How to Make a Science Project: Artificial Tornadoes

You can simulate a tornado vortex with water.

Teaching kids about the weather can be difficult if you don’t have something that will grab their attention. Plus, with dangerous types of weather such as tornadoes, kids can’t get up close in person to see how these formations work. Luckily, there’s an inexpensive and easy way to demonstrate the vortex of a tornado without stepping outside. By giving kids an actual hands-on experiment where they create an artificial tornado, you’ll get their attention for a lesson about natural disasters.

Things You'll Need

• 2 empty two-liter plastic soda bottles
• Glitter
• Duct tape

Instructions

1. Rinse out both plastic soda bottles after removing their lids. Fill one of the bottles two-thirds of the way full with water.

2. Dump a spoonful of glitter into the bottle with the water already in it to show the kids how debris acts in a tornado.

3. Tape the two bottles together at the mouth of the bottle, with the empty bottle upside down and on top. Make sure there is enough tape so that the bottles are held firmly together and so no water can get out.

4. Flip the bottles over, with the bottle full of water now on top. Swirl it fast, in a counter-clockwise direction, to represent the direction most tornadoes move in the northern hemisphere.

5. Pay attention to the top bottle as it empties into the bottom bottle. The water leaving the top bottle will begin to act like the vortex of a tornado.

References

• Weather Wiz Kids: Tornado in a Bottle