Simple science experiments to do at home - make a rain gauge

Its easy to make a rain gauge to monitor rainfall in your garden. This acts as a simple introduction to the rain cycle.

What You Need

1. A plastic 2 litre lemonade or cola bottle.

2. Scissors

3. Bread knife to cut bottle.

4. Insulating tape.

5. Ruler

First find an empty two litre plastic lemonade or cola bottle and cut it into two sections. Cut about two thirds of the way up with a sharp knife - I used a serated bread knife. The top half can then be inverted and pushed into the bottom half. This makes a funnel to catch the rain and prevent evaporation if the sun does shine during your experiment.

Use the insulating tape to hold the two bottle halves together. The insulating tape can also be used to make 10mm markers to act as a measure. Apply small pieces of tape at 10mm intervals to make a measure. Start the first marker a little way up the bottle ignoring the curved base so you get a true measurement of rainfall.

Place your finished rain gauge in a shady spot - to minimise evaporation and where it can't be knocked over by wind or pets. You can support your guage either by using a few bricks or stones around the base, by sinking it partly into soil or making a hanging device from a wire coat hanger and hanging your gauge from a fence or wall.

The results of your experiment can be plotted on a graph to measure your areas average rainfall over time.