistant so if it falls into the water you’ll be able to easily spot it floating. Also comes with a loop for a lanyard or wrist strap if desired. A belt sheath is also available for this product.
Encouraging children and young people to be interested in science can yield all sorts of rewards later on in life. One way to promote an interest in scientific and technical fields is to give STEM gifts for kids (STEM stands for Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math). Weather-related gifts can be especially accessible for children because weather is immersive and experiential– they see what the weather is like every day (it’s not an abstract concept).
We’ve rounded up some of the best gifts for kids who are interested in weather below:
Great science & weather gift ideas for children
1. KidzLabs Tornado Maker Science Kit
Here’s a great science gift for kids: a tornado simulator! This weather kit allows children to simulate tornados to learn about how vortexes work using water and a recycled bottle. Kids can put the kit together themselves (with adult supervision) and then run a “tornado experiment” which will wow family and friends.
Battery-powered (2 AAs not included). Requires a Phillips head screwdriver to assemble.
