Overview of Lessons and Investigations
Learners will explore on-line resources that provide current weather information. The emphasis of these activities is on using information to investigate scientific questions, creating models, and making predictions. Many activities require learners to record electronic information over several days, share data with learners at remote locations, and conduct analysis using image processing technology. Activites have clearly defined learning outcomes and are segregated into four levels: novice, intermediate, advanced, and expert. These levels are more closely aligned with computer experience than cognitive levels. For a preview, go to a Quick Tour of the activities.
We suggest that as you begin using these lessons in your classroom that it might be helpful to print the entire activity you are conducting. This is because going from page to page can consume too much time in the classroom. Soon, all you will need to do is select "download," but this option is not yet available.
Novice Level
Local Weather Data Collection - Learners record weather data and reflect on how weather impacts daily life.
Analyzing Weather Data - By gathering data from around the country, learners create graphs demonstrating relationships among influential weather variables.
Weather Journals and Predictions - Learners build awareness of how weather changes and make predictions.
Creating a Temperature Map - Using temperature data gathered by students from around the country, students make color temperature maps.
Novice Level Cross-Curricular Connections and Extensions - Related books and extension activities for novice level Internauts.
Tracking a Hurricane - Learners explore links that describe locations of tropical storms and hurricanes, study strength and landfall probabilities, and make predictions about hurricane characteristics.
Focus on Hurricane Andrew - Learners will describe how hurricanes change over time, magnify an image to view individual pixel elements, and measure the diameter of a hurricane from a satellite image.
Moving Air Masses- Learners synthesize observations of temperature, pressure, humidity, wind speed, radar, and cloud cover to identify moving air masses, measure sizes and velocities, and combine images to create movies.
Global Circulation and Weather Maps - Teacher-center lesson exploring global circulation patterns.
Weather Tracking and Interpretation - Learners gather weather data and interpret hodograms and skewt plots to predict weather system movement.
