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The Effects of CAI and Hands-On Activities

Students' Attitudes and Weather Knowledge
by Catherine Gardner Patricia E.Simon
Department of Science Education
University of Georgia

"The purpose of this study was to determine if a combination of computer assisted instruction (CAI) with hands-on science activities would significantly enhance students' abilities in the cognitive and affective domains. The study consisted of three treatments. Treatment one (47 students) included a hands-on activities emphasis. A second treatment (46 students) included the hands-on activities in combination with the Weatherschool software program. The Weatherschool Meteorology program was selected because of its compatibility with the local science curriculum topics, appropriate grade school reading level, and its flexibility to be integrated within the curriculum. The third treatment (21 students) did not contain either hands-on activities nor CAI, but employed more text-based learning. Hands-on activities appeared to increase scores from pretest to posttest. Included in this paper are the introduction, the methodology, results, summary, and implications. (KR)"

"Based on the results from this preliminary study, hands-on activities resulted in increased scores from pretest to post-test. When combining hands-on activities and CAI, the gains from pretest to post-test scores were significantly higher than the gains with only hands-on treatment."

Gardner, Catherine M., et al. “The Effects of CAI and Hands-On Activities on Elementary Students Attitudes and Weather Knowledge.” School Science and Mathematics, vol. 92, no. 6, 1992, pp. 334–336. ERIC, https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1949-8594.1992.tb15600.x.

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I chose this article from the NSTA journal as it features information regarding using technology in the classroom. Within the weather unit, I found a ton of digital resources that could be helpful. This article highlights information about using such resources to the advantage of our students.

Buchholz, B., Pyles, D., Hash, P., & Hagaman, K. (n.d.). Teaching Comprehension in the Digital Age. Retrieved from https://www.nsta.org/science-and-children/science-and-children-mayjune-2021/teaching-comprehension-digital-age

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S cience and Children routinely addresses the challenges teachers face in integrating the Common Core State Standards ( CCSS) alongside the Next Generation Science Standards ( NGSS) (e.g., Forsythe, Jackson, and Contreras 2018; Sweetman and Sabella 2018). We aim to extend this interdisciplinary conversation by sharing insights garnered from working closely with a kindergarten teacher who positioned video as a key informational text in her literacy and science instruction. The NGSS science and engineering practices for grades K-2 explicitly identify "media" as a scientific tool/text, wherein children are expected to "read grade-appropriate texts and/or use media to obtain scientific information to describe patterns in the natural world" (K-LS1-1) and "to construct an evidence-based account for natural phenomena" (1-LS3-1). In using an instructional approach similar to an interactive read-aloud, we explain how teachers can strategically pause scientific videos to invite/prompt interactions that help children comprehend scientific concepts/content as well as engage in childrens' "real life" literacy practices employed by scientists to learn about the natural world outside of school. Ultimately, we outline three strategic instructional practices for pausing video in the science classroom: (1) pausing to learn/extend scientific vocabulary, (2) pausing to practice "reading"/describing the natural world, and (3) pausing to talk as scientists.

Reading Comprehension Instruction

The "interactive read-aloud" is a powerful, flexible instructional routine employed regularly by K-2 literacy teachers to teach children how to read, engage with, process, and learn from/with texts ( Duke and Pearson 2002). As part of this instructional routine, sometimes referred to as shared reading, teachers read a few pages of a book before pausing to think aloud about their own metacognitive reading processes and/or prompting children to engage in particular literacy practices and actions/behaviors (e.g., predicting, making connections, rereading). When teaching literacy strategies for making sense of informational texts, teachers most often turn to picture books, textbooks, or short articles for interactive read-alouds. However, in taking a broader view of "texts" as suggested by both the NGSS and CCSS, teachers might also position informational videos (as well as diagrams, graphs, websites, etc.) as real-life scientific texts worthy of and in need of explicit reading instruction.

Classroom and Curricular Context

Ms. H, a veteran teacher with over 20 years of experience, taught kindergarten at Clearview Elementary School, a rural elementary school in the mountains of Appalachia. Each year she structured her yearlong kindergarten science curriculum around preparing children for a field trip to the zoo in May. She not only saw content playing a role in this preparation but also the development of scientific literacy practices (reading, writing, speaking, and listening) that would facilitate children's authentic engagement as scientists within particular zoo exhibits as well as the natural world.

