STEM Learning: Making Tornadoes from recycled bottles

Thursday 26th July 2018,

Our plan of intent over the past couple of months, have focused on changes in the weather and the change of seasons. Our children have been discussing how storm clouds form and the sound of thunderstorms recently. We thought that making tornadoes out of recycled plastic bottles was a great way to demonstrate some aspects of the climate and it’s atmospheric conditions.

Making tornadoes is a good way of integrating STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths) learning into the program. We created our own miniature water vortex with water bottles, dish wash liquid, metal washers, duct tape and glitter.

Most tornadoes form from thunderstorms. This occurs when warm and moist air meets cool, dry air. These masses create instability in the atmosphere. A change in wind direction and an increase in wind speed with increasing height creates an invisible, horizontal spinning effect in the atmosphere.

We wanted the children to observe that:

+ Tornadoes are created from wind speed

+ a tornado is a funnel cloud that rotates;

+ tornadoes may appear in different colours. Some may be nearly invisible, while others may appear white, grey, black, blue, red, or even green;

+ recognising the shape of tornadoes as they typically look like a narrow funnel reaching from the clouds down to the ground.

We watched a few YouTube videos to grasp what tornadoes were, what causes this to happen and the characteristics with size, shape, colour and how it rotates.

As soon as we had established what they were, we gathered our materials and worked together with the children to assemble it. It was important to ensure the connection between the two bottles were airtight and watertight. We set the bottles upright so that the bottom of the full bottle is sitting on the table, and the bottom of the empty bottle is sticking straight up into the air. We left an inch of air at the top of the full bottle. The children helped keep the bottle still as we added the duct tape to seal it shut.

Once they were made, the children made some interesting observations on what was occurring. “The wind is in the bottle” Said Sophie. “Spinning” observed Wolfe as we swirled the water filled bottles around. The children could see how the ‘vortex’ was created by swirling the bottle. The vortex is created when the liquid flows from a space of low pressure to a space of high pressure. The children enjoyed tipping the water back and forth into each bottle and experimented with tipping the bottle over slowly and quickly.

We asked:

+ How long does it take the empty bottle to fill with water?

+ Why is it spinning?

+ Is the tornado spinning clockwise or counterclockwise?

+ How does the glitter interact with the tornado?

“ I do a slow tornado.” Said Charlie. “Glitter is moving round…round like water spinning.” Observed Hazel. “If I go fast, the water in the bottle go fast.” Said Olivia P.

We will continue to collect more recycled bottles in a ranges of sizes and shapes to make comparisons and see what works best. We may add materials that create interesting visual effects with water repelling ingredients.