- [Mister C] What time is it?

It's science time.

- It's science time!

♪ It's science, science, science time ♪ ♪ Let's all stop and just unwind ♪ ♪ One, two, three, four, here we go ♪ ♪ Learn so much, your brain explodes ♪ ♪ Lessons so cool and so fresh ♪ ♪ Beats so big you'll lose your breath ♪ ♪ Learning facts and real cool stuff ♪ ♪ Scream for more, can't get enough ♪ ♪ It's, it's science time ♪ ♪ It's fun, you best believe ♪ ♪ Explore and learn new things ♪ ♪ Come and join me please ♪ - I'm Mister C, and this super smart group is my science crew.

Working together with my crew makes learning so much fun.

Actually, you should join us.

Let's give science a try with a simple DIY.

Today, we're exploring weather.

What time is it?

It's science time.

- It's science time!

- Welcome back to "DIY Science Time."

My name is Mister C, and I'm so excited that you're here to be part of our crew today.

(graphic whooshes) Today, we're talking about weather, and we're gonna have some fun exploring clouds and weather in general.

So, right here, I've got something I'd like to share with you.

This is liquid nitrogen.

- Wow!

(gentle music) - Liquid nitrogen is -321 degrees Fahrenheit.

Check this out.

(blows) (Mister C laughs) That is a cloud, and it happens because when I blow air across the super cold area, the moisture in the air condenses to form a cloud.

And that's what clouds are.

Millions of teeny-tiny little droplets of water vapor are up in the sky.

And as that water vapor rises, it cools.

And when it cools, those water vapor molecules condense and it forms a cloud.

Have you ever wondered why clouds are white like this?

(Mister C blows) It's because light reflects off of those water molecules and we see the white light coming to our eyes.

But I was wondering, what if we pour a little bit of hot water into our container of liquid nitrogen?

212 degree Fahrenheit boiling water and -321 degree Fahrenheit liquid nitrogen.

In three, two, one.

- Three, two, one.

- [Audience] Wow.

(Mister C laughs) - Let's start talking about weather right now!

(Mister C blows) - Weather is all around us and can sometimes be extreme.

That's why we're engineering and building a house that can withstand tremendous wind speeds.

You can huff, you can puff, but can you blow this house down?

Now get these materials secured and let's get started.

Cardboard, a fan or leaf blower, markers, scissors, craft sticks, hot glue.

And don't forget to grab your easy-breezy science notebook.

- A science notebook is a tool that every scientist should have because it gives us a place to record all of our learning.

Taking notes and being organized allows us to be better scientists.

A science notebook allows us to go back and review all of the data and information we've gathered during our experiments.

Plus, it allows us to share results with other scientists who might be interested in learning more about what we've discovered.

Whenever you see the notebook pop up on the screen like this, it's a reminder that this is a good place for us to jot down new information during the show.

I've already added a title and the list of materials for today's activity, but our crew is still going to have lots of information to collect and organize as we go through our experiments.

Most importantly, the more you use a science notebook, the better you'll get at taking notes and recording data.

If you don't have a science notebook already, download a copy of Mister C's science notebook from the website.

- Thank you for tuning in to "Mister C's Weather on the 3's" forecast.

Our crew is here to help you keep track of the weather and climate in your area.

The next three days look like they will be sunny with 100% chance of science.

Speaking of science, did you know that weather and climate are actually different?

Weather refers to the short-term atmospheric conditions, like rain, snow, wind, and temperature.

Meteorologists make predictions called forecasts to help you plan your days and weeks.

Climate, on the other hand, is the long-term average of these weather patterns and are tracked over a longer period of time.

In fact, the area where you live has a specific climate, and you can see patterns that occur over many years.

Remember, climate is what you expect, and weather is what you actually get.

And that's your science forecast for the day.

Thanks for tuning in to "Mister C's Weather on the 3's."

Look at this beautiful house.

I wonder if it can withstand some wind.

The wind?

The wind.

(chuckles) All right, let's give it a try, little paper Mister C. I've got a straw, and I built a house out of paper, and we're going to see if I can blow the house down with my straw.

