23rd National Children’s Science Congress(NCSC-2015)

Focal theme: Understanding Weather and Climate

Raghunath.T.PChairman, National Academic Committee (2914& 2015)

Member, National Academic Committee, NTSC 2015Email: tprmenon@gmail.com

Bird’s Eye view of the Focal & Sub Themes.

• Details of each sub theme can be had from the Activity Guidebook.

• This presentation would be available at PSF website soon..

• You can always contact us through email once you have decided your topic/project idea for improvement/ suggestions.

• If there are sufficient number of projects in one school (say more than 10 in one school), then you can call us for counselling with the children. Just email us at cerdpsf@gmail.com

SUB-THEMES:

I: Weather around You

II: Impact of Human Activities on Weather and Climate

III: Weather, Climate and Ecosystems

IV: Weather, Climate - Society and Culture

V: Weather, Climate and Agriculture

VI: Weather, Climate and Health

I: WEATHER AROUND YOU:

OBSERVING, MEASURING, UNDERSTANDING AND PREDICTING IT

FrameworkOur objective is to be able to 1. Decide what aspect/parameter of weather or its

manifestation(s) we want to observe/measure/understand/predict;

2. Decide what methods we should adopt for this purpose3. Decide on instruments that we could use/build for the

above purpose4. Report/record our observations/measurements5. Analyse the data we gather6. Predict what might happen in the future

The components/ parameters/ aspects that could be studied:

1. Temperature [ maximum, minimum, average]2. Atmospheric pressure 3. Wind Speed and wind directions4. Relative Humidity 5. Clouds6. Quantum, Intensity and Frequency of Rain7. Lightning, thunder, rainbow8. Tides [in coastal regions] 9. Water level [in wells, ponds]10.Evaporation from surface water11.Fog, mists and smog and dew12.Response of Plants and insects to weather 13.Predicting weather from plants and animal behavior14.Emergence of diseases

List of Project Ideas

1. Measuring water level in ponds and wells as a function of time2. Measuring Atmospheric pressure and relation, if any, with rain3. Quantum of rainfall and intensity of rainfall relationship with floods4. Creating maps of mango flowering/ crow nesting5. Flowering phenology6. Tidal measurement in coastal region near a jetty7. Emergence of seasonal diseases such as dengue, malaria, flu etc.8. Evaporation from puddles and ponds9. Anecdotal surveys – what problems have people living in your

locality have faced historically?10.Wind and hailstone damage in recent times11.Flood/drought damage in recent times12.Reading weather charts (from Newspapers, IMD satellite imageries,

etc) and forecasting the weather – validating with observed data (tawn.tnau.ac.in)

II: IMPACT OF ANTHROPOGENIC ACTIVITIES ON

WEATHER AND CLIMATE

Framework 1. Agriculture: at the expense of forest lands and other ecosystems. Chemical

fertilizers, pesticides, irrigation, soil salinity, ground water contamination, methane generation NOx generation etc impacted weather and climate in one or the other way.

2. Animal husbandry: Demand for meat, dairy products, manure, draught animals and easy transport led to animal rearing in large scale resulting in soil compaction, over grazing, energy wastage, methane generation, deforestation and water depletion.

3. Fisheries: Fertilizing the natural water bodies, eutrophication and ground water contamination results in generation of green house gases, release of industrial effluents into rivers, estuaries, sea causing poisoning of fish, ultimately affecting humans also.

1. Human settlement & Urbanization: deforestation, conversion of agricultural lands to urban areas, more utilisation of energy, infra red radiation, depletion of natural resources etc.

2. Industrialisation: natural resource utilisation, rampant deforestation, increased mining, quarrying, energy utilisation, heat islands, industrial effluents, solid waste generation, air and water pollution.

3. Transportation: fossil fuel utilisation, land use changes, heat generation and air pollution

4. Communication: increased demand for paper and other resources.

5. Energy production: Energy from hydel, thermal and nuclear sources led to greater ecological imbalance on land, water and atmosphere directly or indirectly impacting on weather and climate. Even renewable sources of energy like wind and solar had its impact on ecosystems.

1. Waste generation: life style changes and throw away culture led to generating huge quantity of municipal, biomedical, industrial and agricultural waste. GHG, open burning , dumping yards and burning of rubber, plastic etc.

2. Tourism and entertainment: globalisation, increased transport and communication facilities resulted in demand for more energy and infrastructure facility (and also pollution)

3. Forestry: Due to increased demand for preferred type of timber and wood, for the last few centuries trees have been felled from natural forests. The land is utilised for non forestry purpose and at times the land is also utilised for reforestation. However the species diversity gets altered on account of preference of certain selected species like eucalyptus, teak etc. The relative humidity, temperature water percolation and soil profile etc are changed. Also the carbon sequestration pattern and the rate of biogeochemical cycles get changed.1. Man animal conflicts (loss of habitat)2. Alienation of indigenous population (tribals) -> violence, counter insurgency

etc. (root cause ? Climate change or flawed growth models?)3. Models? – JFM, Maintenance of commons like water bodies, ponds etc.

