ð May 31 - Homework: Play with your food (and learn about the air!)
You’re told not to play with your food, but here’s a good reason to – so you can learn more about the air around us!
The next time you are at a restaurant or a party and see ketchup packets, grab a few. You will need those along with water and a one-liter bottle for this experiment. First, test the ketchup packets to make sure they float (as some don’t) and then fold it lengthwise to get it inside the bottle. Fill the bottle completely full with water and put on the lid.
How did he make the ketchup packet sink? The packet will first float because of the tiny air bubbles that get trapped inside when it’s sealed at the factory. When Jason squeezes the bottle, the air (like all gases) is easier to squeeze than water – so the force of the squeeze pushes on the tiny air bubbles and shrinks them. The ketchup packet becomes more dense than the water and sinks!
ð May 29 - Story Time: Real-life tornado behind ‘The Wizard of Oz’
Have you watched the movie TheWizard of Oz? What sent Dorothy to the Land of Oz? That’s right, a tornado! Did you know that if it wasn’t for an actual tornado from 1879 and a lady, Dorothy Gale, who died in that tornado, there may have never been this classic movie?
Let’s gather around for story time and listen to AccuWeather’s This Date in Weather History podcast to learn more about that devastating tornado and Dorothy – she was really found without her shoes.
The Wizard of Oz is set in Kansas – part of Tornado Alley. It’s no coincidence that most of the tornadoes you hear about occur in the United States, since that is where the majority of tornadoes across the globe happen. However, there has been a tornado on every continent except one: Antarctica!
University of Oklahoma storm chasers and observers observed this May 3, 1999 funnel that became the F-5 storm in central Oklahoma. (AP Photo/J. Pat Carter)
â¹ï¸âï¸ May 26 - Gym class: Why do you sweat? (Hint: It’s not to get smelly!)
There’s no way to avoid it – if you are playing outside on a hot day, you will sweat. You may find sweat annoying, but it’s actually a good thing for your body. Grab a little hand sanitizer and watch the video below to find out why:
You get a gold star if you and your family have your outdoor thermometer positioned in the shade – that’s what meteorologists do.
Temperatures reached the century mark as measured on a bank thermometer in downtown Kansas City, Missouri, on Tuesday, Aug. 2, 2010. (AP Photo/Charlie Riedel)
When a thermometer is in direct sunlight, it will display a reading that is too warm. Remember that the sun heats the ground, and then the ground warms the air. A thermometer in the sun will heat up faster than the air and give you a wrong temperature.
So what’s wrong with bank thermometers? Two things – some are sitting directly in the sun and over top of pavement. What’s wrong with pavement? If you want to stay cool on a sunny day, is it smarter to wear a white or black shirt? White shirt, right? That’s because black clothes and pavement absorb more heat from the sun than white shirts and the grass – causing bank thermometers to read the highest temperatures around an area.
â¹ï¸âï¸ May 21 - Recess: Build a condo for bees instead of running from them
Bees may scare you, but they do more good than harm (unless you are allergic) – we need bees for some of the food we eat to grow.
Want to help bees thrive? You can create a bee habitat by leaving a tree limb in your yard (away from where you play or the door to your home). Another fun activity to do at home is to make a “bee condo.” Ask an adult to drill holes of different sizes about three to five inches deep in a piece of scrap lumber. The “bee condo” is complete once you mount that lumber to a post or under eaves that get sunlight.
â¹ï¸âï¸ May 21 - Gym class: This bird wants you to share your grape jelly!
Not all birds eat seeds that you leave out in your bird feeder – some of you may have a red colored feeder filled with sugar water for hummingbirds. If you live east of the Rocky Mountains in the United States, you may notice that Baltimore Orioles sneak a drink from hummingbird feeders. What they really want is a part of your peanut butter and jelly sandwich – let’s find out more!
There is a chance that the Baltimore Orioles that AccuWeather Senior Meteorologist Danny Pydynowski is feeding through this summer traveled more than 2,500 miles (4,023 km) from South America.
