Weather

Curriculum Outcomes

• Knowledge
• Skills
• STSE

Subtopics

	Measuring and Describing Weather
	Air and Water Movement
	Predicting the Weather
	Environmental Issues

Introduction:

Weather is an important aspect of daily life. Students should be provided with opportunities to realize that daily weather conditions are not the result of random occurrences, but rather are part of larger systems and patterns that can be predicted on both a short-term and seasonal basis. An important part of the study of weather is understanding the characteristics of air, its movement, and its abillity to hold water. Students study various aspects of weather such as temperature, wind speed, precipitation, and cloud formation, and begin to recognize the role these aspects play in weather systems.

Focus and Context

The focus in this unit should be on data collection and perdicting, and an appropiate context for this unit is the development and use of a school weather station. Students will be given many opportunities to collect a wide variety of data on the weather using instruments that they may have constructed themselves. They will also interact with a variety of people and use a wide variety of sources in order to determan techniques, instruments, and indicators for predicting the weather.

Curriculum Links

Students have been introduced to weather in grade1 in a unit called "Daily and Seasonal Changes". This topic was expanded in grade 2 with the unit "Air and Water in the Environment"

In this unit on weather, students further study the factors that effect weather. The topic is studied in further detail in grade 3 in a unit called "Weather Dynamics".