Family Science: Clouds and Atmosphere

 Elementary aged kids like weather projects.  Start with clouds.  Here is a cloud chart from NASA. Did you know NASA JPL has a dichotomous key for clouds?  Biology uses dichotomous keys to identify species, especially plants or trees.  Make clouds.  Print and make a Cloud Viewer.  (There is a Sky Viwer, too.  Make a Layers if the Atmosphere Foldable.  This is a bit more school than fun.  Does your family want to learn more about identifying clouds?  Work through GLOBE’s Clouds Protocol.  The Cloud Protocol is one of the modules in GLOBE e-training.  GLOBE is a program for kids to collect and submit data.  I have participated in GLOBE; but, I’ve also use the Cloud Protocol independently to better understand clouds.  Here is the page for several of the GLOBE e-training modules under the heading, Atmosphere, including Precipitation, Aerosols, and Surface Temperature.