Ms. H taught her unit each spring for four weeks (30 minutes a day). In the first two weeks of the unit, children learned how to observe birds and make general comparisons of birds' physical characteristics. In addition to engaging with videos and printed texts, children also participated in a beak simulation/lab and went bird watching and nest hunting around the school's property. The aim was not for children to memorize the names or features of birds, but to learn how to compare the similarities and differences in birds' physical characteristics (see Figure 1) (with a focus on beaks and legs/feet) and to understand how these physical differences (i.e., adaptations) offered clues as to what a bird eats and where a bird lives.

Classroom anchor chart.

For the final two weeks of the unit, children explored the specific "aviary guide" they would use during the upcoming zoo field trip ( Buchholz and Pyles 2018). Here children began to learn about specific species of birds (e.g., ostrich, flamingo, puffin) through whole-class, guided, and independent inquiries, though the focus was still on describing and comparing physical characteristics. Formative and summative assessments were embedded throughout the unit, but Ms. H felt strongly the true summative assessment was children's ability to use the aviary guide at the zoo in order to identify, describe, and discuss birds with one another just as scientists/ornithologists might in the wild (i.e., an authentic performance task).

Informational picture books about birds were used to support learning throughout the unit, but the challenge of spotting and identifying birds in real life required knowledge about physical characteristics with repeated practice/experience observing birds move quickly across space. Ms. H's use of videos as informational texts offered opportunities for children to connect content knowledge with scientific literacy skills. Identifying, discussing, and comparing observations of different species of birds provided classroom experiences that addressed kindergarten science and engineering practices that children will "use observations (firsthand or from media) to describe patterns in the natural world" (K-LS1-1) as well as first-grade disciplinary core ideas that "individuals of the same kind of plant or animal are recognizable as similar but can also vary in many ways" (1-LS3.B).

The Focal Video

Ms. H carefully curated collections of videos to use across her science units. In this column, we closely examine her use of one video called "Inside Birding: Size and Shape" from the Cornell Lab of Ornithology's ( 2010) YouTube channel. She liked to begin the bird unit with this video because it got young children "excited about being able to tell the difference between two birds [the hairy and downy woodpeckers] that one would automatically think look alike until you really look at them." Ms. H framed the challenging task of differentiating similar looking species, particularly species that children could see in their own backyards, as a problem-based lesson "hook" that invited children to authentically engage in looking beyond the general silhouette and common features of birds (e.g., feathers, wings, beak).

The focal video features scientists who advocate for the importance of using size and shape to identify birds rather than the color of markings and/or plumage details, which can be quite variable. Importantly, the Cornell Lab of Ornithology videos are not specifically created for children; they are created for the public in the "long-standing tradition of documenting and sharing information about the natural world ... to improve the understanding and protection of birds and biodiversity." In other words, the video's "text complexity," of which the CCSS places increasing emphasis across grade levels, far exceeds the kind of grade-level texts typically encountered by kindergartners regarding vocabulary, syntax, and scientific concepts. Consequently, it was Ms. H's use of an interactive instructional routine, similar to an interactive read-aloud, that allowed her to scaffold scientific literacy practices that helped make this text approachable (and comprehensible) for young children. In addition to the verbal/speech mode (narration, dialogue), the complexity of comprehending this video also involved making sense of the interplay of the visual (moving images, still photos, diagrams, text) and audio (music, bird calls).