Baltimore Orioles are one of the many migratory birds that head south to warmer weather in the winter and head north to more comfortable conditions in the summer – they are not fans of snow!
In addition to enjoying eating jelly, Baltimore Orioles will also eat slices of oranges. (Pixabay/Michael McGough)
Baltimore Orioles have been seen as far south as Colombia and western Venezuela in South America and northward to southern Canada, according to The Cornell Lab. Think about their trip the next time you are in the car and ask your parents, “Are we there yet?”
ð May 18 - Pop quiz! Mountains are closer to the sun, why aren’t they warmer than beaches?
Mountains are the closest to the sun, but the farthest from the true way that the Earth warms. The sun does not heat the air directly. Instead, the sun warms the ground and that heat flows up and warms the air.
Yes, there is ground to warm on the top of mountains – but not as much as flatter places outside of the mountains. Also, air cools as it rises up from the ground – making the top of a mountain cooler than the bottom! That’s why there can still be snow on some mountain peaks for people to go skiing on the Fourth of July!
(Photo/Arapahoe Basin, Ian Zinner)
ð¬ May 18 - Weather Lab: Watch water magically rise on its own
Here’s something that defies gravity – watch water rise up in a jar using something as simple as a candle. Doesn’t seem possible? Let’s try it.
You’ll need a small shallow plate, candle, glass or jar, lighter, water (dyed with your favorite food coloring), and adult supervision. Once you have all of your supplies, watch what AccuWeather Senior Meteorologist Jason Nicholls does to make the water rise up in the bottle.
When the flame goes out, the air inside the bottle cools and the air pressure lowers. Higher pressure outside of the bottle pushes down on the water in the dish, forcing it up in the bottle until the pressure is the same inside and outside of the bottle.
The air was moving from high to low pressure – the same thing happens with the weather. Winds will always blow from where nice weather is (high pressure/blue Hs on weather maps) to hurricanes and storms (low pressure/red Ls on weather maps).
ð May 14 - Homework: The case of the breathing forest
A forest breathing? Trees breathe in carbon dioxide and breathe out oxygen, but not like how you take a deep breath. They use photosynthesis instead.
However, let’s watch the video below – that looks like the forest is breathing!
What you are seeing are trees swaying in the wind and their roots moving back and forth. When the ground is really soggy, roots have a hard time holding onto the soil. Think of it this way – which is easier for you to grab, mud or dirt? Mud will slip through your fingers, not dry dirt.
Seeing a video of the forest breathing is neat, but when the roots don’t have a firm grip on the wet soil as winds are blowing, trees can easily get knocked down.
ð May 14 - Story Time: You’re not alone if you are scared of the weather
When you are scared of something, it is called a phobia. The most common phobia that you may know is claustrophobia, when someone is scared of being in tight places.
While people have phobias of thunder, lightning, rain, snow, and even the sun, it is usually not just the weather they are scared of. People worry about what will happen from that weather. Such as snow – most of us love seeing snow in the forecast, but someone who has a snow phobia is usually scared about getting stuck in their homes during a snowstorm.
ð¶ May 11 - Music class: 5-second rule for thunderstorms
We aren’t talking about when you drop food on the ground – the five-second rule for thunderstorms will tell you how far away a bolt of lightning is:
Regardless of how far away the lightning is, remember that as soon as you hear thunder, you are close enough to be struck by lightning. Lightning often strikes more than three miles from the center of a thunderstorm, according to our friends at the National Weather Service, often when it’s not even raining!
Lightning is seen in the sky over the University of Kansas in Lawrence, Kansas, on Thursday, March 26, 2020. (AP Photo/Orlin Wagner)
ð May 11 – Homework: Create a mini lightning bolt at home
Your homework is to create a mini lightning bolt at home –one lightning strike you don’t have to run and seek shelter from.
