82-83 (Loose in the Lab Science Series, 2003).Į provides the Science Fair Project Ideas for informational References: What’s Up? 45 Hands-On Science Experiments That Explore Weather, by B.

Repeat steps 7-9 for several rainy days.

Then read the newspaper or go online and find out the official amount of rainfall in your area for the day and make a note of it-see how closely your figure matches the official one! That’s how much rain has fallen in the last day! On your piece of paper, make a note of the date and the amount of rain.

If it rains within 24 hours, check your gauge and see how high the water is now.

On a day that you’re likely to get rain, make sure the water in the bottom hasn’t evaporated below your bottom mark if it has, refill it to that mark. There shouldn’t be anything hanging over the gauge that could either block any rain or make extra raindrops drip into the bottle (like a tree or a power line or the edge of a roof).

Put the rain gauge outdoors-you’ll need to pick a really good spot! You want somewhere level that’s open to the sky and that’s not likely to get too windy, where the gauge isn’t likely to be disturbed.

Set the bottle on a level surface and pour some water in until it reaches the bottom mark.

(Alternatively, you can mark centimeters and half-centimeters instead.) Then label the inches from bottom to top. Use the marker to mark every quarter-inch (or, if you want to get fancy, every eighth-inch) along the piece of tape.

Set the ruler against the vertical tape so that the “0” line lines up with the bottom mark.

This will be the bottom of your rain gauge.

Use the marker to draw a line on the vertical piece of tape just a little above the top of the pebbles.

Use a long piece of tape to make a straight vertical line from the top edge of the bottle to the bottom.

Line up the cut edges and tape them together so the top part is held firmly in place.

Turn the top of the bottle upside down-make sure there’s no cap on it! It’s going to act like a funnel-and place it in the bottom part of the bottle, pointing downward.Put the pebbles in the bottom of the bottle-these will help keep it from getting blown over if it’s windy.Carefully use the scissors to cut the top of the bottle off at the wide part just below where it begins to get narrow.A few handfuls of clean pebbles, gravel, or marbles.

Rain measuring meter