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| journal page pdf |
Weather |  |
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| journal page pdf |
Weather | |
The Wolf Ridge Weather Forecasting class provides many extension possiblilites for the classroom. Tie-ins can be made to a variety of topics including studying the weather itself, phenology, map reading, and more. Visit this page periodically as we will add new activities and links suggested by Wolf Ridge visiting school teachers, and eventually our own interactive on-line activities.
1. "The Weather Machine" Skit
As script is available from Wolf Ridge for a 10 minute skit about the components and interactions of weather. Students research their parts, prepare costumes, and perform the skit.
Graduation standards:
• 6-8th Read, Listen View, Nonfiction, (2a)
• 4-5th Read, Listen View, Interpretation and Evaluation, (2,3,5)
2. Weather Scavenger Hunt
See how many weather related objects students can find in their school yard or at home. Students may collect, draw or describe the objects. At the conclusion of the hunt, each team will show and explain what they found for each clue.
Graduation standards:
• 6-8th Sciences: Earth Systems, (4)
3. Weather Proverbs
Students talk with older people (grandparents, community or nursing home interviews, etc.) to collect other proverbs and their explanations. Students will collect these and present them in some format, whether reading, acting them out, or creating a book (with drawing?) of the myths.
Graduation standards:
• 6-8th Writing and Speaking: Writing, (1a,b)
• 4-5th Read, Listen, View: Interpretation and Evaluation, (2,3,4)
• 4-5th Inquiry: Media, Observation and Investigation, (C)
4. Making Rain in your Classroom
Using a hot plate, saucepan, cookie sheet and ice, students learn how raindrops form in a cloud, as warm, humid air rises and cools.
Graduation standard:
• 6-8th Sciences: Earth Systems, (5)
5. Grade the Forecaster
Students will check and record forecasts daily from the newspaper, TV or internet for one week, and compare the forecasts to actual weather. They also check the forecasts for Wolf Ridge to prepare for their stay. Connect to our Wolf Ridge Weather and Phenology page for help with this idea or to compare your school's data to that at Wolf Ridge and next to Lake Superior.
Graduation standards:
• 6-8th Sciences: Earth Systems, (3,4)
• 6-8th Inquiry M.1, Accessing Information, (2,4,5)
• 4-5th Sciences: Living and Non-Living Systems, (B2).
1. Weather Assessment Chart
Given a chart with categories of“Sun, Air, Water, and Earth” written across the top, students fill in spaces with words or phrases that connect the category topic to weather, and explain how the word or phrase relates to weather, and jsutify their answers to others.
Graduation standard:
• 6-8th Sciences: Earth Systems, (4).
• 4-5th Sciences: Living and Non-Living Systems, (A3).
2. Weather Recording and Forecasting
Using a simple weather station in the classroom, students will daily weather records at their school. Each day they will make a forecast for the following day, then compare their forecasts to the actual weather for the that day. Connect to our Wolf Ridge Weather and Phenology page for help with this idea or to compare your school's data to that at Wolf Ridge and next to Lake Superior.
Graduation standards:
• 6-8th Inquiry, Direct Observation, (1,2).
• 4-5th Sciences: Living and Non-Living Systems, (A3,A5)
• 4-5th Inquiry: Media, Observation, and Investigation, (A)
3. CO2 and your automobile
Students determine the carbon debt for their family's car travel during the past year, then might actually plant and tend the trees in or near their school yard.
Graduation standards:
• 6-8th Resource Management: Personal Resources, (2,3,4,6).
• 4-5th Mathematical Applications: Number Sense, (6).
Under construction.
Class Description:
After learning some of the historic changes in earth's climate, students will collect data on today's weather, then do demonstrations to understand cloud formation and low pressure systems. An outdoor game will explain the jet stream and its effect. Finally, students will use their new knowledge to create a forecast for the next day at Wolf Ridge.
Total time: 3 hours (1 1/2 hours outdoors)
Audience: 6-20 students, 4th grade through adult
Activity level: easy
Travel: 1/4 mile
Total uphill travel: none
Outcomes
Upon completion of the Weather Forecasting class students will be able to:
- Predict the chance of rain and the trend in temperature for the next 12 hours, using wind direction.
- Interpret the chance of storms in the next 24 hours based upon a surface weather map from a TV or newspaper.
- Evaluate a newspaper article on climate change.
- Recall that low pressure systems follow the jet stream and bring storms.
- Recall that winds, clouds, precipitation occur when warm and cold air collide with one another.
Minnesota Graduation Standards
The Weather Forecasting class will provide students with guided practice, in an authentic setting, to support the following Graduations Standards. We have chosen one to three “major focus” standards per grade level. Due to the holistic nature of environmental education, several other standards, not listed here, are addressed as well.
Task Management Skills: Teamwork, Resource Management.
• H.S. Sciences: Earth and Space Systems (B2)
• H.S. People and Cultures: Human Geography (b)• 6-8th Sciences: Earth Systems (1-3)
• 6-8th People and Cultures: Geography and Culture (1)
• 6-8th Inquiry: Direct Observation (1)• 4-5th Sciences: Living and Non-living Systems (A3-5, B2, B4)
• 4-5th Inquiry: Media, Observation and Investigation (A)
Wolf Ridge Curriculum Concepts