All you need is a balloon, compact fluorescent lightbulb (CFL) and someone willing to let you rub the balloon on their head.
As AccuWeather Senior Meteorologist Jason Nicholls demonstrates below, rub the balloon on your or someone’s head to build up a static charge. Then, hold the balloon to the metal tip at the end of the lightbulb. Don’t blink as you should see the lightbulb briefly flash like a mini lightning bolt. This experiment works best when the air is drier so you can build up that static electricity.
ð May 7 - Study Hall: What does hail have in common with a tree trunk?
Hail and a tree trunk? One is a ball of ice that falls from a thunderstorm; the other is found in your yard or a nearby park – so what could these two things have in common? Let’s find out below:
A tree trunk gets a ring every year it is alive; a hailstone gets a ring every time it takes a ferris wheel ride in a thunderstorm. The more times a hailstone goes up and down in a thunderstorm, the larger it will get.
Look at the image of the record hailstone below – it looks more like a volleyball with spikes. As a hailstone tumbles around in the air, it takes on different shapes from being smooth to jagged. The bigger the hailstone is, the more likely it will look like a ball with spikes instead of something that will roll nicely on the ground.
An image of the record-setting hailstone that fell in Vivian, South Dakota, on July 23, 2010. (Photo/NWS Aberdeen)
ð¨ May 4 - Art Class: Weather Photographer of the Year contest is underway
There are three categories you can enter – the main contest, which will crown the Weather Photographer of the Year 2021, along with Young Weather Photographer of the Year 2021 for our students aged 13-17 and a new category for photos taken just with mobile phones or tablets.
Why is there a Weather Photographer of the Year 2021 (Mobile Phone) this year? Because our phones can capture amazing pictures. Check out the photos below that show a perfect snowflake -- they were taken with nothing more than an iPhone!
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News / Weather News
AccuWeather School Spring Semester: Weeks 16-19
By Kristina Pydynowski, AccuWeather senior meteorologist
Updated Jun 27, 2021 11:42 AM EDT
ð May 31 - Homework: Play with your food (and learn about the air!)
You’re told not to play with your food, but here’s a good reason to – so you can learn more about the air around us!
The next time you are at a restaurant or a party and see ketchup packets, grab a few. You will need those along with water and a one-liter bottle for this experiment. First, test the ketchup packets to make sure they float (as some don’t) and then fold it lengthwise to get it inside the bottle. Fill the bottle completely full with water and put on the lid.
The ketchup packet will float at first, but watch happens when AccuWeather Senior Meteorologist Jason Nicholls squeezes the bottle.
How did he make the ketchup packet sink? The packet will first float because of the tiny air bubbles that get trapped inside when it’s sealed at the factory. When Jason squeezes the bottle, the air (like all gases) is easier to squeeze than water – so the force of the squeeze pushes on the tiny air bubbles and shrinks them. The ketchup packet becomes more dense than the water and sinks!
ð May 29 - Story Time: Real-life tornado behind ‘The Wizard of Oz’
Have you watched the movie The Wizard of Oz? What sent Dorothy to the Land of Oz? That’s right, a tornado! Did you know that if it wasn’t for an actual tornado from 1879 and a lady, Dorothy Gale, who died in that tornado, there may have never been this classic movie?
Let’s gather around for story time and listen to AccuWeather’s This Date in Weather History podcast to learn more about that devastating tornado and Dorothy – she was really found without her shoes.
The Wizard of Oz is set in Kansas – part of Tornado Alley. It’s no coincidence that most of the tornadoes you hear about occur in the United States, since that is where the majority of tornadoes across the globe happen. However, there has been a tornado on every continent except one: Antarctica!
University of Oklahoma storm chasers and observers observed this May 3, 1999 funnel that became the F-5 storm in central Oklahoma. (AP Photo/J. Pat Carter)
â¹ï¸âï¸ May 26 - Gym class: Why do you sweat? (Hint: It’s not to get smelly!)
