No matter if it's cold or hot, windy or calm, the budding scientists have been in and out of the elements with their homemade weather instruments. A model rocket tube here, a rubber band there, and a little encouragement from mom helped to inspire some interesting contraptions.

The movement of air caught many students' interest -- and their tongues. Aislinn Familetti, a third grader, demonstrated her how her anemometer worked.

"It measures how fast the wind is going. You count how many times it goes around, then you can see how many miles per hour the wind is going," she said.

Sometimes even the simplest of rain measuring devices needed a bit more research and development. Logan Wright, third grade, had been waiting for rain for a while. As he held his homemade gauge he shared.

"It measures the rain and tells us how much rain we had over the weekend. I used to have two, then I spilled it all out," he said.

Surely Galileo, Torrecelli and Fahrenheit spilled a bit, too.

But, through trial and error, a moment of understanding is found.

Measuring the weather leads to predictions and, through an educational Web site called EdHeads.org, the third graders learn how the weather works. The weather learning modules show the students how to report their meteorological measurements and weather findings -- and make a weather prediction.

They tackle high pressure, lake-effect snow, and frontal boundaries, and learn basic weather science, with a little geography on the side. They even know where on earth you find Toledo, Ohio.

Of course, time will tell if these junior meteorologists will advance weather science to the next leve but, for now, they're content just figuring out which way the wind blows.