Weather Center Field Trip

Last week we went on a field trip to the National Weather Center here in Wichita, Kansas.

 The kids had to tell the speaker what they thought weather was. Pretty easy question for all the kids.

To break the ice the kids watched a tornado experiment. Pretty easy one to do at home. My kids like to add Monopoly houses and glitter into the mix.

He informed the kids what to do if you hear a tornado siren and where to go.

 Making a cloud in a bottle experiment.

Both of my kids recognized that it was an experiment that we did. Except it failed when we tried it.

 This is an pretty simple experiment if you just have the right pump and a tight fit when blowing in the air.

 After each experiment our presenter explained how the experiment works. 

Science is so fun!

 Flash Flood safety and precautions.

 How to storms form. Then the kids watched some videos of different types of storms.

 My kids loved the Hair Dryer Experiment. I probably need to hide my blow dryer from Little Man.

 He talked about how air pressure builds up to create a storm.

 He slowly turned up the blow dryer as the golf ball went up a bit more.

 Then he put a tube over it and the golf ball took off. You can see it in the right bottom corner. He had to do it a few times for the kids.

 Bug had some questions! Wow!

 Afterwards we got to go into the operation center and see how it all works.

 So much equipment for the weather.

Which I am truly grateful for living in tornado alley in Kansas.

This was a fun field trip that was well worth the wait. This particular field trip was canceled twice last year due to bad weather. One they had to seek shelter in their basement and hand over operations in another part of Kansas as a tornado touched down extremely close last season.

Both kids thought it would be really cool being a meteorologist after our trip. First time I've heard Bug say something other that an Entomologist!

Have a blessed day.