SUBJECT: Science
GRADE: 4th
TECHNOLOGY: Internet
BY: Sara Young
Grade: This lesson was created for fourth
grade students.
Subject: The students of this class will be at
the end of a science unit on weather.
The students will have already studied the main topics associated with
weather (temperature, air pressure, fronts, wind, humidity, cloud types, and
precipitation). These topics
interact and interrelate to lead to a lesson on weather forecasting.
Rationale: Students see some form of weather every
day. Weather affects what the
students wear to school, what activities they do, and how they get from one
place to another. Fourth grade
students can see the relevance of weather to their own lives and therefore,
weather is a topic that students will be motivated to learn about. The lesson allows students to apply
their knowledge of weather to a new situation. This lesson involves small group work to enhance cooperation
and discussion.
Objectives:
In small groups, the
students will locate current weather information of a specified city.
The students will record the
specified weather information for a specified city twice a day.
In small groups, the
students will make predictions of weather for a specified city using data from
the previous five days.
The students will be able to
justify their predictions using collected data and weather patterns.
In groups, the students will
do a presentation including:
-current
weather trends/conditions for city (consolidate 5 days)
-forecast
for the next day
-justification
for why this is the prediction
Materials
computers with internet
access
overhead projector
overhead transparencies
(blank, teacher made sheets)
overhead pens
daily weather maps from a
national newspaper and local paper
disks for the computer (1
per group)
map of the United States
with the potential cities marked
weather information we need
sheet (sheet 1)
city sheet (sheet 2)
data sheet (sheet 3)
evaluation sheet (sheet 4)
Description of Lesson:
Introduction
Big Picture: Review previous weather concepts with
the class. The class has been
studying various aspects of weather (temperature, air pressure, wind, fronts,
precipitation). Throughout the
lessons, the students have been aware of change. The temperature changes; the air
pressure changes; the winds change; the weather changes. Discuss the importance of weather
forecasting.
What
is a weather forecast?
Why
is weather forecasting important?
How
is it important to you?
What
information do we need in order to forecast weather?
Review
Brainstorm with the entire
class on information that we need in order to forecast weather. Record the students’ responses on
the overhead.
How
does this information help us to predict weather?
For
example, what does the wind speed tell us?
Go through all of the major
weather topics that we have covered (temperature, air pressure, wind speed and
direction, fronts, humidity, precipitation, cloud types, jet stream) using
these types of questions. Record
responses on the overhead transparency (sheet 1). Ensure that the students
understand the relationship between the weather that occurs and these
individual components before moving on.
Guided Practice
Discuss the weather
forecasts in the paper from the previous week. Look at the entire map of the United States. Note how the maps progress from day to
day.
What
are the major weather patterns for the U.S. for this week?
Focus attention on one
particular city.
Did the actual weather match
the predictions for that day?
Record the students
observations onto a blank transparency on the overhead.
What
information do you think the meteorologists used to make these
predictions?
What weather would you
predict for tomorrow? Why?
Brainstorming
Divide the students into
groups of four. Have the students
decide roles for each member of the group (recorder, reader, facilitator,
questioner). Have a representative
from each group draw a name of a city in the United States out of a hat (sheet
2). Explain to the class the big
picture of the lesson: to do a
weather forecast for a particular city with your group.
As a whole class, brainstorm
methods to acquire current weather information that we discussed earlier
(temperature, air pressure, wind, etc.)
What
are some ways to find current information on weather?
Record all responses on an
overhead transparency. With the
class, revise answers to include only those sources that have current
weather data. If the class does
not suggest the computer, internet, or web, suggest it to them. Discuss
possible ways to retrieve weather information from the web. Give each group a disk and explain that
they may download daily weather information from the web onto their disk, if
they choose to do so. Make sure
that computer lab is available for about 20 minutes. Allow each group to work together for 15 minutes to discover
ways to retrieve this current weather information on the web. Some sites to be familiar with are:
www.weather.com
Yahoo: weather forecasts
If difficulties arise, have
students who found the information explain it to those having difficulty.
