Environment & Meteorology...
Below are our articles on the subject of Environment & Meteorology. If you can't see what you are looking for our other categories are displayed on the left under 'Our Quick Links'...
Bottling a Tornado
A tornado is a violent storm, usually with a twisting funnel of wind extending from a cloud down to the ground. The wind in a tornado is usually 40-110 miles per...
Condensation and Dew
Condensation, on the inside of the kitchen window on a chilly morning or on a cold glass of water, and dew on the grass on a cool autumn evening, is a familiar...
Cooking With the Sun
Cooking with the sun (solar cooking) provides free, safe, clean heat energy that preserves nutrients in food.
Cooking with the Sun
On a clear, bright,...
Desalination of Water
Desalination means taking the salt out of salty water (from lakes or the sea) to make fresh, drinkable water.
How Does Desalination Work?
The two main...
Looking at Soil Profiles
Soil is everywhere – in fields, gardens, woods. Even in pots in houses for house plants. It is what plants need for growth, but what is it actually made of? Soil is...
Make Your Own El Nino
El Niño, or the ENSO (El Niño Southern Oscillation), is a pattern of weather changes that usually occur around Christmas. El Niño means ‘the little boy’ or ‘the...
Making a Rainbow: Breaking Light Into Colour
Sunlight isn't just white – it’s actually made of a mixture of different colours. As light travels through water or glass, it changes speed,...
Making a Sundial
Before watches and clocks were invented, people used the position of the sun in the sky to guess the time of day, but this couldn’t be very accurate. The next step...
Making Biospheres, Ecospheres and Bottle Gardens
In Edwardian times, growing plants in glass cases was very popular, especially because it protected delicate plants, such as ferns, from polluted...
Melting Ice and Rising Sea Levels
Everyone is talking about climate change. As global temperatures rise, this will lead to melting of glaciers and sea ice. If this causes a rise in sea levels, this...
Monitoring the Weather
Weather stations include different ways of measuring the weather. Meteorologists (people who study the weather) use weather stations to monitor the weather day by...
Seeing Soil Erosion
Soil erosion is the loss of healthy and fertile topsoil through water or wind, leaving behind poorer quality subsoil. Soil erosion can lead to famine in developing...
The Science of Recycling
Recycling is important because it saves energy and resources and reduces pollution, as well as creating jobs and keeping things out of landfill.
Paper...
Tracking Sunspots Across the Sun
A sunspot is a cooler area on the surface of the sun, which shows up as a patch that is darker than the rest of the sun’s surface. A sunspot generally lasts for...
Watching Clouds
Clouds are collections of very small drops of water or particles of ice and they form from water vapour in the air.
Types of Clouds
According to the...
What Colour is the Sky?
White light is made up of a mixture of different colours (see ‘Making a Rainbow: Breaking Light Into Colour’). Light travels in waves, and different colours have...
What is Sand?
Sand is a mixture of small grains of rock, ranging in size from 0.0625 mm to 2 mm. Sand is made by erosion and weathering of rocks – seas or rivers carry pebbles...
When the Wind Blows: Making a Wind Vane
Warm air is less dense than cold air, and so as air is warmed by the sun it rises (see 'Warm and Cold: Expanding Air' and 'Floating and Sinking:...