Examining the Instructional Routine: An Interactive Read-Aloud With Video

Ms. H's instructional decision to periodically pause "Inside Birding: Size and Shape" moved children from passively watching/consuming the complex video to interacting with the video as well as each other, positioning children as active meaning makers:

...[in every] way the students are processing the language, ideas, and meaning of the text. Occasionally, the teacher stops briefly to demonstrate text talk or invite interaction. These pauses are intentional and planned to invite students to join in the thinking and the talking about the text. ( Fountas and Pinnell 2006, p. 216, emphasis added)

After beginning the video, Ms. H's first pause occurred at the one-minute mark when she explicitly framed what children were learning to read/view today, stating, "So, these two scientists [on the screen] study birds, and someone who studies birds is called an ornithologist. Can you say that? Yep. Ornithologist. So, you're going to be an ornithologist: someone who studies birds. Here we go!" In some respects, this practice of framing the reading/viewing task has close connections to the print-based practice of "setting a purpose" for reading. By inviting children to "be " ornithologists, Ms. H leveraged the affordances of video to transport children from the classroom to the woods, shifting their perspectives from students to scientists.

Over the course of the 10-minute video, Ms. H paused the video 18 times to invite interaction (for a total of 20 minutes of instructional time). Below, we examine three moments when Ms. H paused the video ( see Table 1 for an overview). In examining these pauses and subsequent interactions, we aim to demonstrate howteachers can bring together ELA and science standards to help children learn to "read" informational texts (the video) and subsequently the world as a scientist.

Focal Interaction #1: Pausing to Learn/Extend Scientific Vocabulary

Ms. H often paused the video to (re)introduce, apply, or extend disciplinary-specific vocabulary. For example, when the scientists in the video identified a "songbird" that was "smaller than a crow, but larger than a sparrow," Ms. H paused the video and asked:

Ms. H: "So what group did [the scientist] put that bird in? Remember? We talked about the groups this morning. What group did she put it in?"

Her question offered a quick check of children's oral comprehension just as a teacher might do during a read-aloud of a picture book. Based on the child's response, Ms. H briefly extended this interactional moment:

Student: "A music bird."

Ms. H: "A music bird. That's right. And what was the word they used for music?"

Student: "Song"

Ms. H: "Song. So, she decided it was a songbird. Now, what size is a songbird?

Students: "Small"

Ms. H: "They're small. Not necessarily really tiny because [the scientist] said it was a medium-sized songbird, right?"

Ms. H shifted children's understandings of a "music bird" to the more scientific term/classification of songbird before inviting children to discuss the concept of size, working through distinctions between "small" and "tiny" and "medium-size." This focus on subtly shifting vocabulary is critical in helping children learn to participate in the academic social languages of scientific knowledge production: "more children fail in school ... because they cannot cope with 'academic language' than because they cannot decode print" ( Gee 2001, p. 62). When it comes to video, these more complicated shifts might not happen on their own for young children due to the fast-paced nature of the verbal/audio mode and to the newness of the scientific language. By choosing to pause and invite interaction, Ms. H slowed down the academic languages (verbal/audio) and invited children to interact around/with disciplinary-specific science vocabulary, syntax, and discourses before moving them on to process more new information.

Focal Interaction #2: Pausing to Practice Reading/Describing the Natural World

Ms. H often paused the video to help the children learn from the visual images, repeating a similar instructional pattern several times with increasing complexity. Early on she paused the video so that the students could compare the colors of birds, and later she paused to prompt children to compare the overall size of two birds on the screen. Finally, near the end of the lesson, Ms. H spent extended time having the students synthesize and apply their learning about how to observe birds' characteristics by inviting them to describe and make predictions about the species based on visual cues. To initiate discussion during this particular pause, she prompted students using a misconception check (a formative assessment strategy) to determine whether children comprehended the scientists' approach of comparing the beak/bill size to the overall size of the bird's head rather than just looking at the overall size of the bird:

Ms. H: "So, if you saw a woodpecker, and it looked like one of these, would be a good idea if you just saw one to look at just the size of the whole bird?"

Ada: "Yeah."

The child's incorrect response ("Yeah"), prompted Ms. H to extend this interaction to help children correct this misconception and then apply how scientists "see" birds differently by attending to patterns of physical proportion:

Ms. H: "It'd be kind of hard to tell [which species of woodpecker it is], wouldn't it? You wouldn't know if [the bird you're seeing] was just a young one. It could be a baby. What should you maybe look at that would help you a little bit better?"

Ada: "The head."

Ms. H: "The head and the...?"

Ada: "Beak."

Ms. H: "Beak. That's right. If it has a long beak, then what is it?"