(Mister C blows) Well, that wasn't strong at all.

(laughs) But I think we can build a house that can withstand high winds.

(paper rustling) This cardboard is going to represent the foundation that we have, and so I'm going to just build it in the center.

I'm not gonna go ginormous.

I'm gonna run the hot glue all the way down.

If you've ever been near a building site, you can actually see when they put a single wall up, they may use a supporting structure, like a beam, to hold a wall perpendicular to the ground while we get the other pieces up so that we can build support as we go around this.

So now that we have our house built, we've removed the support beams from the side, the house is really sturdy as it is, but we need a roof, right, to protect us from the elements.

I'm going to build triangular trusses that are gonna be trusses and also act as a joist between the side of the walls to provide additional support.

And then I'm gonna cut slits here that are gonna go on top of the wall, just kinda hold it together.

Now we're gonna place this here in the back, the middle, and the front, like that.

And now we have what looks like to be a house roof, but now we need a roof, right?

So we're going to then take this and piece it together like this.

Yeah, big real Mister C, you're awesome.

Yeah, this house looks like the best house to ever use so much hot glue.

It's gonna be sturdy, and it's gonna survive.

Give it a try.

I think for sure that this house can withstand the straw.

So here we go.

(Mister C blowing) No impact at all.

Nice.

Next setting.

(fan whooshing) (Mister C chuckles) Hopefully Mister C can withstand the wind below.

And the last setting.

(fan whooshing) No chance at all.

This house is built to sustain winds.

So now let's use our handy-dandy little leaf blower.

So, I'm just gonna hold this here, and we're gonna go in three, two, one.

- Three, two, one!

(leaf blower whirring) (Mister C laughs) - Mister C just shot off.

So, this worked.

This is super strong.

Let me see from another angle.

(leaf blower whirring) Wow.

(finger scratching) Okay, it's definitely super high-powered and super strong.

I think I need to get a bigger leaf blower, and I think we need to try to knock this apart outside.

In three, two, one.

(leaf blower whirring) We got a break.

(Mister C laughing) I'm actually really impressed.

I am surprised that it held.

We had a little bit of rip back here, so I wonder if I didn't have as much glue.

We broke it off here on the base a little bit.

And yeah, I'm really impressed with the way this held up.

So give it a try.

You and your science crew can also build a house and determine if it can handle the power of a windstorm or severe weather in your neck of the woods.

Things are gonna get hairy because we're building a hair-grometer, I mean a hygrometer, to measure the humidity and the moisture in the air.

And how do we do that?

With a simple hair.

Now, ooh, I think I have one.

Oh.

Whoa.

Oh.

Look at that.

That is a long hair.

I think my hairdresser might have missed one.

So what we're going to do is we're going to use hair to tell us if moisture in the room is high or low.

Because if the moisture is high, the hair is going to relax, and then it's going to get taut and tighten up when it's drier in the area where you live.

And so before we get going with any of this, we need to actually clean the hair to remove any product.

(laughs) And we know Mister C loves his products.

So, what we're going to do is we're gonna create a simple little mixture.

We're gonna do one teaspoon of rubbing alcohol and one teaspoon of water.

Mix that up.

Now, I'm going to dip my paper towel into this just slightly, just on the edge here like this.

And then I'm going to take the hair and I'm gonna move it through there to clean it off.

So I have my arrow, and I left it intact at the front after I folded the paper so I could do this.

First thing, we're gonna add a penny to this, and the mass is going to help pull the arrow down and keep the hair tight at all times.

What I've also done here is I've put a skewer stick in to be the point of my arrow so we can see exactly where the tip is.

I'm gonna tape that also.

It's just gonna help us be more accurate, even though this is not a quantitative measurement, it's qualitative, which means we are paying attention to the changes, we're not getting actual, actual, actual measurements from this hygrometer.

I'm gonna tape it closed on the end.

There we go, we're gonna put our push pin here, and it'll be able to pivot just like that.

