Science Fair

Grown-ups

Where is it windiest around your home?

4th–8th grade · 3 days of testing · free · ages 9 to 14 · 45 minutes a sitting

  • 👶 Small parts
  • 🌳 Outside
What you need for the a cup spinner and the wind project: straws, paper cups, paper fasteners (brads), a new pencil with an eraser on the end, sand (from a sandbox, or play sand)

My hypothesis

If I change where the spinner stands, then how many turns the spinner makes in 30 seconds will ______, because ______.

You fill in the blanks. Think about what stands in the wind's way in each spot, and where the air can rush through. A guess is a good because: the test finds out.

Change, measure, keep the same

CHANGE

where the spinner stands: Open yard, Beside the house, Under a tree

MEASURE

how many turns the spinner makes in 30 seconds, in turns

KEEP THE SAME

  • the same spinner every time
  • counting for 30 seconds each time
  • the spinner standing on the ground, at the same height
  • visiting all three spots within five minutes, at the same time each day

Scientists call the thing you change the independent variable and the thing you measure the dependent variable. The things you keep the same are the controls: if one of them changed too, you wouldn't know which change made the difference. Try each of the 3 levels 3 times.

What you need

  • Straws: 2
  • Paper cups: 5 paper cups, all the same: four for the spinner and one for sand
  • Paper fasteners (brads): 1 brad
  • A new pencil with an eraser on the end
  • Sand (from a sandbox, or play sand)
  • Crayons or markers
  • A stopwatch or a kitchen timer
  • 🩹 Tape

Steps

  1. Tape two straws together in a cross, with their middles on top of each other.
  2. Tape a paper cup on its side to each straw end, all with their open mouths facing the same way round.
  3. Colour the outside of one cup with a crayon, so you can count its turns.
  4. Grown-up: A grown-up pushes a brad through the middle of the cross and into the pencil's eraser, loose enough to spin.
  5. Fill the last paper cup with sand and stand the pencil in it, eraser up, so the spinner sits on top.
  6. Blow on the spinner to check that it turns easily.
  7. Choose three spots on the ground: the open yard, beside the house and under a tree.
  8. Stay on the ground: never put the spinner on a roof, a wall or a ledge.
  9. Stand the spinner in the first spot, start the timer and count how many times the coloured cup goes round in 30 seconds.
  10. Write the number down, then do the other two spots, in a different order each day.
  11. Repeat on two more days at the same time, to get three tries for each spot, and stay inside in a storm.
  12. Find the mean turns for each spot and draw a bar graph.

One step is a grown-up's, marked above. Write each number down straight away, in the table below, so nothing is lost.

Your results table

MY RESULTSPeabody 🦉 peabody.kids/science-fair

Name ______________________ Fair day ____________

Question: Where is it windiest around your home?

I changed: Where it stands   I measured: how many turns the spinner makes in 30 seconds (turns)

Where it standsTry 1 (turns)Try 2 (turns)Try 3 (turns)Mean
Open yard
Beside the house
Under a tree

MY GRAPH (a bar graph: where it stands along the bottom, turns up the side)

What I noticed: ______________________________________________

From 4th grade, add the tries for each level and divide by how many there were: that's the mean, and it goes in the last column. Then draw a bar graph, one bar for each thing you tried.

📊 Make my graph🖨 Print the whole packet (9 pages)

Why it works

Wind is moving air, and it pushes harder on the open side of each cup than on its rounded back, so the spinner turns. The faster the wind, the harder it pushes and the more turns you count. Buildings, trees and fences slow the wind or steer it around them, so some places are much windier than others.

Going further (7th and up): Change a second thing: stand the spinner on the ground and on a sturdy low table, and graph the turns at each height.

Board layout

MY BOARD · 36 × 48 in tri-foldPeabody 🦉 peabody.kids/science-fair
  1. ❓ Question (10 × 8 in): Where is it windiest around your home?
  2. 💭 Hypothesis (10 × 9 in): If I change where the spinner stands, then how many turns the spinner makes in 30 seconds will ______, because ______.
  3. 🧺 Materials (10 × 12 in): 7 things: see your list.
  4. 🪜 Steps (22 × 9 in): 12 steps, three tries at each level.
  5. 📊 Results (22 × 16 in): Your table (Where it stands down the side, tries across) and your bar graph.
  6. ✅ Conclusion (10 × 14 in): My hypothesis was right / partly right / not right. I know because…

Materials to list: Straws; Paper cups; Paper fasteners (brads); A new pencil with an eraser on the end; Sand (from a sandbox, or play sand); Crayons or markers; A stopwatch or a kitchen timer.

Bring photos or drawings of your test. Nothing wet, hot, powered or alive on the table.

This project at your grade

4th–6th gradeTries: three at each level. The table: units in the header and a mean column. The graph: a bar graph, or a line for a number that grows. The conclusion: right, partly or not, and the numbers that show it.
7th grade and upTries: three or more at each level. The table: a mean for every level of both tests. The graph: a graph with two lines or two sets of bars. The conclusion: the numbers, what might have gone wrong, and a next question. Second variable: stand the spinner on the ground and on a sturdy low table, and graph the turns at each height.

Every grade this project fits works out a mean. See every project for 4th grade, or print a blank results table.

What a judge will ask

  • What did you change, and what did you measure? I changed where the spinner stands and measured how many turns the spinner makes in 30 seconds, in turns.
  • What did you keep the same, and why does that matter? I kept the same spinner every time and counting for 30 seconds each time the same, so the only difference was where the spinner stands.
  • How many times did you test it? 3 times at each of my 3 levels.
  • If you did it again, what would you change or test next? I'd stand the spinner on the ground and on a sturdy low table, and graph the turns at each height.

Make it yours

Keep this project on this device and Peabody counts down to your fair day, with a plan for each day. Nothing is sent anywhere.

Try next

👨‍👩‍👧 For grown-ups and teachers: how much to help, the safety rules, and running a school fair. Science fair v0.16.1 · Checked .

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