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I am an eighth grade science teacher who is looking for online activities to use in my classroom. I have a suite of 10 notebooks which are internet-capable, but I generally have 28 to 32 students in class. To get my students started working together in small groups with these netbooks, I assigned each group a different city to collect weather-related data on. I selected eight cities across the Americas, as I had some nice laminated maps that focused on this section of the world. They collected four sets of data on such things as high temperature, low temperature, precipitation, sunrise and sunset times, and current weather conditions. Then they used other resources, including Googlemaps, to find out the cities' elevations, surface features, populations, and climate-related information. I also created a webquest using resources I found in the "Living in the Weather" SciGuide (http://learningcenter.nsta.org/my_learning_center/sciguides/guide_detail.aspx)Once they get a chance to use this webquest and I make sure that I work the kinks out of the system, I will share it. Do any middle school teachers have some other meteorology-related online activities that they would suggest?
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Hi Dorian,
What a busy and engaging classroom of scientists you must have! Thank you for sharing your instructional ideas.
I recently completed a meteorology unit with my middle school students. Their unit assessment included choosing a severe weather element and developing a powerpoint presentation. Students included links to videos and simulations that were recommended in the 'Living in the Weather' NSTA Sci Guide.
My students certainly became severe weather experts and enjoyed being the 'teacher' as they shared their knowledge while presenting their projects.
I'm looking forward to you sharing your webquest!
Enjoy your year, Alyce
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Hi Alyce,
Thank you for your response! I just learned how to create a "Glog", which is an interactive poster that uses video clips, sound clips, and text yesterday. I am going to have my students use this new technique to create presentations that focus on a topic related to meteorology; such as thunderstorms, blizzards, tornadoes, hurricanes, climate change, and also Earth observing satellites such as TERRA and GOES. They will present these to the class to teach all of us about these aspects of this subject.
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Hi Dorian,
Alright - just from the enthusiasm I could "hear" in your post about the Glog your students are building is enough for me to say, "Tell me more!" I have not had the opportunity to see that project built or used firsthand.
Would you be able to share some "how to" information? Or attach a sample on our thread?
Have fun! Alyce
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Dorian,
I , too, want to know about Glogs. I know some teachers here in Vermont who would try this with some 5/6 th grade students. Would this be appropraite? What advice might you give that teacher to get him/her started?
I want to do it. I just need some students. I would also think this would be a great strategy/technique for preservice teachers in a science class?
Kathy
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I am pleased to see that there is interest in creating Glogs with students as I am finding that my eighth grade students are absolutely loving this new presentation tool. Although it doesn't have to be used in this way, creating a Glog is a great way for students to present information to their peers. For example, we are studying meteorology, and I want my students to become "experts" on one topic and then share it with the class. So, they are working in pairs to create a Glog on a topic they choose from a list I generated, that include such things as blizzards, hurricanes, climate change, and various Earth Observing satellites, such as TERRA and AQUA. I feel this format would be effective with any age group- from elementary aged students through adults. A glog is very easy to create! The url to go to the Glogster site is http://www.glogster.com/. To see the Glog that I created to teach my students about glogs and introduce them to this weather glog project is at http://janneydo.glogster.com/weather-project-intro/.
Check these out and let me know if you have any questions. I was training some National Board for Professional Teaching candidates this past weekend, and we got into a discussion about using this technique with our students. One high school teacher explained how he very effectively used them with his students, and he showed me how to create a Googledoc to have students send me their urls when they finished their glogs. Needless to say, my classroom is just buzzing with excitement- both theirs and mine!
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Hello,
The National Earth Science Teachers Association, NASA and NSF all support a great website called 'Windows to the Universe'. This site is brimming with support for educators.
Visit: http://www.windows2universe.org/earth/cmmap/cmmap_videos.html for videos that have been posted about Clouds, Weather and Climate.
Enjoy your day, Alyce
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Hello,
Does anyone have any engaging student activities that demonstrate sea and land breezes? Or, changing wind patterns? Our state tests are approaching quickly, and one of the questions that always seems to confuse my middle schoolers pertains to daytime/nightime sea and land breezes.
Thank you!
Alyce
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Hi Susan,
That is a great article and activity to demonstrate circulation. I know there must be some quality activities and simulations for students to conduct and experience sea/land breezes. This might give me a mission for winter break! LOL
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by Dorian Janney, Tue Nov 09, 2010 7:26 PM
I am an eighth grade science teacher who is looking for online activities to use in my classroom.
Hi Dorian,
Your glog looks great! What a fantastic way to engage your students!
Have you looked into the NASA GLOBE program? It's a hands-on program where students collaborate with scientists to conduct inquiry-based investigations of the environment and the Earth system. Another collaborative, inquiry-based project is 'Tracking Through the Tulips' (article is attached below). Although this article is from Science and Children it can be modified for use at any grade level. This project is a year long learning adventure where students grow tulips in various conditions. Students then compare their tulip blooming results with students around the globe. This project has great cross-curricular connections with geography and ties in well with meteorology, temperature, weather patterns, etc. (ie why won't tulips planted in the fall in TX bloom in the spring?)
Keep us posted on your progress!
Maureen
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Hi,
I recently started visiting NSTA's site, 'Blick's Picks'. Professor Jacob 'Blick' selects a weekly movie or video clip from the worldwide web to highlight in his column. He also posts movie reviews pertaining to science content of selected features.
During the past week my students viewed a video clip about a GPS that was attached to a weather balloon. I love having one more source to make science come alive in my students' lives.
Visit 'Blick's Picks' at: http://www.nsta.org/publications/blickspicks.aspx
Enjoy your week, Alyce
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Does anyone have some resources and suggestions for using Earth Observations from Space to teach middle school students about meteorology and climate? I know this crew will give me all kinds of neat stuff! After winter break, we will focus on how scientists use Earth-Observing satellites to gather weather data and to learn about climate and climate change. I would love some ideas from you folks!
Thanks- Dorian
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Hello Everyone,
Wanted to let you all know that NSTA is offering a web seminar on December 22.
Satellite Meteorology: Monitoring the Global Environment. Looks like a good one! http://learningcenter.nsta.org/webseminars.aspx
Enjoy your week, Alyce
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Thank you for these great suggestions! I signed up for the upcoming web seminar- thanks for alerting me to that, Alyce! And I will check out the two resources that were also suggested- I'll let you folks know how it goes!
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Hi Thread Readers,
NASA and NSTA has excellent resources and links to climate change / weather educational material.
When I performed an Advanced Search from my home page on our NSTA website I was provided 200+ results.
Advanced Search results include Books & Articles (62), Seminars and Classes (8) and Do-It-Yourself Learning opportunities (153)! Although climate change is a hot topic in the lives of our students, I've heard of few states that include the knowledge on their state testing.
Colorado State Testing includes a few weather questions, but so far none of Climate Change. Inquiry is centered around wind patterns, waves and fronts. Do any of you have some 'kid tested' inquiry lessons that you could share? I would love to incorporate them into my classroom.
Enjoy your day,
Alyce
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The following is a collection of resources that might be helpful
Clouds Collection
(3 items)
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Hello Readers,
I've been asked to teach a high school level 'Meteorology' science elective in Fall 2012. I have discovered an excellent site called 'Weatherspark''. The site is phenomenal and includes interactive weather graphs that allow you to pan and zoom through the entire history of any weather station on earth. Students can also access long range, historical and current radar readings. The weather graphs are easily understood and comparison among cities is easy to navigate.
I'm hoping to come up with some engaging strategies to have my students interact and investigate this site. Other than viewing past forecasts to see how well they match what actually happened or comparing cities with the same longitude/latitude readings - do any of you have suggestions so that I'm able to utilize the site in several different ways throughout the length of the course???
I appreciate all ideas, enjoy your week!
Alyce
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So many great ideas on this thread! I had my students do some research on the atmosphere and climate change using the "Windows to the Universe" website. Lots of videos and collection of good info. Thanks Alyce.
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Wow! So many good websites! I like the weatherspark website. It has a lot of good applications for other content area too. I'm definitely going to use this site during my unit on weather and climate change!
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Hi Weather Friends,
I found two resources this evening, and wanted to share them with all of you!
Check out NSTA's home page to view this week's 'Blick's Pick - Tornado Season on the Sun' Our sun has been in the news quite a bit this week, and the topic of the sun producing tornadoes is engaging to our students.
I have also discovered an additional NASA resource that explains Global Wind Patterns, along with a very simple way to illustrate global winds to our students.
Enjoy your week!
Alyce
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NASA has outstanding resources to support the meteorology topic in elementary through high school classrooms. I'm currently gathering current news articles for MS and HS students to read and respond to. I located some engaging articles on NASA'sThe Earth Observatory, which is maintained at the Goddard Space Flight Center.
You may also sign-up for the FREE weekly EO (Earth Observatory) newsletter - always brimming with quality satellite photographs and current severe weather areas.
Today I located the article, 'Every Cloud has a Filthy Lining.' This article discusses the amount of aerosol found in clouds and how, even though the cloud may appear brighter and whiter, the hazards of aerosol accumulation effects our atmosphere. I'm anxious to look further into the resources in this area and hear the critiques and interest that they generate with my high school students.
Enjoy your week, Alyce
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I'd like to share an "arts & crafts" activity on the atmospheric circulation cells/ surface wind belts / high and low pressure systems that worked pretty well in my classroom. Students make 3D loops and tubes representing air movement, draw arrows to show direction of movement, color in warm vs cool, moist vs. dry for the air masses, and paste them in the appropriate orientation on posters. Will take a photo of a student's work and link it here (coming soon...)
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The "Windows to the Universe" website is great! I have to teach my students about the Coriolis Effect and I think the part on global winds will help them understand this concept.
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The AMS offers free courses for teachers in their Datastreme project. There are Datastreme Atmosphere, Ocean and Earth's Climate System courses. There are links to these here:
http://www.ametsoc.org/amsedu/
Useful weather information can be found on the Datastreme Atmosphere visitor's page:
http://www.ametsoc.org/amsedu/dstreme/index.html
I have been able to take all three courses. They are excellent!
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