There’s no way to avoid it – if you are playing outside on a hot day, you will sweat. You may find sweat annoying, but it’s actually a good thing for your body. Grab a little hand sanitizer and watch the video below to find out why:
While your body is helping you stay cool as you sweat, you need to do your part and drink extra water or other liquids when it’s hot outside. Did you know that more than half of your body is water? Sweat comes from that water, so if you don’t drink extra on hot days, you’ll get dehydrated and really sick.
(Photo/gjohnstonphoto/Getty Images)
ð¬ May 26 - Weather Lab: Don’t be fooled by bank thermometers!
Next time you drive past a bank thermometer on a sunny day, compare the temperature you see with the one on your car thermometer or on your AccuWeather app. More than likely, that bank thermometer will read a much higher temperature – and one that is not right.
You get a gold star if you and your family have your outdoor thermometer positioned in the shade – that’s what meteorologists do.
Temperatures reached the century mark as measured on a bank thermometer in downtown Kansas City, Missouri, on Tuesday, Aug. 2, 2010. (AP Photo/Charlie Riedel)
When a thermometer is in direct sunlight, it will display a reading that is too warm. Remember that the sun heats the ground, and then the ground warms the air. A thermometer in the sun will heat up faster than the air and give you a wrong temperature.
So what’s wrong with bank thermometers? Two things – some are sitting directly in the sun and over top of pavement. What’s wrong with pavement? If you want to stay cool on a sunny day, is it smarter to wear a white or black shirt? White shirt, right? That’s because black clothes and pavement absorb more heat from the sun than white shirts and the grass – causing bank thermometers to read the highest temperatures around an area.
â¹ï¸âï¸ May 21 - Recess: Build a condo for bees instead of running from them
Bees may scare you, but they do more good than harm (unless you are allergic) – we need bees for some of the food we eat to grow.
Want to help bees thrive? You can create a bee habitat by leaving a tree limb in your yard (away from where you play or the door to your home). Another fun activity to do at home is to make a “bee condo.” Ask an adult to drill holes of different sizes about three to five inches deep in a piece of scrap lumber. The “bee condo” is complete once you mount that lumber to a post or under eaves that get sunlight.
Pixabay/jggrz
It is not just bees helping to grow fruits, vegetables and flowers. Let’s send out a big thank you to hummingbirds, bats, beetles, ants, wasps and butterflies for being great pollinators!
â¹ï¸âï¸ May 21 - Gym class: This bird wants you to share your grape jelly!
Not all birds eat seeds that you leave out in your bird feeder – some of you may have a red colored feeder filled with sugar water for hummingbirds. If you live east of the Rocky Mountains in the United States, you may notice that Baltimore Orioles sneak a drink from hummingbird feeders. What they really want is a part of your peanut butter and jelly sandwich – let’s find out more!
There is a chance that the Baltimore Orioles that AccuWeather Senior Meteorologist Danny Pydynowski is feeding through this summer traveled more than 2,500 miles (4,023 km) from South America.
Baltimore Orioles are one of the many migratory birds that head south to warmer weather in the winter and head north to more comfortable conditions in the summer – they are not fans of snow!
In addition to enjoying eating jelly, Baltimore Orioles will also eat slices of oranges. (Pixabay/Michael McGough)
Baltimore Orioles have been seen as far south as Colombia and western Venezuela in South America and northward to southern Canada, according to The Cornell Lab. Think about their trip the next time you are in the car and ask your parents, “Are we there yet?”
ð May 18 - Pop quiz! Mountains are closer to the sun, why aren’t they warmer than beaches?
The closer you stand next to a fire, the warmer you get. So why doesn’t that work with the sun? Mountains aren’t the warmest spots on Earth.
Mountains are the closest to the sun, but the farthest from the true way that the Earth warms. The sun does not heat the air directly. Instead, the sun warms the ground and that heat flows up and warms the air.
