Students have a natural curiosity about weather. In this activity, they will use data collecting skills to record the high and low air temperature for 10 days. A student-made rain gauge also will be used to record the daily precipitation. Students will record the soil temperature every hour for 1 day to see if the soil temperature changes. The class will compare and contrast these data and decide how weather affects people in our community. The results will be posted on the web so that other classrooms may contribute their data. You may want the students to generate other data they want to collect, such as light intensity, humidity, etc.
What's the weather like in our community? What is the average high temperature? What is the average low temperature? What is the soil temperature? Does the soil temperature change during the day? How does the temperature affect plant life? How does the temperature affect animal life?
Recording Data - Using a thermometer, the students will be able to measure and record the high and low temperatures for 10 days.
Analyzing Data - Given air temperature, rainfall, and soil temperature data, the students will be able to describe how their data compares to and contrasts with another cities' data.
Automated Weather Source
This web site features weather stations across America (and some foreign sites) that are connected to the Internet. An excellent source of real time weather data.
This rubric assesses the student's recording-keeping.
Mesonet
This software enables the Internet user to gather weather data across the state of Oklahoma.
Record the high and low temperature for the day on the spreadsheet.
Choose another city in Oklahoma and create a Venn diagram which will compare/contrast our data with the other city's data.
Younger students may benefit from using a teacher created spreadsheet for students to record the high and low temperature and the precipitation. The hourly soil temperature could be recorded in a journal as well as a spread sheet. There are numerous ways to collect the data. We will be using an Automated Weather Service WeatherNet station located at our site which is connected to the Internet. We will also use thermometers and student made rain gauges for a hands on approach. Your high school science teachers may have more advanced thermometers or a soil thermometer. We will select two students each day to collect the data and report to the class. The teacher will be a facilitator who will guide the students in their data collection.Activity Length: 10 minutes for 10 days to collect and record high and low temperature and precipitation.1 day to collect soil temperatures for each hour of the school day.45 min to compare/contrast data with another city.45 min to post results on web site.
Read the instructions carefully!
This week your child will be collecting weather data (temperature, rain, soil temperature). Be sure to ask them about their data!
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