Group work
Explain my expectations to
the class. Over a five day period,
each group will collect the specified weather information on a particular
city. The groups will record their
findings on the data sheet twice a day, once in the morning and once in the
afternoon. The data sheet may be
modified if the students feel that more information would be helpful (e.g.
email students from those cities to look at the clouds, etc.) Encourage the students to use
additional outside resources (people, newspapers, etc.) to acquire information.
After 5 days
Using the information that
the students have collected, each group will create a forecast for its
specified city. They will
indicate: a high and low
temperature, wind direction and speed, possible precipitation and cloud
cover. The students must then be
able to justify their forecasts.
As a group, the students will discuss the questions:
Why is this your
forecast? What makes you think
that this is what will happen?
Presentation
Each group will present the
current weather information that they have collected for the week in a concise
format, focusing on the major trends.
They will then share their forecast with the class. They will explain what weather data
helped them to develop this prediction.
Each member of the group should participate in the presentation.
Evaluation
Throughout the lesson, I am
checking for student understanding by questioning them. The responses to questions will help me
to determine if students need more information, examples, or mini-lessons on a
particular topic.
While students are working
in groups, I will monitor progress and understanding by walking around and
observing. I will question groups
to ensure that they understand why they are collecting this information and
what it tells them.
I will review the weather
data sheet of each group to monitor if the groups are locating and recording
appropriate information. If a
group is not recording the appropriate information, I will have a group conference
to address these issues and to help them develop some ideas and solutions.
The students will be
evaluated using a rubric.
Due to the large amount of
group work in this lesson, the students will be evaluated on most of the
components as a group. The
students will estimate their own contributions to the group. The students will evaluate the
contributions of the other group members.
Sheet
3
Weather Data Sheet
City:__________________ State: ______________
Group Members
__________________ ___________________
__________________ ___________________
|
Day |
1 |
2 |
3 |
4 |
5 |
|
Morning Temperature |
|
|
|
|
|
|
Afternoon Temperature |
|
|
|
|
|
|
Wind Speed |
|
|
|
|
|
|
Wind Direction |
|
|
|
|
|
|
Precipitation (type & amount) |
|
|
|
|
|
|
Clouds |
|
|
|
|
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|
Air pressure |
|
|
|
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Relative humidity |
|
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Front Information |
|
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Additional information |
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|
Rubric for weather
forecasting lesson
|
|
Exceeds Expectations |
Meets Expectations |
Below Expectations |
|
Current Weather
Information (10 points) |
locates and records
current weather for a particular city; uses additional resources to find more
information on current conditions (10 points) |
locates and records
current weather for a particular city (7 points) |
Fails to locate or record
accurately at least one piece of important weather information |
|
Forecast/Prediction (10 points) |
includes well thought out,
clearly stated, logical prediction of high and low temperatures, wind speed
and direction, precipitation, and clouds (10 points) |
includes a logical
prediction of high and low temperatures, wind speed and direction,
precipitation, and clouds (7 points) |
Fails to include
predictions on one or more components (temperature, wind, precipitation,
clouds) |
|
Justification (10 points) |
clearly illustrates how
all of the individual pieces of weather combine to influence the prediction;
concise, logical, well thought out (10 pts) |
illustrates how most (3)
individual pieces of weather affect the day’s forecast (7 pts) |
fails to indicate a
relationship between individual components and the day’s forecast |
|
Presentation (5 points) |
all group members
participate; forecast is stated clearly and justification is clearly explained
and logical; group members are able to answer questions on reasoning (5 points) |
all group members
participate; forecast and justification are explained clearly to class (4
points) |
all group members do not
participate; prediction and justification are not stated clearly |
Grade Points
A = 30-35
B = 25-29
C = 20-24
D = 15-19
F = 18
or below
Sheet
1
|
Weather information we
need |
What it tells us |
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Sheet 2
Cut up in strips so students
can draw a city out of a hat.
San Francisco
Denver
Chicago
Boston
Atlanta
Albuquerque
Tampa
New York
New Orleans