Spring Garden

Weather Wise

                                                                                                    

As the weather is always the main talking point of every day we decided we wanted to make a weather station so we set up a crate on an exposed corner of the fence - and yes you guessed it - it is raining! 

Each person was given an element of the weather station to create

starting with the barometer by adding a pressurised tube into water in a beaker and measuring the bubble rising and falling in the tube

 Next we made an Humidity gague by stealing a long strand of hair from a student! As the humidity increases the hair tightens and raises up the plastic indicator

 Then we made an Anometer to test the wind speed out of paper cups and a pencil

 The we needed a compass so that we could check the wind direction

 and a weather vane

 readjusting the barometer

 Drawing up a weather diary for the data

 Installing the Anometer 

 we added a thermometer so we can check the minimum and maximum temperature and a rain guague so we can measure the rainfall

Making our first record and surprise surprise there is rain in the guauge already! 

adding and checking the data - a job well done 

Larging it Up again!

 The group from Penrice decided to go for a traditional style windmill with sails so we set about creating one with old sheets and some found materials from on site. The student ambassadors worked really hard with the kids to get this completed.

Using an old office chair and some bits of plastic pipe and a hub made from an old fence post, we assembled the windmill.

The finished windmill caught the wind immediately and everyone applauded :)

Larging it up!

We dug a test hole to start creating a large windmill, using a drainpipe and bit of old polytunnel pole as a shaft.

Designing the hub

Making the crank for the winding mechanism made form old pits of plumbing pipe

Creating the sails from bits of plywood and guttering

The test site is nearly complete

After some tweaking it is ready for its permanent site

Add the finishing touches

Wooden Windmill Workshops