Curated OER
Interplanetary Travel Guide
In groups of six, middle school space scientists create an imaginative travel brochure for attracting visitors to the planet Mars. Information must include surface features and atmospheric conditions. Although time-consuming, this is a...
Curated OER
Weather Tools of the Trade
Fourth graders study the basic meteorological instruments (thermometer, barometer, weather vane, anemometer, and rain gauge). They explore how they are used, data that can be collected from them, and why records of the data are kept.
Curated OER
Geography: Water, Water Everywhere
Learners discuss flooding and its causes. They view a Powerpoint presentation about floods and prevention methods. After creating a model with clay and pans, they investigate river behavior in various terrains with different amounts of...
Curated OER
Dripping Wet or Dry as a Bone?
Students use a sponge and water model to explore the concept of relative humidity and create a percent scale. They define humidity and saturation, build a simple humidity/saturation model, collect, predict and interpret data, and create...
Curated OER
Climate And the Greenhouse Effect
Students demonstrate the greenhouse effect. They recognize that relatively small changes to our environment can stimulate significant climate changes. They determine that the "scientific method" is a process of testing hypotheses and...
Curated OER
Winter and Summer Storms Scenarios
Fourth graders discover the patterns that create summer and winter storms. Working in groups, they create model storms for summer and winter. Students discuss the reasons why summer storms and winter storms are different and explain...
Curated OER
Weather Walks
Students study weather by taking walks in various types weather conditions.
Curated OER
Making Decisions
Students explore how decisions are made and practice solving problems that require choices. They comprehend that solving problems requires a strategy or plan. Students recognize that "common sense" is really practiced decision-making. ...
Curated OER
Sunlight and Warm Air
Students examine the different ways heat can be felt. In this radiation and conduction instructional activity, students recognize that the sun radiates heat. Students conduct three experiments to find how the sun warms the Earth...
Curated OER
Daniell Cell
Students explain how Daniell cells work. In this electrochemistry lesson, students conduct a variety of experiments to explore the different types of cells. They create a model of Daniell cell.
Curated OER
Investigation 8 - Weather Forecasts
Fourth graders examine how to predict and evaluate weather forecasts. Discuss with students why weather predictions are important to us. Ask them what people do after they hear a forecast. They brainstorm reasons forecasts are important...
Curated OER
Everyone Knows It's Windy
Students create an anemometer, an instrument that measures wind speed.
Curated OER
Atmospheric Processes -- Convection
Students work together to discover how temperature changes can affect the density of water and air. They make predictions on what they believe is going to occur. They answer questions to complete the lesson.
Curated OER
Winter and Summer Storms Scenarios
Fourth graders analyze how summer and winter storms are different. For this weather lesson, 4th graders construct a winter storm simulation box and a summer storm bottle and record the temperature and barometer readings. The directions...
Curated OER
Air Pressure and Wind
Fourth graders explore weather by reading weather measurement text. In this barometer lesson, 4th graders discuss ways weather is measured on Earth and how these measurements lead to predictions. Students read assigned text, discuss...
Curated OER
What's Going to Happen at Any Given Barometer Reading?
Fourth graders brainstorm a list of words associated with weather. In groups, they sort the words into categories and observe the weather in their area for a month. To end the lesson, they compare the barometer measurements for a...
Curated OER
Investigation 7 - Interpreting Weather Data
Fourth graders interpret the weather data they gathered in Investigation 6. They take an average of each component in each season. They compare the same components of each season and write the differences they see between the seasons.
Curated OER
Plate Tectonics: Recycling the Seafloor
Students classify earth's layers and plates using Ocean Seismicity data. In this plate tectonics instructional activity, students outline where the plate boundaries are on the world map. They then compare these predicted boundaries with...
Curated OER
Weather Instrument Use and Application
Eighth graders measure temperature, wind speed and pressure using Skymaster SM-28. In this earth science lesson, 8th graders collect data and record observations taken from outdoors. They explain why numerical values are different in...
Curated OER
Weather Forecasting Basics
Eighth graders analyze weather diagrams and weather maps. In this earth science instructional activity, 8th graders explain why it is important to know the weather. They complete a handout at the end of the instructional activity.
Science Buddies
Science Buddies: Career Profile: Meteorologist
As Bob Dylan once sang, you don't need a weatherman to know which way the wind blows, but you do need one to tell you why it's blowing. Science Buddies provides a career profile for a meteorologist and what the career entails. Find out...
American Geosciences Institute
American Geosciences Institute: Careers: Meteorologist
Find out what it takes to become a meteorologist, and to become a life-long learner of science.
Utah Education Network
Uen: Utah's Meteorologists
In this activity students will compare and contrast the seasonal weather patterns.
Discovery Education
Discovery Education: Weather Maps
This site provides a lesson plan in which groups of students will each investigate a different type of weather map use for weather forecasting. Also includes discussion questions, extension ideas, and links to additional sites for more...