Additional Activities

  1. Set up a simulated radar in a darkened classroom. Use a flashlight to represent the radar beam and hang (from the ceiling) mobiles of smooth and crumpled pieces of aluminum foil to depict areas of rain or snow. Swing the flashlight beam around or up and down to search for precipitation areas. Devise a coordinate system to determine the direction and distance to the "echo" sources.

  2. Obtain a tuning fork with a hole in the handle. Attach a length of string so that the vibrating tuning fork can be swung carefully around the head. Strike the fork to make a tone, then swing the tuning fork overhead. The Doppler Effect is evident as a raising and lowering of the pitch as the tuning fork moves toward and away from the listeners, respectively.

  3. NJNIE Project: Weather or Not: Here I Come -- Students use realtime radar images to identify major storms.

Additional InSites


Copyright (c) 1997-2010 by Walter Sanford. All rights reserved.

Weather Radar Activity | Comments/Suggestions?
Online Geoscience-Related Activities | Geosystems in FCPS