1. 23rd National Children’s Science Congress (NCSC-2015) Focal theme: Understanding Weather and Climate
Raghunath.T.P
Chairman, National Academic Committee (2914& 2015)
Member, National Academic Committee, NTSC 2015

2. 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 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 us at

3. 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

4. Our objective is to be able to
I: WEATHER AROUND YOU:
OBSERVING, MEASURING, UNDERSTANDING AND PREDICTING IT
Framework
Our objective is to be able to
Decide what aspect/parameter of weather or its manifestation(s) we want to observe/measure/understand/predict;
Decide what methods we should adopt for this purpose
Decide on instruments that we could use/build for the above purpose
Report/record our observations/measurements
Analyse the data we gather
Predict what might happen in the future

5. The components/ parameters/ aspects that could be studied:
Temperature [ maximum, minimum, average]
Atmospheric pressure
Wind Speed and wind directions
Relative Humidity
Clouds
Quantum, Intensity and Frequency of Rain
Lightning, thunder, rainbow
Tides [in coastal regions]
Water level [in wells, ponds]
Evaporation from surface water
Fog, mists and smog and dew
Response of Plants and insects to weather
Predicting weather from plants and animal behavior
Emergence of diseases

6. List of Project Ideas
Measuring water level in ponds and wells as a function of time
Measuring Atmospheric pressure and relation, if any, with rain
Quantum of rainfall and intensity of rainfall relationship with floods
Creating maps of mango flowering/ crow nesting
Flowering phenology
Tidal measurement in coastal region near a jetty
Emergence of seasonal diseases such as dengue, malaria, flu etc.
Evaporation from puddles and ponds
Anecdotal surveys – what problems have people living in your locality have faced historically?
Wind and hailstone damage in recent times
Flood/drought damage in recent times
Reading weather charts (from Newspapers, IMD satellite imageries, etc) and forecasting the weather – validating with observed data (tawn.tnau.ac.in)

7. Framework II: IMPACT OF ANTHROPOGENIC ACTIVITIES ON
WEATHER AND CLIMATE
Framework  
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.
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.
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.

8. Human settlement & Urbanization: deforestation, conversion of agricultural lands to urban areas, more utilisation of energy, infra red radiation, depletion of natural resources etc.
Industrialisation: natural resource utilisation, rampant deforestation, increased mining, quarrying, energy utilisation, heat islands, industrial effluents, solid waste generation, air and water pollution.
Transportation: fossil fuel utilisation, land use changes, heat generation and air pollution
Communication: increased demand for paper and other resources.
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.

9. 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.
Tourism and entertainment: globalisation, increased transport and communication facilities resulted in demand for more energy and infrastructure facility (and also pollution)
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.
Man animal conflicts (loss of habitat)
Alienation of indigenous population (tribals) -> violence, counter insurgency etc. (root cause ? Climate change or flawed growth models?)
Models? – JFM, Maintenance of commons like water bodies, ponds etc.

10. Suggested projects
1. Loss of forest/wilderness areas in the locality
2. Loss of water bodies with time
3. Changes in cropping pattern in the locality
4. loss of mangrove forest in coastal area and possible impact in terms of coastal erosion and impact of cyclone
6. Food wastage and carbon footprint
7. Life style and carbon foot print
8. Afforestation and carbon footprint
9. Use of fuel in industry and impact on weather and climate.
10. Artificial fish culture, fertilizing water and GHG emission
11. Use of bio-waste as compost and reduction in carbon footprint
12. Replacement of non biodegradable plates, cups etc with biodegradable to reduce carbon footprint
13.Use of bicycle in reduction of carbon footprint
14.Energy saving devices to reduce GHG emission
15. Green Buildings

11. III: Weather, Climate and Ecosystems
Types of ecosystems
Terrestrial
Forest
Agricultural
Grassland
Desert ecosystem
Hill and mountain
Western Ghats, Eastern Ghats, the Himalaya, Deccan plateau
Iceland ecosystems
Ecosystem conservation & management, Sacred Grooves
Aquatic ecosystems (Pond, Lake, Wetland, Mangroves, Marine, River ecosystem, Estuaries and Lagoons)

12. 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.

13. 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

14. 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

15. 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.

16. 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

17. V: Weather, Climate and Agriculture
Backdrop
Indian agriculture is considerably dependant on changes in weather.
Contribution of agriculture to GDP is decreasing, yet large population is dependent on this for livelihoods.
Need to understand the impacts of increasing climatic risks and possible adaptations.
Four main climate related drivers on agriculture:
Elevated carbon dioxide
Rainfall and associated water resource availability
Temperature – both direct and indirect through evaporation
Extreme weather events (wind, flood damage)
Their effect on agricultural productivity, quality, pests and diseases.

19. 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)}

20. 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

21. 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.

22. For further information please contact Pondicherry Science Forum
Thank you
For further information please contact
Pondicherry Science Forum
With NCSC in the Subject line: