My students need instruments to measure weather conditions, craft supplies to create models of weather, and literature to increase their understanding of weather.
Did you know that 71% of Earth is covered with water? I want my students to understand the importance of water and the role in plays in weather through the study of clouds and the water cycle. A class weather station will allow my students to measure weather conditions with weather instruments.
Being a neighborhood school located in rural South Carolina, we have seen a decrease in funds for supplies for our students.
Also, having any extra funding for accompanying literature to increase my students' literacy is a luxury. I depend on parent donations for most of the supplies. At the beginning of the school year, parents are strapped just to supply their children with basic school supplies. I would like to complete these hands-on activities without it becoming a monetary burden to my parents.
My Project
These supplies will allow my student to create a weather station where they can measure the direction and speed of the wind, the temperature, and rain fall amounts. They can create charts and graphs to display their information. The students will visit websites to compare their weather data to previous years. As my students learn about clouds and the weather they bring, they will manipulate cotton balls to design cirrus, stratus, and cumulus clouds in a cloud booklet. Students will observe a water cycle demonstration using a water cycle model. They will make a water cycle wheel using scissors and crayons. They will also make a bracelet using colored beads to help them remember the order of events in the water cycle, yellow for the sun's heat, clear for evaporation, white for condensation, blue for precipitation and brown for runoff. Students will also have the opportunity to listen and read books about the weather throughout the unit.
Every day our activities are determined by the weather.
Because South Carolina is affected by thunderstorms, hurricanes, and tornadoes, some weather decisions may even save their lives. Being amateur meteorologist, students use what they learn about clouds, the water cycle, and the weather station to plan activities, thus avoiding danger. Who knows? Perhaps some of my students will choose meteorology as a career path.
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