Students: "Hairy [woodpecker]."

Ms. H: "Hairy. If it is a short beak..."

Students: "It's a downy [woodpecker]."

Ms. H: "Alright. Let's see if you're right..."

Ms. H clarified a misunderstanding about whether to look at the size of the "whole bird," which could lead to an inaccurate result. Instead, she helped children focus on comparing two key parts of the bird: the head and the beak. Then, based on what they had learned about this pattern, she asked the students to make a prediction (another formative assessment strategy) about which bird was visible on the screen.

Pausing the video to make a prediction and then watching to confirm is similar to reading further on in a print text to check a prediction. "At its core [predicting] is making predictions and then reading[/viewing] to see how they turned out, but it also entails activities that come with different labels, such as activating prior knowledge" ( Duke and Pearson 2002, p. 212). Making and checking predictions is just as important in digital texts like video as it is in print texts; in fact, given the fast pace of the verbal/audio and visual modes, it becomes even more vital with video texts to slow down the text and interrogate it before moving on to check the prediction.

Focal Interaction #3: Pausing to Talk as Scientists

Embedded within both of the previous interactions were invitations for young children to read/view a video of the natural world as a scientist might, in addition to invitations to practice talking to each other as scientists. In particular, interactions around this video allowed Ms. H to model and scaffold children's use of comparative language/syntax in describing different components of birds' bodies. At one point, after pausing the video, Ms. H invited children to make observations between two birds. One child responded:

Virginia: "Um. That...that one is a little bit smaller. And one's big."

Ms. H: "Is it the... [pointing] This is the downy [woodpecker]. [pointing to other bird] This is the hairy [woodpecker]. So, use the name of the woodpecker."

Virginia: ...

Ms. H: "... You were comparing them, and you said one's ...which one though? The downy, or the hairy? Which one were you going to talk about? So use that in your sentence."

Here Ms. H helped students see that scientists use the precise name of a bird when describing it to others. In the following interaction, she modeled for students how to share descriptions in complete sentences using the suffix "-er" to compare physical characteristics.

Ms. H: "Gregory, what do you notice?"

Gregory: "Um...downy has little small, like, beak. Hairy has the long beak."

Ms. H: "Okay. So, Gregory noticed that the beak on the downy woodpecker is smaller than the beak on the hairy woodpecker."

Ultimately, during this extended "pause," children produced the following observations without any adult follow-ups: "The downy woodpecker's wings are shorter than the hairy woodpecker's wings;" "The downy woodpecker has a smaller head." The ability to see differences and patterns as a scientist and then to articulate those observations using academic language and syntax (i.e., complete sentence/thought, precise name of bird, use of comparative adjective) offer a complex portrait of what it looks like to bring together literacy and science practices as part of an interactive "read"-aloud with a video.

Ms. H's use of formative assessments and scaffolding embedded across the 20-minute interactive video routine were integral to all children's success on the subsequent summative assessment task. Each child was given a black-and-white photograph of two similar-looking woodpeckers and asked to independently identify each species and then communicate their evidence-based conclusions/rationale in one or more sentences ( see Table 2 for examples of children's work on this summative task). All of Ms. H's students were able to be successful with this task (including students receiving ELL and special education services); she attributed this to repeated opportunities for oral rehearsal and guided practice as part of the interactive instructional routine. Not only did this summative assessment track children's ability to closely observe, describe, and compare animals' physical characteristics, it elevated the academic expectation by asking children to construct full sentences using academic languages and content-specific vocabulary, comparative adjectives, and correct syntax.

