You will need:

• Scissors
• Glue stick
• Thin cardboard
• Short pencil with rubber
• Drinking straw
• Small plastic pot, e.g. from yoghurt
• Pin or needle
• Blue tag or modelling clay
• Compass, you can just use a Compass App on your mobile phone

What to do:

1. Make a hole in the middle of the bottom of the plastic pot using the pencil. Then push the pointy end of the pencil through the hole.
2. Carefully cut four small triangles from the cardboard using the scissors.
3. Glue each of the 4 small triangles to the yogurt pot. Look at the image to see where they should go. These will show the direction of the wind.
4. Cut two larger triangles from the cardboard using the scissors.
5. Cut a short slit at either end of the straw. Insert the two large triangles into the slits to make and arrow-shaped pointer. This is called a “vane”.
6. Carefully push the pin or needle through the middle of the drinking straw. Then push it into the rubber on the pencil end.
7. Make a ring from blue tag or modelling clay and push the pot firmly into it, so it cannot blow away. Your wind vane is ready to use.
8. Place your wind vane outside. Position it so that the small triangles point North, East, West and South. Use a compass to help you. The vane swings around in the direction of the wind.

You can watch this experiment as a video here: