In our house we love toys and games that offer some educational value. Education is extremely important for children growing up (and even as adults) and some of the best ways for children to learn is when they are doing it through play and experiments without them even knowing that they are expanding their knowledge.
At the start of the year, we tried out the Science MAD! Rock Tumbler with the 11 year old, and it went down brilliantly – she loved turning the raw, rough and dirty rocks into smooth, clean and polished stones (although it did take a few days and lots of noise). Now with the weather being as bad as it is at the moment, we are going to try out another Science Mad! product, a Weather Station (suitable for children aged 6+). After all, the weather is something that everybody will and does talk about.
Weather is a constant in our lives. It doesn’t matter if we are at home, school, work or outside, the weather is always there, rain or shine, sleet or snow – good or bad! For the most part we probably watch the weather programs on the news to find out what will be happening, or we just look out of a window and make our own determinations. But the weather can change in the blink of an eye, and you can go from a pleasant walk in the sun to being battered by hail in no time at all, that’s the beauty of the British weather for you.
With the Science Mad Weather Station kids can soon turn a fascination with the weather and become an expert meteorologist in no time.
What’s in the box:
- 1x Weather station
- 3x Anemometer cups
- 1x Mounting post
- Instruction manual
Before using the Weather Station there is some simple and quick assembly that is required. It really is simple: just unscrew the cap on top of the weather station, insert the three anemometer cups (they look like big measuring spoons), they will only fit in one way so you can’t go wrong, and then screw the cap back on. Finally attach the mounting post to the base. Assembling will only take 2 or 3 minutes.
The Science Mad 5-in-1 Weather Station allows to measure weather conditions where you are.
Overall, for anyone with an interest in the science of weather then this is an excellent little starter set. Very quick and minimal set up is required, in fact in took us longer to decide where to place it in the garden than it did to assemble it.
It measures wind speed when the wind spins the 3-cup anemometer and gives you the reading in miles and kilometres per hour on the dial so that you can record it. There is an arrow so that you can see in what direction the wind is coming from and there is also an integral compass so that you can use the two together you can get an actual reading of direction. The weather station is also equipped with a thermometer that measures the outside ambient temperature in both degrees Celsius and Fahrenheit. Finally, it also allows you to measure rainfall with its pull-out rain gauge so that you can measure the inches or millimetres of rainfall over a particular period.
It is quite an interesting little tool and by taking down daily measurements and recording them in a notebook or on a spreadsheet children will be able to see how weather patterns change daily and through the seasons.
The Science MAD! 5-in-1 Weather Station is a very interesting and educational tool for budding little meteorologists and scientists and would make an excellent gift this Christmas for inquisitive minds. And it doesn’t require any batteries or even a screen!
Rating: 5/5
RRP: £17.99
Available to buy from Amazon here.