Conclusion

Across the entire unit, Ms. H's use of the interactive instructional routine with videos in conjunction with print-based texts allowed children to practice oral and written modes of describing patterns observed in the natural world and communicating about how individuals of the same kind of animal can vary in many ways. More specifically, Ms. H's three strategic instructional practices for pausing the video ( see Table 1) provided a way to scaffold the students' learning as readers and scientists. Pausing and inviting interaction helps young children learn to make sense of complex ideas and patterns in the natural world as they practice ways of acting, talking, and thinking like scientists. Advances in technology have made video a particularly critical tool/text in obtaining, evaluating, and communicating knowledge across scientific disciplines. Scientists regularly rely on video to collect and analyze data as well as a tool to share their findings with other scientists and the public. Consequently, literacy instruction in science classrooms must prepare students to understand these expansive, multimodal forms of texts ( Wilson 2008). Therefore, as demonstrated by Ms. H, rather than young children being overwhelmed with fast moving information (across verbal, audio, and visual modes), strategically pausing and inviting interaction allows students the time and space to engage in the literacy practices necessary for being a scientist: obtaining, evaluating, and communicating knowledgeaboutthe natural world. ●

Acknowledgment
The authors wish to thank Reich College of Education, which supported this project through a partnership mini-grant that encourages collaborations between public school teachers and university teacher educators.
Online Resources

Cornell Lab of Ornithology www.birds.cornell.edu/home/

Cornell Lab of Ornithology's YouTube Page www.youtube.com/user/LabofOrnithology

Birding Skills YouTube Playlist www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL0B63ECF2B9523926

Inside Birding: Size and Shape [Focal Video] www.youtube.com/watch?v=ridajl8uic0

Inside Birding: Habitat www.youtube.com/watch?v=UmPXtsJeu5M

Bird Feeding Adaptations Video https://youtu.be/lFZ8NMBDCJw

Bird Cams http://cams.allaboutbirds.org/all-cams/

"Beaks!" Lesson Plan [Adaptations] www.birds.cornell.edu/k12/beaks/

North Carolina Zoo's Online Aviary Habitat Guide www.nczoo.org/experiences/habitats/aviary

Videos Referenced in the Article

Inside Birding: Size and Shape www.youtube.com/watch?v=ridajl8uic0

Bird Beaks: What Do Birds Eat? www.youtube.com/watch?v=xEbRZs1L59Eandauthuser=0

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Teaching Comprehension in the Digital Age

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S cience and Children routinely addresses the challenges teachers face in integrating the Common Core State Standards ( CCSS) alongside the Next Generation Science Standards ( NGSS) (e.g., Forsythe, Jackson, and Contreras 2018; Sweetman and Sabella 2018).

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https://quizizz.com/admin/quiz/5def990ea498db001d654c98/5e1-review

This website has quizzes that a teacher can use to gather information and check for understanding. The teacher creates a "classroom" and the students type in a code to take the online quiz. This quiz is specifically a 5.E.1 review, but there are others such as warm/cold fronts, weather fronts, extreme weather patterns, etc.

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Find and create gamified quizzes, lessons, presentations, and flashcards for students, employees, and everyone else. Get started for free!

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List at least 10 forms of teaching resources that would assist in creating a unit plan for this science topic.

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List at least 10 forms of teaching resources that would assist in creating a unit plan for this science topic.

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1. https://msdilworth5th.weebly.com/weather-5e1.html

Ms. Dilworth's fifth grade weather website covers the standards for 5.E.1 and includes the essential questions, a unit study guide, vocabulary, articles, practice, and even extensions.

2. https://wheretomorrowbegins.org/climb/wp-content/uploads/2013/02/5.E.1-Unit.pdf

This pdf source features a lengthy lesson plan unit for 5.E.1, where you will find step by step activities and learning objectives for your students.

3. https://ie.unc.edu/wp-content/uploads/sites/277/2019/09/5th-Grade-Weather_Final-Version_Web.pdf

This pdf was designed by UNC's department of environment for the Chapel Hill Carroboro Schools, and features 16 different learning activities/lessons with outdoor enhancements, online literacy connections, and more! This was one of my favorite documents to come upon will researching since it is filled with engaging ideas. Teacher prep, work pages, answer keys, video clips, etc. are also included.

4. https://egvideos.com/video/north-carolina/grade-5/science/5.e.1.1,3/weather-conditions

This webpage has a very detailed and helpful video that shows the causes of weather conditions in North Carolina.

5. https://www.cabarrus.k12.nc.us/cms/lib/NC01910456/Centricity/domain/527/curriculum/science/5thScienceUnit5.pdf

This pdf is a desired results page for what teachers should want to accomplish when reviewing standard 5.E.1. The essential questions, objectives, and key vocabulary terms will help any teacher narrow down the things they must do for this standard.