Yes, there is ground to warm on the top of mountains – but not as much as flatter places outside of the mountains. Also, air cools as it rises up from the ground – making the top of a mountain cooler than the bottom! That’s why there can still be snow on some mountain peaks for people to go skiing on the Fourth of July!
(Photo/Arapahoe Basin, Ian Zinner)
ð¬ May 18 - Weather Lab: Watch water magically rise on its own
Here’s something that defies gravity – watch water rise up in a jar using something as simple as a candle. Doesn’t seem possible? Let’s try it.
You’ll need a small shallow plate, candle, glass or jar, lighter, water (dyed with your favorite food coloring), and adult supervision. Once you have all of your supplies, watch what AccuWeather Senior Meteorologist Jason Nicholls does to make the water rise up in the bottle.
When the flame goes out, the air inside the bottle cools and the air pressure lowers. Higher pressure outside of the bottle pushes down on the water in the dish, forcing it up in the bottle until the pressure is the same inside and outside of the bottle.
The air was moving from high to low pressure – the same thing happens with the weather. Winds will always blow from where nice weather is (high pressure/blue Hs on weather maps) to hurricanes and storms (low pressure/red Ls on weather maps).
ð May 14 - Homework: The case of the breathing forest
A forest breathing? Trees breathe in carbon dioxide and breathe out oxygen, but not like how you take a deep breath. They use photosynthesis instead.
However, let’s watch the video below – that looks like the forest is breathing!
What you are seeing are trees swaying in the wind and their roots moving back and forth. When the ground is really soggy, roots have a hard time holding onto the soil. Think of it this way – which is easier for you to grab, mud or dirt? Mud will slip through your fingers, not dry dirt.
Seeing a video of the forest breathing is neat, but when the roots don’t have a firm grip on the wet soil as winds are blowing, trees can easily get knocked down.
ð May 14 - Story Time: You’re not alone if you are scared of the weather
If you get scared when you hear thunder, see a dark cloud or any other type of weather, you aren’t the only one. One out of every 10 Americans may suffer from some degree of severe weather fear.
When you are scared of something, it is called a phobia. The most common phobia that you may know is claustrophobia, when someone is scared of being in tight places.
While people have phobias of thunder, lightning, rain, snow, and even the sun, it is usually not just the weather they are scared of. People worry about what will happen from that weather. Such as snow – most of us love seeing snow in the forecast, but someone who has a snow phobia is usually scared about getting stuck in their homes during a snowstorm.
ð¶ May 11 - Music class: 5-second rule for thunderstorms
We aren’t talking about when you drop food on the ground – the five-second rule for thunderstorms will tell you how far away a bolt of lightning is:
Regardless of how far away the lightning is, remember that as soon as you hear thunder, you are close enough to be struck by lightning. Lightning often strikes more than three miles from the center of a thunderstorm, according to our friends at the National Weather Service, often when it’s not even raining!
Lightning is seen in the sky over the University of Kansas in Lawrence, Kansas, on Thursday, March 26, 2020. (AP Photo/Orlin Wagner)
ð May 11 – Homework: Create a mini lightning bolt at home
Your homework is to create a mini lightning bolt at home – one lightning strike you don’t have to run and seek shelter from.
All you need is a balloon, compact fluorescent lightbulb (CFL) and someone willing to let you rub the balloon on their head.
As AccuWeather Senior Meteorologist Jason Nicholls demonstrates below, rub the balloon on your or someone’s head to build up a static charge. Then, hold the balloon to the metal tip at the end of the lightbulb. Don’t blink as you should see the lightbulb briefly flash like a mini lightning bolt. This experiment works best when the air is drier so you can build up that static electricity.
ð May 7 - Study Hall: What does hail have in common with a tree trunk?
Hail and a tree trunk? One is a ball of ice that falls from a thunderstorm; the other is found in your yard or a nearby park – so what could these two things have in common? Let’s find out below:
A tree trunk gets a ring every year it is alive; a hailstone gets a ring every time it takes a ferris wheel ride in a thunderstorm. The more times a hailstone goes up and down in a thunderstorm, the larger it will get.
