CIESE - Wonderful World of Weather Project

Lesson #1: "Relative" Weather

Overview

In this lesson students will select a city in which they have a family member or friend and study the weather that takes place in that location. Before beginning the lesson students will make predictions about what they will find when they compare the weather in the two locations.

Objectives

After completing this lesson, students will be able to:

Recognize that short-term weather conditions change daily
Understand that weather varies with location
Compare and contrast the weather condition in their location with the weather in other places

Materials

Handouts #1: Where are they?
Data Collection Sheet #1: Investigating the weather
Large wall map
Weather instruments (thermometer, wind vane, anemometer, etc.)
Large chart paper for making wall graphs
Weather Learning Log
Computer(s) with Internet Access

Time: Four hours spread out over a three week period or a similar time allocation

Teacher Preparation

Once you complete activity #1 below you will need to check on the various locations your students selected to make sure the necessary data is available. To check the locations do the following:
Go to the Weather Underground site. Enter in the location each student selected in the "Fast Forecast" window which is in the upper left hand corner. If the exact location is not in the database then select the next closest city or town.
Once the current conditions and forecast information loads, scroll down to "Historical Conditions". From the "Historical Condition" pull down menu, select the date for two days ago and then click on "GO".
If no data is available then you will need to select a different site near the desired location for this lesson.
If no hourly reports are listed or if only a few appear you will need to select a different site near the desired location for this lesson.
For younger students you may need to put together the large wall graph (see Activity #??) rather then having the students create it.

Procedures

Activity #1: Where do my relatives live?
For this activity, do the following:

Explain to the students that now that they have had a chance to study their local weather that they are now going to study the weather in other locations.
Ask the students to share some stories of vacations or trips to relatives houses. As they relate the story have them describe what the weather was like in the other location.
After hearing from a few students, ask them to take out their Learning Logs and to write a short narrative about one of their trips and what the weather was like in a different location. NOTE: If your students have not traveled far from your local community, have them write about a place they have seen in the movies, TV, or read in a book.
Distribute Handout #1: Where are they? As a homework assignment have the students take the handout home and fill it out with their parents or guardian.

Activity #2: What will the weather be like?
For this activity, do the following:

Have students gather their local weather data from the classroom instruments. Record the data on the board or wall chart.
Have them take out their Weather Learning Log. Ask them to write a short narrative about what the weather is like in the location they selected for homework. For older students, have them try and answer some questions such as:
- Do you think the temperature in your relative's town will be warmer or colder then in your own? Why?
- What type of precipitation might you expect? Why?
- Will the wind speed be higher or lower? Why?
As students are writing in their Weather Learning Logs have them come up to the large wall map one as a time and locate where their relative or friend lives. Mark the spot on the map with a post-it note with the student's name on it so that they can refer back to it.

Activity #3: Investigating the weather
For this activity, do the following:

Give out Data Collection Sheet #1.
Have students access the Real Time Data Activities section of the project web site. Following the instructions on the handout, have them collect weather data for both their local town as well as for the location they selected in beginning of this lesson. They should collect data on as many weather factors as they are knowledgeable about and which were covered in the introductory lessons. You may want to cross off any of the columns on the Data Collections Sheet that the students don't need to fill out.
To determine how to best facilitate the collection of the data please read the Guidelines for Data Collection which are in the Teacher Area section of the project web site. If having each student collect data will require too much time then just select a few locations to have everyone study.
Have the students compare and contrast the data that was collected from the two locations. This can best be done by creating graphs of the different weather variables for the two places and then comparing the graphs. Both line and bar graphs work well (see example). Some questions for them to consider might be:
- What was the highest temperature in each location and when did it occur?
- What was the lowest temperature in each location and when did it occur?
- What was the average temperature in each location?
- Which location seemed the warmest? Coldest?
- Which had the highest winds?
- What types of precipitation occurred?
- What patterns did you notice in the data?
- What was the difference in morning, afternoon and evening readings in each location?
- Which location would you prefer to live in and why?
- For older students, you can ask them to use the graph they created to predict what the weather conditions will be like the in the following days. If time allows you can have them check the data online to determine the accuracy of their predictions.
You can extend this activity by having students collect data for more then one day. Simply have them go further back in the historical data and collect more data.
Have them write a description of the weather in their relative or friend's location based on the data they collected. Have them then compare their description to what they wrote earlier. Have a class discussion about how accurate their predictions were and why they might have been wrong.

Extension Activities

For younger students, you may want to have them start off by simply observing the current weather in their friend's or relative's location before going on to collect data.
Extend the data collection to cover more time. The more data that is collected the more the students will be able to see patterns in it.
Have students draw pictures of the weather in their friend's or relatives' location based on the weather data that was collected.
Go to the Teacher Area of the project web site and use the information in the section titled Linking Up With Other Schools to find partner classrooms to work with in the locations you are studying.