Suggested projects

1. Loss of forest/wilderness areas in the locality 2. Loss of water bodies with time3. Changes in cropping pattern in the locality4. loss of mangrove forest in coastal area and possible impact in terms

of coastal erosion and impact of cyclone 6. Food wastage and carbon footprint7. Life style and carbon foot print8. Afforestation and carbon footprint9. Use of fuel in industry and impact on weather and climate.10. Artificial fish culture, fertilizing water and GHG emission11. Use of bio-waste as compost and reduction in carbon footprint12. Replacement of non biodegradable plates, cups etc with biodegradable to reduce carbon footprint13.Use of bicycle in reduction of carbon footprint14.Energy saving devices to reduce GHG emission15. Green Buildings

III: Weather, Climate and Ecosystems

Types of ecosystems 1. Terrestrial2. Forest3. Agricultural4. Grassland 5. Desert ecosystem6. Hill and mountain7. Western Ghats, Eastern Ghats, the Himalaya, Deccan plateau 8. Iceland ecosystems 9. Ecosystem conservation & management, Sacred Grooves 10. Aquatic ecosystems (Pond, Lake, Wetland, Mangroves, Marine, River

ecosystem, Estuaries and Lagoons)

Framework Weather and climate variability affect the phenology of plants, occurrence of various floral and faunal elements populations of different species and in the manifestation of many behavior of animals. The consequences of climate variability at a macro level could be manifested as disasters also such as floods, droughts, unprecedented rains, inconsistencies in seasonal temperature etc on various ecosystems.

LIST OF PROJECTS SUGGESTED Effect of the pattern of weather parameters such as Temperature,

Rain, Wind and Humidity on • Behaviour of insects• Dragon fly populations• Movement of social insects• Behaviour of birds• Behavior and movement of spider• Abundance and breeding of frogs• Variation in weather and climate Vs presence and absence/

abundance of plants such as weeds• Behavior of domestic animals• Seasonality of occurrence of plants• Weather pattern and flowering of plants• Soil Organisms and weather pattern

EFFECT ON AIR AND WATER AND SOIL

•Variable weather conditions can affect quality of air, water and soil. •Measuring pH, dissolved salts in water, organic matter in soil etc.•Soil pH in different places/ different time•Water pH in different places/ different time / rain water•Determination of dissolved minerals in different water samples•Comparing water quality before and after rain•Weather and soil erosion•Effect of light period, light intensity, temperature, humidity and soil

moisture on growth of plants•Stomata count for production of Oxygen – comparison of plants•Calculation of Carbon sequestration in different urban & rural gardens•Wind pattern and seed production in wind dispersed seeds.•Fish migration and weather pattern/ tide pattern•Fish catch and weather pattern and Seasonality in fish catch•Seasonality of behavior of coastal animals / tide pattern•Weather parameters and abundance of mushroom

IV: Weather, Climate- Society and Culture

The social and cultural systems have an adaptation mechanism to local weather and climatic situation through their practices fulfilling

basic needs of food, shelter, and clothing through designed livelihood activities, food system, settlement and housing, management of natural resources, etc.

There are many examples that human beings face up to extreme weather situations through their social and cultural practices based on Indigenous Knowledge and try to cope up with such weather conditions and disasters.

In broad perspective, this sub-theme will cover issues for systematic studies, like:

local food practices, its seasonality and adjustments to weather situation, local calendar system and agricultural cycle and adjustments with weather, flood/drought adjustment approaches of different community/ locality, traditional knowledge on weather prediction, cultural practices, modern consumption practices and their impact on ecosystem and further impact on climate patterns etc.

Studies taken up would try to establish the science behind these practices and the societal efforts to adopt with climate change as well, are expected

V: Weather, Climate and Agriculture

Backdrop1. Indian agriculture is considerably dependant on changes in

weather.2. Contribution of agriculture to GDP is decreasing, yet large

population is dependent on this for livelihoods.3. Need to understand the impacts of increasing climatic risks and

possible adaptations. Four main climate related drivers on agriculture:4. Elevated carbon dioxide 5. Rainfall and associated water resource availability6. Temperature – both direct and indirect through evaporation7. Extreme weather events (wind, flood damage)

Their effect on agricultural productivity, quality, pests and diseases.

Potential experiments/ projects:

Does different environmental conditions affect ambient temperature differently and thus crops growth as well?

Do different types of soils evaporate water differently and thus could have potentially different contrition towards the local humidity? Is there any change in the farming practices in your locality due to change in climate?

Impact of CO2 on ambient temperature.

Impact of elevated CO2 on ambient temperature in presence of C3 and C4 plants {C3 (green pea) and C4 (Jowar/sorghum)}

VI: Weather, Climate and Health

Framework

Extremes of weather and climate will affect the health of human and animals. Extremes of temperature refer to such as heat wave & cold wave, drought & flood, storms & strong winds, etc., will have a great impact on health

Potential experiments/ projects:

Weather and climate have potential impact on the health of human beings and animals

Undertake studies to understand the causative factors, the concerns arising and the corrective measures to be adopted to lessen the adversity.

Ailments like water / air / vector borne diseases (diarrhoea, malaria), infections (bacterial or viral) and infestations (parasitic), zoonoses, reemergence of certain diseases and others which are influenced by the variability of weather and climate are some of the areas.

Thank youFor further information

please contactPondicherry Science

Forumcerdpsf@gmail.com

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