Core Unit:Weather
In this unit students continue developing their skills in observing and recording information. They examine weather information for trends and patterns. Seasonal changes in the weather are important to consider. Observations that the students make should be at different times of the year. Thus, one way of developing this unit would be to stagger it throughout different times of the school year.
The unit also considers the effects of weather. By examining these effects, be they desirable or otherwise, students should be able to gain an appreciation of the importance of understanding weather. Students will also consider why weather is so important to agriculture.
In grade 1 students learn about the planet Earth. The Optional Unit on The Sky is also closely connected. These units provide additional support for the study of weather.
The grade 2 Core Unit on Plant Growth is closely related, since weather patterns have an important effect on plant growth. The Optional Unit on Air and Water is also related.
In grade 4, students go on to make predictions about the weather in the unit dealing with Predicting Weather. Thus, the grade 2 unit on weather should enable students to develop the preparatory skills of observing and recording which will be needed to make predictions.
The grade 6 Unit on the Earth's Climate is also related. After considering local weather patterns in grades 2 and 4, students go on to examining climatic trends on a global scale.
To use a wide range of possibilities for developing the student's knowledge of the major concepts within science. (COM)
To strengthen the student's understanding of weather through applying their knowledge of numbers and their interrelationships. (NUM)
Science foundational and learning objectives:
On the graph, use a different colour to represent each location where temperature readings were taken. The colour could coincide with a colour patch of construction paper located where the measurements are taken.
Factors: B1, B8, C3, C5, C7, E3, F3, G1
Assessment Techniques: 3, 4, 5, 8, 9
Common Essential Learnings: Numeracy. Recognize situations in which it is important to make measurements and record the data collected. Graphing the information makes it easier to identify emerging trends.
On the graph, use a different colour to represent each location where
temperature readings were taken. The colour could coincide with a colour
patch of construction paper located where the measurements are taken.
As the activity progresses, make sure that students rotate responsibilities
for the various tasks, so that each of them has an opportunity to participate
fully.
Factors: B1, B8, C2, C7, E4, F3, G1
Objectives: 2.1
Assessment Techniques: 1, 3, 4, 5, 6, 9
Common Essential Learnings: Numeracy.
Recognize situations in which it is important to make measurements and record
the data collected. Graphing the information makes it easier to identify
emerging trends.
Factors: B1, B5, B8, C2, C3, C5, C7, E2, F3, G1
Objectives: 1.1, 1.2, 1.3, 2.1, 3.2
Assessment Techniques: 4, 5, 8, 9
Common Essential Learnings: Numeracy.
Students collect and organize quantitative information. They summarize that
information into a chart and interpret the information on the chart. Emphasis
should be placed on making careful observations and recording them in order
to facilitate sharing of the information. Once the results are posted they
could be discussed. Recording results accurately assists in making predictions.
As an extension, questions like the following could be posed:
On some days in Saskatchewan, March 10 perhaps, +5 °C would seem
warm but on other days, July 16 for instance, +5 °C would seem cool.
Why?
Does 0 °C mean that there is no heat? When can 0 °C seem warm?
Why is it better to use a thermometer for measuring temperatures rather
than having people stand outside? (Differences in perception would lead
to a lack of consistency in the results. What might seem cold to one person
would feel warm to another, depending on how they were dressed and how they
have acclimatized to a particular set of conditions.)
Objectives: 1.1, 1.4, 3.1, 3.3
Assessment Techniques: 3, 5, 8
Common Essential Learnings: Technological
Literacy. Students should be able to develop an appreciation of the
benefits and limitations of technological tools for measuring weather. Thermometers,
barometers, anemometers, and many other types of weather instruments make
it possible to record information with some precision. Without these tools
humans would be at a disadvantage. However, the tools do not always allow
us to predict weather accurately.
If a third box having a transparent lid was used in a subsequent activity,
this could lead to a follow-up on the Greenhouse Effect, and the use of
solar collectors.
Factors: A3, B1, B2, C3, C5, E3, G1
Assessment Techniques: 3, 5, 8, 9
Common Essential Learnings: Technological
Literacy. The model can be used to assess the effectiveness of technological
developments such as passive solar heating, greenhouses, etc.
Another group might decide to hold a long paper streamer straight up in
the air. The direction that it points, and the angle at which it points
might help to answer the questions. Other groups might come up with different
solutions.
Factors: A3, B1, B2, B5, C2, C3, C4, C5, E2, E3, G1
Objectives: 1.3, 1.4
Assessment Techniques: 2, 4, 5, 8, 9
Common Essential Learnings: Independent
Learning. The activity provides students with an opportunity to solve
problems in groups. They strengthen their perceptual abilities through concrete
experiences. They also discover meanings and solutions for themselves through
active participation in learning activities and experiences.
Activities which integrate Science with other Required Areas of Study
are desirable. Students could write a poem about weather, sing a related
song, draw pictures showing cloud patterns or different weather conditions,
or use drama to show how one might feel in certain types of weather conditions.
This could be expanded to provide opportunities for making cross-cultural
comparisons.
Some teachers might find that long-term activities may be disappointing
for students, depending upon the students in the class. If that is the case,
short-term activities will prove to be more successful. Activities can be
limited in duration to one day a week, or to a maximum of several days,
if it would be more appropriate to organize them in this way for a particular
group of learners.
Factors: A3, B1, B2, B5, C2, C3, E4, F3, G1
Assessment Techniques: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8,
9
Common Essential Learnings: Communication.
