Class Response Blog 2

Recently, in Science class, we created our own kites to help us understand the unit on wind and weather. We had to create a kite into any shape that we thought would fly, create an original name related to weather and decorate the outside of the kite with weather symbols. For this activity, we also had to write a paragraph on why kites fly and make sure our kites were creative and colorful. I believe that kites fly depending on the shape it is and whether or not the kite has holes for air to travel through. Also I thought that kites fly with a certain kind of wind. For instance, if you were flying a kite in a land breeze it would be harder because the wind is not as strong as a sea breeze. After we created our kites, we brought our kites outside to see if they fly. Sadly, my kites did not fly. I believe that my kites was not able to fly because of the size of my kite and the type of wind that was blowing. Not only was this activity educational it was also a lot fun!

Class Response Blog 1

You may not realize it but wind plays an extreme role in our lives. Depending on the direction the wind is blowing will determine what the weather will be like for the day. Wind is occurs when air is heated by the Sun and then rises. Then when the warm air rises cool air moves quickly to where the warm air once was. This is known as a convection current. A type of wind that we are most familiar with are land breezes and sea breezes. Land breezes occur mostly during the night and early morning while the sea breezes occur during the day. Land breezes form when warm air from the sea is released which rises. Then cool air from the land replaces the warm air which causes the land breeze. When sea breezes form the warm air from the land rises which is replaced by cool air from the sea forming a sea breeze.

Interesting facts:
1) The land breeze at night has lower wind speeds because the difference is temperature is smaller between the land and sea at night.
2) Land can absorb heat faster than water.
3) The monsoon known from South-East Asia is really a larger scale of a land breeze and a sea breeze.

For more information:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wind
http://www.windpower.org/en/tour/wres/localwin.htm