This is for you GRADE 4 of the Clara Barton Elementary School in Oxford, MA! You all did a great job in class this week and since I am not at your school today, I am watching the tsunami unfold on TV!
Hope you all have a great day!
1. c 
2. e
3. b
4. j
5. d
6. f
7. g
8. i
9. a
10. h
This is a quiz that I give to the kids who I teach in school! It’s tough. You may need to look some of these up on the web or team up with a friend….preffeably one who knows a lot about the weather!
1. A river of wind made by the meeting of massive air masses high up in the atmosphere
2. A relative air pressure difference that usually brings good weather and characterized by descending air that warms
3. An especially fast moving area of wind in the great river of wind associated storms
4. The temperature at which the air needs to be cooled to in order for clouds, fog, and moisture drops to form
5. A relative air pressure difference that brings stormy weather and is characterized by rising, cooling air
6. 
7. 
8. A combination of wind speed and temperature help determine this value that let’s you know how long skin can be exposed to the cold before it freezes
9. The amount of water vapor in the air relative to the amount of water vapor the air can hold at the current temperature and pressure
10. To measure this, you would use a barometer
Choices
a. Humidity
b. Jet streak
c. Jet stream
d. Low pressure
e. High pressure
f. Warm front
g. Cold front
h. Pressure
i. Wind chill factor
j. Dew point
As the big melt down begins this winter, I was curious about the dirt content of the snow on the side of the road. To further investigate, I took some snow from the side of the road. It did not look that dirty compared to the really black snow along the sides of the highways.
Container of roadside snow
Now here is what the melted snow looked like….
Dirt has settled to the bottom
In real life this happens when our wastewater is left to sit in big tanks. Much of the solid waste is pulled to the bottom of the tank by gravity. See our Wastewater Investigation File under the Science Files to learn more!
In the beginning of the month of February, I was looking out the window having my morning cup of coffee and this very large bird landed in the woods near my home!
At first I could not tell what type of bird it was and then it few away revealing its idenity. It was a red-tailed hawk. Although far away, you can see the red on the tip of its tail feathers.
It is one of the largest birds in North America but only weighs around 3 pounds. A dog of the same size would weigh around 30 pounds. According to the Cornell Lab of Ornithology hawks prefer to sit by open fields and it was rare that it came into this area. Red-tailed hawks do nest in tree tops. Nests can be as tall as 6 feet and as wide as 3 feet. If you were to measure from the tip of one extended wing to the other that is called the wingspan. The wingspan can be from 3.5 to 4.5 feet across. These big wings help the hawk fly at speeds around 40 miles per hour! Learn more and hear their sound by visiting www.allaboutbirds.org!
Thankfully, I snowboarded a few days this year. As our natural snow began to melt, Mt. Wachusett gave Mother Nature some help and made more snow for the trails. I noticed that this snow was a lot heavier. My friend Jeff suggested we look at the difference in water content in natural snow vs. man-made snow. So I took my grandfather’s old graduated cylinder, and filled it with equal amounts of newly fallen snow and then with man-made snow from Mt. Wachusett! I only took these pictures after the snow began to melt. Please note that both times the graduated cylinder was filled with snow up to the 32 oz mark!
Newly fallen snow
Man-made snow
Being that the newly fallen snow was heavy, this told me that the water content of the snow would be more than a lighter, fluffier snow. When 4 cups (32 oz) of the newly fallen snow melted, I was left with a tad over a half cup of water (4.5 oz). When the man-made snow melted…. WOW!
Water content in newly fallen snow = 4.5 oz
Water content in man-made snow = 19.5 oz
The man-made snow had a little over 4 times the amount of water as the newly fallen snow!
Try this at home with snow from different storms OR snow that has laid on the ground for a while vs. newly fallen snow. And if you ski or snowboard, melt some mountain snow to see the water content of your mountain’s man-made snow!
I was lucky enough to see Space Shuttle Atlantis launch on May 14, 2010. It was impressive to say the least! I wish we could have been closer. It approved, it will make its last trip into space in June 2011.
Check out the above video to see what it was like to be watching from Jetty Park Beach, Florida.
We have had plenty of snow in Princeton, MA this year but when there is not enough snow for skiing or riding check out how Mt. Wachusett lends Mother Nature a hand!
This fall the Catch the Science Bug website was awarded a Silver Choice Parents’ Award! It’s an honor that reflects our intention to create a website that delivers to you science information in a fun and interesting manner. We are very grateful for this recognition.
Sample of water from the water filtration facility
How much water do you or your parents pay for the water that comes into your house?
When receiving water from your town or city, you pay for every gallon that comes into your home!
The exception is this….f you have your own well, you do not pay for every gallon but you do have to pay for electricity to pump your water and you had to pay to have the well installed.
In our area of Massachusetts, we pay $3.15 for every 100 cubic feet of water. One cubic foot is equal to 7.48 gallons. This means that we pay approximately $0.42 per gallon!
What do you pay where you live?
On average each person in the United States uses between 80 to 100 gallons of water per day.
This is a lot! People living in Europe use about half of that amount.
Please tell us you best water conservation tip!