6. https://quizizz.com/admin/quiz/5def990ea498db001d654c98/5e1-review

This webpage is different from the other sources I have listed because it has quizzes teachers can use, and it's platform allows for students to type in the class code for easy grading and score evaluation. The website has quizzes over the individual themes found with 5.E.1.

7. https://www.ixl.com/science/grade-5

The IXL website has many different fifth grade science categories to practice, but features a weather and climate portion that students can do for individual practice. More specifically, this section allows for students to practice reading graphs.

8. https://www.generationgenius.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/Intro-to-Weather-Lesson-Plan-GG.pdf

This is a lesson plan a teacher could use if they are looking at teaching K-2. Students will learn ESS2.D: weather is the combination of sunlight, wind, snow or rain and temperature in a particular region at a particular time. People measure these conditions to describe and record the weather and to notice patterns over time.

9. https://climate.ncsu.edu/learn/wp-content/uploads/sites/3/2021/04/5th-Grade-Air-Masses-Weather.pdf

This is a fifth grade lesson done by NC State which covers 5.E.1.1 and 5.E.1.3. This lesson plan gives detailed instructions and includes an engaging activity over air masses.
Other information is located inside the pdf that would be helpful.

10. https://unctv.pbslearningmedia.org/resource/buac17-k2-sci-ess-lpwhatweather/what-is-weather/

This last source is geared toward K-2, and is a lesson plan done by PBSlearning and is formatted to link to google classroom for your students. There is an interactive lesson on the webpage for students and teachers regarding weather.

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Interactive Weather Websites for children 

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Interactive Weather Websites for children 

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1) https://web.extension.illinois.edu/treehouse/activities.cfmrt
This page features different concepts within the weather patterns topics and has descriptions, vocabulary, and activities for students.

2) https://www.sciencekids.co.nz/weather.html
This website is filled with many different things for students to do regarding weather patterns. I especially like the fun facts page and the quizzes students can take to learn more about weather. It also features games and videos.

3)https://climatekids.nasa.gov/menu/weather-and-climate/
Something interesting about this page is that it was created by NASA and it's platform is extremely user-friendly. There are a variety of articles related to weather patterns but the coolest part of the website is the live satellite views of different NASA missions studying weather.

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1. "What will the weather be?" by Linda Dewitt
The book is centered around teaching weather patterns, and describes various vocabulary words with illustrations. There isn't a story to this book, but it is nice that there are so many definitions and pictures to put with those words.

2. "When the storm comes" by Linda Ashman
This story is one that shows what happens to a mixture of animals and families when a storm comes rolling in, and what they do afterwards. The story is written in rhymes and it quite entertaining to not only read, but watch. The illustrations give clues to some of the words that smaller children may not know.

3. "A Wonderful World of Weather" by Kay Barnham
The main character of the story is a little girl who teaches the reader about weather. She teaches the audience about hot and cold weather as well as storms and different clouds. I like this book because although it wasn't a story, it felt like one because of the narrator.

4. "The Meteorologist in me" by Brittany Shipp
First off, this book is great for ELL students as their is a Spanish translation. The book follows Summer, who loves weather and tries to show others that she is indeed a meteorologist. Her brothers don't believe her, but she knows that if she just believes in herself, she could be just like the weather lady, April Showers. All of the characters in the book are named after different weather concepts. It was a great story that incorporated earth science.

5. "How the Weather Works: A Hands-on Guide to Our Changing Climate" by Christians Dorian
I chose this book because it would be a great classroom library edition for students to explore. It has pop-out page features that show different facts and vocabulary for kids.

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Weather patterns- a climate tendency

Air pressure system- an area of the Earth's atmosphere that has a particularly high or low pressure compared to the air around it

Warm and Cold Fronts-A cold weather front is defined as the changeover region where a cold air mass is replacing a warmer air mass. Cold weather fronts usually move from northwest to southeast. ... A warm weather front is defined as the changeover region where a warm air mass is replacing a cold air mass.