And that moves super easily, but I'm gonna set this right here.

I'm gonna tape this down like that.

(gentle music) And now I'm going to mark where we're starting.

All right, so this is our start.

We have a DIY hygrometer.

It measures moisture or humidity in the air.

Set this somewhere, leave it there for a couple of days, pay attention to the moisture outside and inside, and then determine what's going on.

Most importantly, add this information into your weather journal.

This is so awesome!

(air whooshes) Career connections.

For our career connection today, we are visiting with a meteorologist, and I'm here with Jamie Jarosik of WDTN in Dayton, Ohio.

How are you today?

- I'm great.

How are you?

- I am fantastic.

What is a meteorologist, and what do you get to do each and every day?

- Well, meteorologist is someone who studies the weather and makes forecasts based on patterns, model data, all of that comes together, and, you know, we look at historical events and our own knowledge of our local area, make a forecast.

And broadcast meteorologists, which is what I am, then present that on television for everyone to learn about what's happening that day.

We have a radar that we can look at, a satellite, and we get some sensor data from the National Weather Service, and we have, of course, the green screen.

- Oh, the green screens.

So are we going to be able to check that out?

- Yes, let's go.

- All right.

- So here we are at the green screen.

This is where I give my presentation of the weather.

You can see it's just a blank screen behind me, but on the monitors on either side, I can see myself.

- Oh, that's cool, so you can- - Look- - It's like you're interacting with nothing.

- Right.

And so when I look to the side, if I were to look straight to the side, it would look kinda weird.

So we kinda tilt our head so it looks like we're looking at the green wall- - Ah.

- But I'm really looking at that monitor.

- So that's the trick.

- That's the trick.

- Right.

- You gotta get the head tilt.

- [Mister C] 'Cause you're, like, looking at the wall.

- Right.

And so this is our clicker.

So I have this, you know, little tool with buttons all over it.

The middle button is our advancing button, so it'll change the graphic behind me, and now we can see our current conditions.

- [Mister C] And that's right here in Dayton, Ohio.

- Right here.

- That's awesome.

- [Jamie] It's spring in Ohio.

- Okay, but the thing is is, like, all the work you've put into this doesn't happen at this green screen.

- Right.

This is just where we present, we tell the weather story, which is part of my job, being able to communicate efficiently to people in a way they can understand, not too scientific, but, of course, there is science behind it.

So, this is something the National Weather Service does.

Every hour of the day, they record the current weather conditions in any given point, and these are their set locations.

And you can see the time that they're recorded, the condition of the sky, the temperature, the dew point, the humidity, wind, and pressure.

So this is where it all starts.

We have to get a baseline reading on the atmosphere right now.

- Okay.

- Then, this information gets fed into computer models.

And the government puts out several different computer models.

This is the very short-term Rapid Refresh Recycle, and this is gonna be every hour, a new one is put out, and it just basically shows you what this model thinks is gonna happen.

So it's taken all of that current data, and it's run it through a bunch of math that it would take a person a really long time to do, and it puts out, you know, its forecast.

- And so this is a weather report, which is, like, right here, right now.

- Yes, this is the state of the weather as, I mean, this is the short-term forecast, so this is really just maybe the next 12 hours or so.

But when you're looking at the bigger picture of climate, that is weather over a long period of time averaged out.

- Got it, got it.

- So then after I look at all this model information and I kind of make my own forecast, I like to put it down on paper because I'm still a little old school that way.

It just has the details of the next several days and then my seven-day forecast.

So this is my little checklist to make sure I don't forget anything.

- Okay, that's really cool.

(Jamie chuckles) - So then we have tools over here.

This is our graphics computer, and this one that we're looking at right now is the radar.

And we have about five different radar sites that we'll have access to.

We can switch them around, but we typically keep them pretty similar to what you see right here.

In case there's a hurricane, we'll switch one to, like, Florida or something.

But this is just kind of our day-to-day operation of radar.

And we can see some severe thunderstorms out in Illinois right now.

And we have what's called dual polarization radar now, that's been new within the past 10, 15 years.

