Materials Required: Prepared blank weather charts, The Weather Channel on television, Local newspapers, Poster board
Concepts Taught: Documenting weather patterns, understanding severe weather, preparing for severe weather
Goals: Students will understand document weather patterns associated with the region where they live. Students will understand severe thunderstorms, hurricanes, and tornadoes, and how to prepare accordingly for each.Objectives: To collect weather data during the course of this lesson (and the entire weather unit). To explain warning signs and conditions associated with severe thunderstorms, hurricanes, and tornadoes. To create severe weather safety preparations charts for severe thunderstorms, hurricanes, and tornadoes.
Procedure:
1. Distribute weather charts to students and instruct them to write the weather they observe each day, outside the classroom window. The weather can be documented three times per day, in the morning, lunchtime, and afternoon.
2. Each morning tune in to "The Weather Channel" on television during homeroom period. Students should be reminded to make a mental note of what the weather forecast for the day is in their region. They can also make written notes, if they so desire.
3. Go to the list of Internet sites listed in the "Useful Internet Resources" to gather information regarding warning signs and conditions associated with severe thunderstorms, hurricanes, and tornadoes. Students will work in small groups. Each group is assigned to explore one of the above mentioned severe weather situations. For larger classes, it would be acceptable to assigned two groups to each severe weather situation. Groups should contain no more than five students each. Students will create a short demonstration to present to the class regarding their severe weather assignment.
4. Go to the list of Internet sites listed in the "Useful Internet Resources" to gather information regarding safety and precautionary measures necessary for severe thunderstorms, hurricanes, and tornadoes. Students will work in their same small groups, assigned in the previous task. By using the information they found on the Internet, they will create severe weather safety preparations charts on large poster board. Then, the students will present their charts to the class. Finally, the charts will be posted on the classroom weather bulletin board.
Assessment: The assessment for this lesson is performance-based. The students must complete their daily weather charts. They must also work within their groups to reach the common goals of short demonstrations of warning signs and conditions associated with severe thunderstorms, hurricanes, and tornadoes and creating safety preparations charts.
Useful Internet Resources
http://www.nwsnorman.noaa.gov/severewx/safety.html (Severe Weather Safety)
http://www.txdirect.net/~msattler/ (Severe Weather!)
http://www.nssl.noaa.gov/ (National Severe Storms Laboratory)
http://weather.about.com/medianews/weather (About.com)
http://www.cwbol.com/ (Charles Boley's Weather Stuff Collection)
http://users.neca.com/jpcp32/svr.htm (Sever Weather Information)
http://www.weather.com/homepage.html (The Weather Channel)