Wind Patterns- Wind speed and direction are important for monitoring and predicting weather patterns and global climate, and the four major wind systems are the Polar and Tropical Easterlies, the Prevailing Westerlies and the Intertropical Convergence Zone.

Jet Stream- a narrow variable band of very strong predominantly westerly air currents encircling the globe several miles above the earth. There are typically two or three jet streams in each of the northern and southern hemispheres.

El Nino-an irregularly occurring and complex series of climatic changes affecting the equatorial Pacific region and beyond every few years, characterized by the appearance of unusually warm, nutrient-poor water off northern Peru and Ecuador, typically in late December.

Wind speed- describes how fast the air is moving past a certain point.

Wind direction-Wind direction is defined as the direction the wind is coming from

Precipitation-rain, snow, sleet, or hail that falls to the ground.

Temperature-Temperature is a degree of hotness or coldness the can be measured using a thermometer.

Definitions from study.com, climateandweather.net, Oxford languages,

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Outline the NC Essential Science Standards K-6

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Outline the NC Essential Science Standards K-6

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5.E.1 Understand weather patterns and phenomena, making

connections to the weather in a particular place and time.

EEn.2.5  Understand the structure of and processes within our atmosphere.

K.E.1 Understand change and observable patterns of weather that occur from day to day and

throughout the year.

2.E.1 Understand patterns of weather and factors that affect weather.

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Weather Patterns and associated phenomena 

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Weather Patterns and associated phenomena 

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Weather patterns are part of the many systems taking place on the earth. Many phenomena are associated with weather, such as wind, storms, clouds, fronts, water cycle, etc. It is important for students to understand weather as it is a repeating cycle that affects many of the things we do on the earth.

http://sciencenetlinks.com/lessons/weather-1-weather-patterns/

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Photo Credit: Clipart.com

Purpose

To help students understand how the weather changes some from day to day.

Context

This lesson is the first in a two-part series on the weather. The study of the weather in these early years is important because it can help students understand that some events in nature have a repeating pattern. It also is important for students to study the earth repeatedly because they take years to acquire the knowledge that they need to complete the picture. The full picture requires the introduction of such concepts as temperature, the water cycle, etc. ( Benchmarks for Science Literacy, p. 66.)

Weather 1: What's the Weather? focuses on the phrase in the benchmark: "the weather changes some from day to day." As stated in the benchmark, some events in nature have a repeating pattern. So, to do this lesson, students already should be familiar with patterns. This lesson requires students to relate what they learn about weather to what they already know about patterns. Students first look at simple patterns in non-weather related phenomena. Then they identify and record several weather parameters to analyze for patterns. Part of the analysis is the construction of simple bar graphs. It is important that students be able to make a graph.

In this lesson, students keep daily records of temperature, precipitation, and wind. They plot their data and look for patterns of ups and downs without getting deeply into the nature of climate.

In Weather 2: What's the Season?, students focus on the second portion of the benchmark: "things such as temperature and rain (or snow) tend to be high, low, or medium in the same months every year." Students identify the seasonal patterns in temperature and precipitation.

Planning Ahead

This lesson is intended to be done over a week or so with students observing/recording weather data each day. The following sheets for student use are located on the Utah Education Network site:

You may want to read Weather on the National Science Education Standards site for an example of how you could use a weather station in your school.

Motivation

First, get students to just talk about weather generally. Ask questions such as:

What's the weather like today?

What was it like yesterday?

How can you find out what the weather will be like ahead of time?

Do you know what it will be like tomorrow?

Does the weather ever affect what you can do (e.g., can't play outside if raining)?

Then ask:

Can you find clues around the classroom that indicate what the weather is like? (Examples could include umbrellas, raincoats, shorts, t-shirts, snow boots, etc.)

Would you have found the same types of items in the room yesterday? (If yesterday's weather was much like today's, then they will answer yes. If yesterday's weather was very different, then they will answer no.)

If not, why not? (The weather changed.)

Now, have students use their Weather Patterns student esheet to visit Hot Weather on the Different Clothes for Different Weather site. Then talk to them about the types of clothing shown there. Ask them:

What types of clothes do you see pictured for when the weather is hot? (Answers should include a hat, t-shirt, shorts, sandals, sunglasses, and swimsuit.)