And we used to get the radar sending out just a beam in one direction.

Now it sends out a beam, vertical and horizontal, so it's getting a better reading.

And we're able to see if, you know, there's hail in a storm, maybe if there's sleet versus rain in an event coming in.

- [Mister C] That's incredible.

- And one more thing, I'm gonna challenge your crew to build some weather instruments of your own.

- Oh, I think we're up for that.

Anemometers, hygrometers, we could do barometers.

- Yes.

You got it.

- Rain gauges.

- Oh, you know what?

I got one of those right here.

- Oh, how cool is that?

(both laughing) Thank you so much for hanging out with us today.

It was awesome.

- Absolutely.

Thanks for coming by.

- For sure.

- Clouds can appear in an unlimited number of shapes and sizes, and we can generally categorize them into four basic forms.

(bright music) Cirrus clouds are high, wispy clouds and are made of ice crystals.

They generally appear whitish and hairlike.

Cumulus clouds are like white, fluffy cotton balls.

They are dense with sharp outlines, and their bases are usually flat.

Stratus clouds are broad and fairly widespread, appearing like a blanket in the sky.

Nimbus clouds are a special category of clouds.

They are typically gray and produce the majority of precipitation that falls to earth.

What types of clouds can you track?

- Let's build an anemometer, a tool that measures wind speed.

First, we're going to drill a hole in the cap, add a little bit of glue, and slide a skewer stick into it.

We're gonna connect this little bead to it and then put a ping pong ball over it as well.

This is how it'll spin.

Next, we're going to glue four skewer sticks to the side of the ping pong ball, trying to line all of them up.

(upbeat music) That's gonna work.

That's cool.

And then we're going to add an Easter egg to each side of the skewer stick.

They'll all be facing the same way so that when the wind catches it, they'll spin.

Three of the eggs will be pink and one will be gold, which will allow us to easily see how many times it spins.

(upbeat music continues) That works so good.

(chuckles) That works so good.

Now to finish it off, a little bit of glue and one last bead so that the ping pong ball can't slide off on a windy day.

Fill up the water bottle to get some added weight, connect the top back on, and we're ready to go.

(leaf blower whooshing) (people cheering) (Mister C laughs) (leaf blower whooshing) All right, how fast is it going?

(laughs) Okay.

So you're gonna take this outside, you're gonna set it outside.

You're gonna be able to say, "Oh, it's a cloudy, windy day.

Let's see how fast it's moving."

You're gonna keep track and count how many times it spins in a certain amount of time, and then you're gonna use that measure to determine if it's moving faster or slower, depending on the surrounding weather.

And there you have it.

We have an anemometer that's actually working outside and is being powered by wind.

That's right, wind.

And what's super cool about this (bright music) is I can feel the breeze picking up and it starts to spin faster, just like it should.

Isn't that awesome?

- Let's build a rain gauge to keep track of rainfall in our neighborhood.

Carefully cut the top off of a two-liter bottle.

Using a ruler and marker, create measurement lines.

Starting with zero, mark every inch with a small dash.

As you can see, we didn't start our measurement on the bottom of the bottle.

You can also measure the rainwater in centimeters.

Cover the bottom of the bottle in small rocks or pebbles to keep it stable, and fill it with water to the zero mark.

Flip the top of your bottle over and tuck it back into the bottle to create a funnel.

Use a binder clip or tape to hold the funnel in place.

The funnel will catch water and will also help minimize evaporation loss in your rain gauge.

Now it's time to decide how often you will track the rainfall.

Be sure to add your information to your weather journal.

Most importantly, our rain gauge will help us determine when it's time for puddle jumping.

- Are you ready to make a cloud in the bottle?

If so, grab an adult crew member to help you out.

This two-liter bottle, we're gonna fill up 3/4 with water to do the experiment.

(intriguing music) (intriguing music continues) Now, in order to make a cloud form, we need water vapor in the air to condense.

And what I'm gonna do here first is I'm gonna show you that when I apply pressure to this, nothing happens.

