Set-up Directions:
7 minutes
Write the following on chart paper and display in the classroom:
Supply Managers: collect team supplies (one blank piece of paper to record team brainstorming ideas, 4 small paper or plastic cups, 4 drinking straws (non-bendable), one straight pin with ball end, one tape dispenser, one marker, one unused pencil with eraser, and Directions for Making an Anemometer)
Facilitator: Make sure your team focuses on the Class Challenge Question.
Recorder/Reporter: Record team information as neatly as possible.
Coach: Offer positive encouragement to your team as it works together.
Write the Daily Challenge Question on another piece of chart paper and post it in the classroom.
Group students into heterogeneous teams of 4-5 members based on their team roles. Set the computer and LCD Projector to the Web site http://www.weatherchannel.com that all students are able to view it. Post the definitions of the vocabulary terms and the KWL chart onto the chalkboard.
Duplicate Directions for Making an Anemometer for each team of 4-5 students.
Teacher Presentation & Motivation:
25 minutes
The teacher tells the students that today they will be learning about the weather. Tell students to think about what they already know or what they think they know about the weather and encourage students to share ideas as you record them onto the "K" section of the KWL chart. Encourage students to think, pair, and share questions they may still have about weather with a partner. Call on students to share their questions as you record them onto the "W" section of the KWL chart. Tell students that they will hopefully learn answers to some of their questions, and at the end of the activity, they will be able to write down things they have learned onto the "L" part of the KWL chart.
Next, tell students that they will need to know some definitions of key vocabulary terms to help them with today's lesson. Call on one student to read the word "Meteorologist" and its definition as it is listed on the chalkboard. Tell them that today they will be meteorologists and they will use weather tools to collect information and make predictions about the weather.
Activity 1 - Weather Channel
10 minutes
Explain that meteorologists often use certain tools or instruments to help them find out information about weather and make predictions. Ask students if they have ever watched the Weather Channel on TV to hear a weather prediction. Tell them that many people also use the Weather Channel's Web site to do the same.
Focus for Media Interaction
Focus for Media Interaction: The focus for media interaction is a specific task to complete and/or information to identify during or after viewing of video segments, Web sites or other multimedia elements.
Tell students that their Focus for Media Interaction is to use the Web site to learn some different types of data that is collected to help predict the weather, and some tools that meteorologists use to collect the data.
Viewing Activities
What will your students be responsible for while viewing this piece of multi-media or video?
Navigate through the Web site, highlighting areas that display different types of data.
Lead the class into a brief discussion about some of the forms of data collection and tools used by meteorologists. Share that one tool used by meteorologists is called an anemometer. Call on a student to read the definition of "anemometer," and tell students that they will be creating anemometers later today.
Post Viewing Activities
How will students utilize the information they gathered while viewing the multi-media or video?
Take the students for a walk outside. Have them focus their attention on all of the things around them that they think are related to weather. Have them close their eyes to feel the weather, and discuss some things they may have felt including wind and warmth from the sun.
Activity 2 - Anemometers
20 minutes
After students have returned to the classroom, set the TeachTimer to 5 minutes and direct teams to brainstorm one team list of things they noticed outside that are related to weather. Using the Numbered Heads method, call on one student from each team to Stand and Deliver three to five items on their lists as the teacher adds the responses to the W section of the KWL chart. Distribute Directions for Making an Anemometer to each team. Teams already have materials they will need to create the anemometer. Set the TeachTimer for about six or seven minutes to allow teams to read to perform a task to create an anemometer. After teams have created their anemometers, allow teams time to discuss how well they worked together, giving themselves a rating of H, O, or T or 1,2, or 3. Use Numbered Heads to call on one student from each team to Stand and Deliver their team's rating. Then explain that meteorologists use anemometers to measure wind speed by counting the number of times the anemometer spins around with the "X" passing the starting point. Direct students to take their anemometers and go outside again. Model for students how to line up the "X" on one of the cups with the pencil and count the times it rotates in the wind. Teams should count the number of rotations in a one-minute period. Teams should continue to be directed to count the number of rotations in a one-minute period each day at the same time of day for 5 consecutive days.
Activity 3 - Weather Forecasting
10 minutes
After teams have finished counting the number of rotations of their anemometer, students should enter the classroom and individually record the number of rotations onto their graph. The teacher should first model for students (using a transparency of graph paper and the overhead projector), how to set up the graph (a bar graph with Day 1, Day 2, etc. on the x-axis and # of rotations on the y-axis). Each day for five days, after teams have counted the number of rotations, students should individually record their team's number of rotations onto their own bar graphs. On the sixth day, the students should pretend they are meteorologists, and they should draw a sixth bar on their bar graph and label it "prediction." This prediction bar would reflect the number of rotations they think they would count if they were to again go outside and monitor the number of rotations of the anemometer in the wind. Students should then provide a written explanation for why they chose that wind speed.
Wrap Up:
3 minutes
At the conclusion of each day's calculations, end of the initial lesson, ask students to think like a meteorologist and predict what they think might happen the following day based on the wind speed they calculated that day. Also hold a class discussion for the answer to the Daily Challenge Question. Tell students that they will continue to collect this data for four more days to help them make predictions about the wind speed after those days. After students have added their prediction bar to the graph on the sixth day, the students discuss in teams and then in whole class format, the answer to the Daily Challenge Question. Complete the L section of the KWL chart as a class.