Why would these be good types of clothes to wear when the weather is hot? (These are good clothes to wear when the weather is hot because they help to keep you cool and protect you from the sun.)

Can you think of any other types of clothing that could be added to the ones you see? (Accept all logical answers.)

Then have students go to Rainy Weather and talk to them about the clothing shown there. Ask them the same types of questions as listed above. Finally, have students go to Cold Weather and talk to them about the clothing shown there.

After looking at and discussing all of the pictures, consider reading a weather-related book to your students like:

Bear's Busy Year: A Book About Seasons, by Marcia Leonard

Magic Monsters Learn About Weather, by Sylvia Tester

What's a Bear to Wear?, by Laura Rossiter

Development

The goal of this section is for students to observe and record weather for a week and then analyze it. What's the Weather?, an activity on the Utah Education Network, offers instructions and student worksheets for the data collection and graphing.

Provide students with copies of the Weather Watch Symbols, My Weather Graph, and My Weather Chart. Tell students that they will observe and record the weather for a one-week period. At the end of each school day, students should use the symbols available on the Weather Watch Symbols page to indicate what the weather was like for that day by cutting out the symbols and pasting them onto the chart. At the end of each day, ask students questions like:

What did you observe about the weather today?

Was it cold/hot outside?

Was the sun shining?

Were there clouds in the sky?

At the end of a week, students should use the information they recorded on their chart to fill in the My Weather Graph. By filling in the graph, students will create a bar chart that will show the weather pattern for the week.

Ask students the guiding questions included in Step 6 in the online activity and those suggested here:

What kind of weather did you see the most? The least?

What other kinds of weather could you have seen?

How would you represent those on a graph?

How many days did it rain (or snow, etc.)?

How many days had the same kind of weather?

How many days had more than one kind of weather?

After students have generally observed, graphed, and analyzed weather, ask them how they could make even better observations and how they think weather people on TV make observations. This conversation should eventually lead to the use of tools (e.g., rain gauges, weather vanes). Perhaps students used tools in the above observations too; if so, you could talk about those here.

If you feel that your students would benefit from actually doing activities that involve the use of weather tools, then you can have them do some of the activities found on the Make Your Own Weather Station site. Students should follow the directions to make the weatherproof box, rain gauge, and weather vane. You may want to print the instructions to give to the groups as well. After constructing the boxes, you will need to place them outside in an appropriate location.

Assessment

One way to assess student understanding is to see how well they can apply what they've learned and think beyond the weather of this week. Ask questions such as:

What would your graph have looked like last week?

What do you think your graph would look like in a different month? In a different season?

Looking at your weather chart, was the weather the same from day to day?

Ask students to name other earth-related phenomena they could observe/record on a daily basis. For example, the time the sun rises and sets; the phases of the moon, etc.

Extensions

You can extend the ideas in this lesson by taking your students through the Science NetLinks lesson series on the sky, which encourages students to observe the daytime and nighttime sky regularly to identify sequences of changes and to look for patterns in these changes. The first lesson in the series is: Sky 1: Objects in the Sky.

How's the Weather Today? asks students to think about the weather in their area and introduces them to weather and temperature trends in different latitudes of the United States. They'll look at today's weather map and record the high temperatures for a few cities. They'll conclude by drawing pictures of themselves outdoors in their hometown and in another place that has different weather.

For a mathematics/graphing extension, see What's the Weather? on the Illuminations website. The activities in this lesson focus on studying a graph that reports the number of students who wore sweaters to school each day for one week. The information is shown in a block graph. The students are asked to discuss and describe the information and then predict what happened on the basis of the given information. They are encouraged to write an explanation to defend their predictions.

Web Weather for Kids has more specific information about weather phenomena like clouds, hurricanes, thunderstorms, tornadoes, and winter storms. It includes stories, games, and activities for students. They can even try their hand at forecasting the weather.
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Photo Credit: Clipart.com To help students understand how the weather changes some from day to day. This lesson is the first in a two-part series on the weather. The study of the weather in these early years is important because it can help students understand that some events in nature have a repeating pattern.