So what we're going to do is we're gonna shake this up so that we got some water vapor all into the container.

It's already there, but we're gonna get some water vapor mixed in.

We're gonna open this up, and then we're gonna take two matches and we're gonna light them and drop them in.

Now you can see the smoke, and that's really important.

Clouds need dust particles or dust in the sky, something to grab onto.

The water vapor in the air needs to grab onto those particles because they act like nucleation sites for the cloud to form.

And now when I squeeze, I'm going to apply pressure, that pressure increases the temperature in there.

And then when I let go really quickly, we create a cloud.

(chuckles) Isn't that awesome?

So the pressure increases when I squeeze and it warms things up.

But when I let go, the pressure decreases really rapidly and the temperature inside drops.

And that dropping of the temperature allows the water vapor in the air to condense on those little dust particles.

And there you have it.

We have a cloud in the bottle.

- Brr.

Would you believe that this place is actually a desert?

A desert is often defined as a place that has less than 10 inches of rain per year.

Here in the Antarctic, there's only about two inches of precipitation annually, which technically makes this a desert.

Precipitation here falls almost exclusively as snow.

This small amount of annual precipitation, combined with very little plant life, has led some to call Antarctica a white desert.

That's chilly and cool.

- Don't stress, no pressure, we're building a barometer.

Cut the bottom of a balloon off and put it over a cup.

Now glue your cup to a board so that it's nice and firm and then add a skewer stick to the top of it.

When the air pressure outside is high, it pushes down on the balloon, causing it to go up.

And when it's low outside, the air inside the balloon pushes up and out and causing it to go down.

(upbeat music) And there you have it, your DIY barometer.

Set it up and check out what's going on outside with the atmosphere!

(upbeat music continues) - Today was amazing, and I think we have all the tools we need to monitor and report the weather to our friends and family.

Try building any of these scientific tools and record data from your observations into your weather journal.

(thunder booming) Oh, wow.

A thunderstorm's rolling in.

I need to get my weather instruments all set back up.

Where did I put the barometer?

Where did I put my rain gauge?

Science crew, where's my anemometer?

- All right, temperature says it's 62 degrees outside.

62 degrees Fahrenheit.

Our hygrometer, it seems like it's more humid out, so I'm just gonna say for humidity, I'm gonna say more humid.

Our pressure, let me see here.

Our pressure has gotten lower, and that's interesting because we're supposed to have storms tomorrow, so that makes sense.

We have different air mass moving in and the pressure is changing, so our pressure is lower.

Wind, I didn't really have any wind outside when I was out there messing around (chuckles) with our little house that we're trying to blow away.

That's a whole different amount of wind.

So, wind, I'm gonna say there was none at this point.

We didn't have any rain yet, and I drew a picture of what it looks like outside in the sky right now so I remember what it looked like compared to all of my notes from my weather instruments.

I built a really small, easy weather journal that tracks just the important parts of every day's weather so that I can remember that weather is what's happening here right now versus climate, which happens over a longer duration of time.

And if you don't have this weather journal, that's okay.

You can actually put all of that information into your DIY Science Time notebook, which you can download online, and that way you have places to keep track of all of your information when you're doing weather experiments just like me.

What an amazing day.

We had so much fun talking about weather, clouds, meeting a meteorologist.

It was awesome!

So I'm going to encourage you to build some instruments, to have some fun, and pay attention to the weather and the climate in your neck of the woods.

Keep learning, keep exploring, keep having fun, and remember that science is wherever you are.

Take care, everybody.

See ya!

(hand whooshing) Is that live?

Is it coming on, oh, okay, hold on, I gotta start over again.

My brain.

(uptempo music) I don't know how you do this.

♪ It's science time ♪ - I gotta turn my head.

Is it loud?

(growls) Let's get up to speed and build an anemometer to weasure, to weasure wind speed.

That's the best anemometer we've ever built.

You see how fast that was going?

(laughs) It's, like, all sticking together too.

Going the wrong way?

Oh, it's going the wrong way.

(laughs) It wasn't blowing any air.