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Bombay American School, India

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The American School of Bombay moved to its new school building 
just over a year ago.  This is 18 kms north of the city centre in a 
new development area called Bandra Kurla.  Prior to that the 
school was housed in three separate residences in downtown 
Bombay. Bandra Kurla is on reclaimed marshland and at sea level. 
 
In November 1995, the city of Bombay changed its name to 
Mumbai.  Although many people still refer to the city as Bombay 
gradually Mumbai is being used more and more and now the 
address on most business documents.  Mumbai is really an island 
situated on the west coast of India, connected to the mainland by 
bridges. Originally the area was made up of seven islands.  During 
the 1700s the islands were joined by land reclamation projects.  
 
During the 1800s Bombay grew in wealth and power as it became 
India's major port as well as a cotton milling town. Today, at the 
beginning of the 21st century, Mumbai is still growing and 
changing. Most of the cotton mills have gone and Mumbai has 
become the business and financial center of India with a 
multicultural population.  
 
Unfortunately the growth has led to the 
city becomming overcrowded and polluted with heavy traffic.  Steps 
are being made to control this pollution with vehicles now tested for 
emmissions and many campaigns underway to keep the city 
'green'.
 
Grade 9 have been studying the weather in both science and IT, 
studying weather trends around the world.  
 
They are now creating a weather station in design technology.  
This includes making an area within the school campus equipped with a 
weather vane to record wind direction, a sundial to check the 
school's longitude and latitude, a device to measure humidity using 
a wet bulb thermometer, a device to measure the dew point, a 12 
hour thermograph for temperature and an anemometer to measure 
wind speed.
 
Grade 9 have also set up an electronic data logging system using 
a 'smart box'.  This will record the humidity and temperature and 
we are exporting the data to a spreadsheet.  This will give us a 24 
hour minimum and maximum and an average.
 
We will check our data with a weather website in Bombay for 
precision.  
 
Two other students from Grade 10 have become involved in the 
project, Krishna and Sebastian and they will help with the daily 
recordings.  Grade 9 students who have volunteered for the project 
input data are Nishant, Sunaina, Shweta, Stacey and Claudia.
 
Our science teacher Mr Happer is also involved and our technician
Jaychandra is a huge bonus.
 
We have used a GPS system to record the school's exact 
location, which is N 18 55 E 72 50
 
The local time in Bombay is GMT plus 5 hours 30 minutes.
 
Students arrive at school shortly before 8 a.m. and leave around 4 
p.m. Most of our recordings will be taken at lunch time (12 noon).  
However we can use the data logging system to record highs and 
lows.
 
Weather. At this time of the year Mumbai is at its best.  Days are hot but not 
too hot and the evenings cool off considerably.  There is little 
humidity and no rain.  For this reason it's the wedding season in 
Mumbai.  The city is decorated with elaborate outdoor settings to 
hold receptions for thousands of guests.