Geography K–10 · Years 1–2
Wind vane, compass and a class wind rose
Geography (HASS F–6 sub-strand) with Science understanding, Earth and space sciences (ACARA Year 1); NSW Geography K–10 (2015) Stage 1 focus area: Features of Places (Weather and seasons), whose content point "description of the daily and seasonal weather patterns of a familiar place" is the exact anchor; the tools this entry uses run ahead of the Stage 1 list in the K–10 geographical tools continuum, which names only pictorial maps, large-scale maps, a world map and a globe, fieldwork without instruments, and tally charts, pictographs, data tables, column graphs and weather data: direction as a map skill first appears in the Stage 2 maps row, compasses as fieldwork instruments in the Stage 3 row, and a wind rose in no stage's graphs row at all. The continuum is headed "Examples may include:", so it is illustrative rather than exhaustive, and the gap is stated here rather than covered over. No Stage 1 HASS Geography knowledge descriptor covers weather, so the content code is the Year 1 Science understanding one and the two HASS codes are skills descriptors.
The idea
Wind has a direction that can be named by the compass point it comes from, and a month of daily readings shows which directions are most common at the school.
Safety card
Hazards
- pin in the vane
Controls
- adult assembles the vane; pin point buried in the eraser
Note
No chemicals or heat are used. The activity is run under the school risk-assessment procedure; RiskAssess (riskassess.com.au) holds templates for school practicals and fieldwork. The NSW Department of Education Chemical Safety in Schools package is not triggered.
What you need
- 1 wind vane: a drinking straw with a small paper arrow head and a larger paper tail, pinned through the straw about one third of its length back from the head, with a paper clip pushed on to the head end until the vane balances level on the pin; the pin sits in a pencil eraser so the vane turns freely. The pivot has to be in front of the middle of the vane's paper area: a paper-and-straw vane pinned at its balance point has its pivot at the middle of its area, nothing turns it into the wind, and it settles wherever it is left.
- 1 magnetic compass (any hand compass with N marked)
- 4 chalk marks N, E, S, W on the ground around the vane, set with the compass
- Wind rose sheet: a circle with 8 sectors (N, NE, E, SE, S, SW, W, NW)
- 20 school days of readings
How to do it
- Use the compass to mark N, E, S and W on the ground around the vane post in the open, away from buildings.
- Each morning watch the vane for 20 seconds. The arrow head points into the wind; the direction the wind comes from is the name to record (a vane pointing to the chalk N is a north wind).
- Record the direction as one of the eight sectors; record calm if the vane does not settle.
- Each day colour one cell outward in that sector of the wind rose.
- After 20 days read the rose: the longest spoke is the most common wind direction for the month.
What you should see
A wind rose whose spoke lengths show how often each direction was recorded, with calm days counted separately. The rose is the evidence: the class reads the dominant direction from it rather than from what it expected. It worked if the vane points into a known wind and returns to it: hold it in front of a fan, or have a learner walk steadily with it, turn the head 90 degrees aside and let go. A vane with its pivot in front of the middle of its area swings back and settles pointing into the flow; one balanced at the middle of its area drifts and settles anywhere, and is rebuilt with the pin further forward or a heavier paper clip on the head. The chalk points must also have been set with the compass, not guessed.
What changes
This activity lists no variables to change, measure and keep the same.
Common misconceptions
Each of these ideas is wrong, and the activity is a chance to test it.
- A north wind blows towards the north.
- The wind blows from the same direction all the time.
Curriculum references
The NSW syllabus outcomes and Australian Curriculum v9 codes this activity supports. They are references, not a verified or complete curriculum alignment.
- Geography K–10 Syllabus (2015), NESA; current and taught in 2026, replaced from 2027. The outcome codes are not printed on the NESA landing page for this syllabus, which only links the document, so the url given is the syllabus document itself (geography-k-10-syllabus-2015.docx); the code and its outcome text were read in that document on 23 September 2026.GE1-1GE1-3
- Australian Curriculum v9AC9HS1S02AC9HS2S03AC9S1U02
Sources
The pages the author read to write this activity.