It is a windy day and I was looking for a place in the garden to sit and have a cup of tea. But which is the best spot?

My challenge for you today is to do an investigation into the wind in your garden and around you house.

You will need:
Card
Scissors
Pencil with a rubber on the end
A long pin
Sellotape
Cocktail stick
Or
A plastic bag
some string

What you do:
Use the template for the windmill below and make a pinwheel.
Attached a piece of sellotape or a cocktail stick to the pencil your pinwheel is attached to, so that the pinwheel hits it when it rotates.
Then investigate the wind.

Is it faster higher up or closer to the ground?
Does it matter how high you hold the windmill?
Does it matter which way you face the windmill?

Once you have worked out the best way to use the equipment now undertake your investigation.

Go to different locations in your garden, in front of your house behind and to the sides if you can get there.

On the results sheet below write the location and count the number of times the windmill rotates in 1 minutes. You should be able to count the clicks as the windmill sails pass the pencil.

You can draw a graph of your results on J2launch or squared paper or draw a map of your garden and make a colour scale. Red for fastest, green for slowest and orange for in the middle. Colours the areas of your garden the colour depending on whether the wind was fast or slow.

If you can’t make a pin wheel then attach a a piece of string, about 2m long, to the two handles of a plastic bag.
See what happened to the bag when you hold it high and low. Then when you turn around. Now use this to measure wind speed in different parts of your garden.

Don’t forget to tweet photos of your pin wheel, wind socks or graphs and maps on Twitter #NatureDays and facebook Nature Days page.
Good luck.