Weather Station

With a student-made weather station (that tracks temperature, rainfall, wind speed and direction, barometric pressure, humidity) and/or the Internet, students measure weather in a variety of ways, write about procedures, make predictions, and use averaging.

Objectives

  • Students will observe and describe weather.
  • Students present data about weather through journals, discussions, and graphs.
  • Students will make predictions by averaging.

Materials

  • Computer with Internet connection
  • Thermometer
  • Journal

Procedure

  1. Discuss local weather; have students predict local weather based on their current observations.

  2. Set up weather station either in the classroom or using Internet resources.
  3. Have students make the recording materials.

  4. Decide how often students are going to make the measurements, e.g. once a day, twice a day. The more detailed and accurate their measurements, the more specific the picture of the patterns will be.

  5. A ruled ledger or notebook is an ideal place to record the measurements. List measurement types down the side (one event per line) and print the dates across the top to create a simple grid. See sample grid below.

  6. Use the data collected to create graphs and find averages of each measure.

  7. Students can also write about predictions, how they made the weather station, and the events they observed.

The grid will look something like this:

DateDateDateDateDateDate
Temperature      
Precipitation      
Wind Dir.      
Wind Speed      
Humidity      
Pressure      
Cloud Type      

Hint: Numerical data can also be entered into asimple spreadsheet-type program and manipulated to create impressivevisual charts and graphs. Students can also create a wall chart to display data.

Alternative methods for gathering data:
If the weather station is missing one or more data-collection devices, studentscan fill in the blanks by either estimating wind speed using the BeaufortWind Scale or finding the missing information in a localdaily newspaper. You may also find information on a weather-related website.

Beaufort Wind Scale to estimate wind speed

SpeedDescription
Under 1 Calm; smoke rises vertically
1-3
Smoke drift shows wind direction; weather vanes remainstill
4-7
Wind felt on face; leaves rustle; vanes begin to move
8-12
Leaves, small twigs moving; weather vanes start to move
13-18
Dust, leaves raised up; small branches move
19-24
Small leafy trees begin to sway
25-31
Large branches of trees moving; whistling in wires
32-38
Whole trees in motion; wind resistance felt in walking
39-46
Twigs and small branches broken off trees
47-54
Slight structural damage occurs; slate blown from roof
55-63
Rarely occurs on land; trees broken; structural damageoccurs
64-72
Very rare on land; widespread damage
73+
Massive violence and destruction
With a student-made weather station and/or the Internet, students measure weather in a variety of ways, write about procedures, make predictions, and use averaging.
Grades
3 |
4 |
5
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