Lesson #8: Current Events in Weather
Overview
This is an open-ended lesson designed to supply online resources and curriculum links for teachers who wish to explore major, often newsworthy, weather events with their students. The lesson is meant to be used students who have some familiarity with severe weather events such as hurricanes, blizzards, tornadoes, etc..
Objectives
After completing this lesson, students will be able to:
Access, interpret, and compare weather reports from selected internet sites.
Summarize and convey weather information to others.
Materials
- World map
- Weather Learning Log
Time: Time will vary depending on the weather reports for the day
Note: The teacher may chose to implement this lesson by making it an every-day activity. In that case, the students could take turns being the "weather monitor" for the day. The lesson may also be adapted for use in a computer lab with all of the students accessing the sites at the same time. This lesson may be implemented during a certain time of the year or for the weeks during which a weather unit is being taught.
Teacher Preparation
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This lesson is designed to be used with students who have studied severe weather phenomena. The following sites give brief illustrated explanations and are good for review.
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Bookmark the Weather and Weather Advisory sites below
Procedures
Activity #1: What Makes Weather Newsworthy?
For this activity, do the following:
- Work with the students to compile a list of weather events that they want to track or report. Elicit reasons why they have chosen those particular events. Have they ever been involved in a hurricane, flood, blizzard, etc.?
- Use a world map to have a group discussion about the probability that some location in the world will be having severe weather.
- Have the students go through the bookmarked Weather/ Weather Advisory sites and become familiar with the format of each.
Activity #2: Monitoring the Weather Reports
For this activity, do the following:
- The student(s) who is to check the weather sites for the day should first access local weather on The Weather Underground and/or CNN Weather, look for advisories and warnings, and make notes in his weather learning log.
- He should then go to the severe weather sites and note any additional information about local conditions and predictions for severe weather that was not given in the Weather Underground or CNN report.
- The student should then access the Met Office (UK) site and look at the events listed under "World Weather News." Those events can be followed up by checking the status of the weather in those countries or states by accessing national or international weather on the Weather Underground site. A summary of that information should also be entered in the learning log.
Activity #3: Reporting
For this activity, do the following:
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Allow time during the day when the student(s) who collected the weather data can present the information to the rest of the class.
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The class may then follow up at home by looking at internet sites, watching the television weather report, or looking for newspaper articles on the topic.
Extension Activities
Language Arts
Whether it's happening at the time of the writing, or has happened in the recent past, students can tell everyone about their severe weather experiences. Students submit their own stories and read first-person accounts by students from all over the world. Go to the Weather Headlines site for examples and submittal information.
