Lesson #9: Are Weather Forecasters Always Right?
Overview
In this lesson students will compare the weather forecast with the actual weather for a given time period.
Objectives
After completing this lesson, students will be able to:
Materials
Time: Activities will take 45 minutes to an hour each. The students may enjoy doing Activity#2 periodically throughout the year. The teacher may want to schedule this activity at a time when it is indicated that there will be a remarkable change in the weather.
Teacher Preparation
Bookmark and become familiar with the following sites:
Procedures
Activity #1: How Do Meteorologists Predict the Weather?
For this activity, do the following:
- Lead a discussion on what tools meteorologists use to predict weather. The students may talk about the weather instruments that they made and used in an earlier lesson. Tell them that weather predicting information that was once available only to experts is now accessible to everyone via the internet. Tell the students that they can access the sites they've been using in other lessons to look at RADAR and satellite images and try to predict the weather themselves.
- Direct students to the following site:
- Eventual Weather : A Franklin Institute Site which presents a simple tutorial on weather forecasting and using radar and satellite images to predict weather.
Activity #2: Using Radar and Satellite Images
For this activity, do the following:
1. Go to CNN Weather Maps and have students access the following images:
- satellite image for North America.
- animated satellite image for their region
- radar image for North America
- regional animated radar image for their area
- Have a class discussion in which students will share what they observed after studying all images. Knowing that weather generally comes from the west, have them make predictions about what the weather will be like in their area for the next day
2. Go to The Weather Underground
Look at the forecast for the next day. Ask the students how do their predictions compare with the predictions on the site. Do they agree with the forecast?. Why or why not?
3. The Next Day: Students check the accuracy of the Weather Underground Weather prediction with the actual weather of the day. Was the forecast correct? Were their predictions correct?
Follow-up: Have the students use the above procedure to check the accuracy of the weather forecast that is given for the next three to five days. They should write their answer to "Are the Weather Forecasters Always Right?" in their Weather Learning Logs.
Extension Activity
Language Arts
Radar is an acronym for radio detection and ranging. Acronyms are pronounceable words formed by using the first letter or letters of each word in a phrase. Another example is SCUBA - self-contained underwater breathing apparatus. Older students will find it interesting to compile a list of other familiar acronyms and their meanings. Direct them to the Acronym Finder site.
