Clouds and Kids
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Hi, I'm Bryan Yeaton and this is the Weather Notebook. Last month, by the miracle of technology-the phone, I gave teacher Sue Ann Martin an assignment: to make a cloud with her fifth grade students at Broken Ground School in Concord, New Hampshire.

Of course, we had to know how things turned out. So we called back. We begin with Emma Curry.

BY: Hi Emma, how are you today?

EC: Good.

BY: So, tell us in your words, what happened.

EC: We had a bottle and put water in it and then you lit a match and you blew the match out and dropped it in the bottle. Then you pressed the bottle down on the table and it puts pressure on it. Then you put it straight up on the table and wait ten seconds until there's a cloud forming and then you open the bottle and mist comes out.

BY: Were you surprised when the cloud actually appeared?

EC: Yeah.

BY: Classmate Danny Hewitt had this to say about the science of condensation:

DH: You're putting the pressure on the bottle, there's not as much airspace inside the bottle, because part of the bottle is being pushed in, so it's smaller.

BY: What does that do to the temperature inside?

DH: It's hot because we just put the match in and it wants to expand, so when the bottle goes back to it's regular shape it'll be expanding.

BY: OK, and when air expands what happens to the temperature then?

DH: It starts to get colder 'cause it's got more room.

BY: And, what happens to the water vapor when you cool it down to a certain temperature?

DH: It will turn to regular water.

BY: Tiny Droplets?

DH: Um, yeah.

BY: And water do we call those droplets?

DH: Um... I'm not sure.

BY: Clouds.

DH: Oh, yeah.

If you want to see or hear the actual assignment, go to our website at weathernotebook.org.