Students express their understandings in a variety of ways. This activity,
as well as its related connections into other subject areas, allows students
to participate in a wide range of experiences which involve science as a
way of knowing. Activities which relate Science to other subject areas may
serve to reduce the anxieties that some older students develop.
For this activity it would be interesting to take a photograph of the
class and the objects they are observing. The students would then have graphic
evidence that they and the plants have changed with the seasons. The students
will have grown, and they will be dressed differently. Changes in plant
life can be compared. Have the students write about their experiences on
the visits.
Factors: A3, B1, B2, C3, E2, E4, G1,
Assessment Techniques: 4, 5, 6, 8, 9
Common Essential Learnings: Communication.
Students engage in learning in this activity by utilizing first-hand experiences
to better understand the concept under study. They record, discuss, and
write about their observations using their own language.
Factors: A3, B1, B2, B5, B8, C2, C3, C5, C7, E2, F3, G1,
Assessment Techniques: 1, 3, 4, 5, 8, 9
Common Essential Learnings: Numeracy,
Critical and Creative Thinking. This
is pure scientific research in action. Scientists are still learning how
animal behaviour is affected by changes in the weather. An activity such
as this allows students to participate in science like scientists.
Encourage students to view the ant colony for themselves. If they learn
to think like scientists, they can begin to search for patterns in the ant
behaviour. In research carried out by scientists, there is not necessarily
a right or wrong answer to some of the types of questions being investigated.
As scientists gather more information from experiments and from careful
observation, they help us understand our world in ways that were not possible
before.
There are no right answers here, and sometimes things might not be as
simple as they might seem. Complex interactions might be affecting the ant
behaviour. Have students measure and record as many things as they can think
of -- barometric pressure, temperature, cloud patterns and formations, wind
direction and speed, amount of sunlight, and so on. Some of these factors
might be influencing the ant behaviour.
(Other factors which are not part of the experiment may be affecting the
results, such as the amount of noise in the classroom, the amount of vibration
of the ant colony, the amount of moisture in the soil, the food supply of
the ants, or even something like the signals being broadcast by the local
radio station! Who knows! The experiment suggests a relationship between
weather conditions and the behaviour of ants in an ant colony. A causal
relationship may or may not exist between the two things.)
Various devices can be used to measure wind speed and direction. Weather
vanes, wind socks, pinwheels, anemometers, and streamers can be designed
to do these things.
An empty cylindrical plastic container can serve as a rain gauge. A ruler
can be used as a snow gauge.
An outdoor weather station, located near the school, would be an interesting
project to build and monitor throughout the year. Keep the weather records
collected from year to year. Students can then compare weather readings
with ones taken by students in previous years. Long- range trends might
become evident after a number of years.
Factors: A3, B1, B2, B5, B8, C2, C3, C4, C5, C7, E2, E3, E5, F3, G1
Objectives: 1.1, 1.2, 1.3, 1.4, 2.1, 2.2, 3.2, 3.3
Assessment Techniques: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8,
9
Common Essential Learnings: Numeracy,
Critical and Creative Thinking. In
this activity, students make careful observations and share those observations
with others.
An interesting extension of this project would be to establish a twinning
site somewhere else in the world, or even elsewhere in Saskatchewan, where
students have set up a similar weather station. Once a week a summary of
the weekly weather information, as well as special messages from the members
of one class to another, can be sent to the other students by means of a
computer and a modem, or by mail. Interesting comparisons of weather in
some other place in the world could be made. The students may also benefit
from learning a variety of other things through a cross-cultural experience.
Students may cooperate with other people from some other place in the world.
They develop an understanding of people from other places, and perhaps even
from other cultures. Some students may even set up pen pal relationships.
Note: For more information about weather, you may order Learning
Weather from the Department of Supply and Services, Canadian Government
Publication Centre, Ottawa. The kit is designed for the Middle Level, although
it can provide some useful ideas for Elementary Level teachers.
Other information can be obtained by contacting Environment Canada's Atmospheric
Environment Service.
Invite grandparents or others to the classroom to describe life on the
prairies and how it has been influenced by weather. The students could interview
other people about this as well. Written accounts of early life on the prairies
could also be read to the class.
Factors: A3, B1, B5, C2, C3, G1
Objectives: 2.1, 2.2, 3.1, 3.3
Assessment Techniques: 1, 3, 5, 9
Common Essential Learnings: Personal and Social Values and Skills.
By having grandparents or other people describe how life on the prairies
has been influenced by the weather, students will begin to empathise with
some of the hardships that were experienced. They can also gain a better
appreciation of how strongly the weather influences agriculture and life
on the prairies.
Factors: B1, B5, B8, C2, C3, C4, C5, C7, E2, E4, F3, G1
Objectives: 1.1, 1.2, 1.3, 2.1, 3.3
Assessment Techniques: 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 8, 9
Common Essential Learnings: Personal and Social Values and Skills.
The activity may help to maintain close ties between children and grandparents
who live far away.
Obtaining parental permission is important, because there may be some
reasons why communication between their children and the grandparents has
been severed.
Indian names of the months relate to animal and plant activities throughout
the calendar year. Consider some of those activities to see how the months
have been named. For example, consider seasonal changes that coincide with
animal migrations.
Assessment Techniques: 1, 3, 5
Common Essential Learnings: Critical
and Creative Thinking. By considering seasonal changes from the Woodland
Cree perspective, students gain an awareness that certain notions in science,
such as the idea that there are four seasons, are culturally based.
The groups might come up with different solutions to the problem. For example,
one group might decide to throw a paper cup straight up into the air. The
direction that it travels, and the position that it lands will tell something
about the questions that have been posed.