Hailstones can be as small as peas or as large as baseballs, softballs and even grapefruit. The largest hailstone to ever hit the United States was around the size of a volleyball! Not only would that have had many rings, but it would have been extremely dangerous.
ð May 7 – Pop quiz! In which American state did volleyball-sized hail slam down in 2010?
If you guessed South Dakota, you are correct!
A hailstone with a diameter of a whopping 8 inches hit Vivian, South Dakota, on July 23, 2010. That’s about the size of a volleyball and is the largest hailstone on record in the United States. This hailstone also weighed about 1.94 pounds!
Look at the image of the record hailstone below – it looks more like a volleyball with spikes. As a hailstone tumbles around in the air, it takes on different shapes from being smooth to jagged. The bigger the hailstone is, the more likely it will look like a ball with spikes instead of something that will roll nicely on the ground.
An image of the record-setting hailstone that fell in Vivian, South Dakota, on July 23, 2010. (Photo/NWS Aberdeen)
ð¨ May 4 - Art Class: Weather Photographer of the Year contest is underway
Do you like taking pictures of the weather? If so, you should consider entering your best photo in the Royal Meteorological Society’s Weather Photographer of the Year 2021 contest, in association with AccuWeather. One of the best parts of this contest is that it is free to enter – and you can win awesome prizes!
There are three categories you can enter – the main contest, which will crown the Weather Photographer of the Year 2021, along with Young Weather Photographer of the Year 2021 for our students aged 13-17 and a new category for photos taken just with mobile phones or tablets.
Why is there a Weather Photographer of the Year 2021 (Mobile Phone) this year? Because our phones can capture amazing pictures. Check out the photos below that show a perfect snowflake -- they were taken with nothing more than an iPhone!
AccuWeather is associated with this photo contest because knowing what weather is headed to your community through our free app may help you capture that amazing shot!
Be sure to only head out to take weather photos when it is safe to do so – head indoors as soon as you hear thunder, "Turn Around, Don’t Drown" when you see floodwaters and always seek shelter when a tornado warning is issued.
You have until June 29 to enter the contest with the winners announced in mid-October. You can also view the winners from last year to get ideas for your entry.
Good luck!
Additional experiments and reporting by Jason Nicholls.
Previously:
AccuWeather School Spring Semester: Weeks 12-15
AccuWeather School Spring Semester: Weeks 8-11
AccuWeather School Spring Semester: Weeks 4-7
AccuWeather School Spring Semester: Weeks 1-3
AccuWeather School Winter Break
AccuWeather School Fall Semester: Weeks 14-15
AccuWeather School Fall Semester: Weeks 12-13
AccuWeather School Fall Semester: Weeks 10-11
AccuWeather School Fall Semester: Weeks 8-9
AccuWeather School Fall Semester: Weeks 6-7
AccuWeather School Fall Semester: Weeks 4-5
AccuWeather School Fall Semester: Weeks 2-3
AccuWeather School Fall Semester: Week 1
AccuWeather Summer Camp: Week 13
AccuWeather Summer Camp: Week 12
AccuWeather Summer Camp: Week 11
AccuWeather Summer Camp: Week 10
AccuWeather Summer Camp: Week 9
AccuWeather Summer Camp: Week 8
AccuWeather Summer Camp: Week 7
AccuWeather Summer Camp: Week 6
AccuWeather Summer Camp: Week 5
AccuWeather Summer Camp: Week 4
AccuWeather Summer Camp: Week 3
AccuWeather Summer Camp: Week 2
AccuWeather Summer Camp: Week 1
AccuWeather School: Week 1
AccuWeather School: Week 2
AccuWeather School: Week 3
AccuWeather School: Week 4
AccuWeather School: Week 5
AccuWeather School: Week 6
AccuWeather School: Week 7
AccuWeather School: Week 8
AccuWeather School: Week 9