Grand Howl

Category	Activities
Badge	Scientist
Time to allocate (mins)	20
Outcome	How much rain is really falling when you watch a heavy shower through the window of your home? How about on other days when it’s just a light shower? Find out by making your own rain gauge, recording the results and studying your findings.
Resources	A plastic (soft drink) bottle Some stones or pebbles Tape Marker (felt pen) A ruler
Instructions	Instructions: Cut the top off the bottle. Place some stones in the bottom of the bottle. Turn the top upside down and tape it to the bottle. Use a ruler and marker pen to make a scale on the bottle. Pour water into the bottle until it reaches the bottom strip on the scale. Congratulations, you have finished your rain gauge. Put your rain gauge outside where it can collect water when it starts raining. After a rain shower has finished, check to see how far up the scale the water has risen. What's happening? Rain falls into the top of the gauge and collects at the bottom, where it can be easily measured. Try comparing the amount of rain to the length of time the shower lasted, was it a short and heavy rain shower or a long and light one? If you want to get serious you can graph the rainfall over weeks or even months, this is especially interesting if the place you live experiences varying seasons where sometimes it is very dry and other times it is very wet.