Collecting Weather Data

Running a weather station and keeping a record of the weather is both educational and interesting. This website will be useful to see what Basic Apparatus you will need, learn how to make a Weather Box and to learn more about Setting Up.

Create a multimedia resource for children to explore

Looking at photographs is a great way to find out about the weather. If these photographs are linked to a map it is even better. This activity will enable the educator to produce an online map to share without the need for special programs. All you will need are some photographs of different places, if possible selected for the evidence of the weather shown on it. You will also need access to the internet.

Objectives -
to recognise that weather is different in different parts of the world
to be aware that one location can have different types of weather
to be able to use the points of the compass to describe the relation of one place to another

Method -
You can create the multimedia resource using your own images, or images which the children have provided. Ideally they need to be from each continent, and they need to show an assortment of weather types. Upload the images to an online browser, such as Flickr. This will enable them to be linked to. If the children are going to contribute some images, explain the criteria, and perhaps give them a note explaining what they need, and what it is for. Include an explanation that they images will be going on the internet, so emphasise the e-safety elements.
Prepare the Google Maps custom map, with the markers for the various photographs. (See an example map here.) The Google Maps Help document explains how to do this. If you wish to use Google Earth, and it is installed on the computers the children are going to be using, this is also suitable.

Show the prepared map to the children. Explain that they are going to try and find out what the weather is like in different places. Try out a couple of photographs. Discuss what each tells us about the weather on that day, in that location. For some ideas about how the children can be taught to extract weather information from photographs see the Photographs and the Weather guidance sheet. Look at the location on the map. Is it near the equator? Is it near the poles? Is it somewhere in between. Zoom in to see if the place is coastal. Switch to satellite view to see if it is countryside or town.

Explain to the children how they are going to record their work. Show them the World Weather Worksheet. Explain what you want them to achieve. If you are differentiating in any way explain this. Set the children to work exploring the map and filling in the worksheet.

In a subsequent lesson you may want the children to fill in the places they investigate on an outline map of the world. See the links section for a good outline map. Before they complete this task, work together to locate a couple of places from the multimedia map onto the outline map. Point out how to match the shapes of the countries even though they are different sizes on the two maps. Explain which parts are sea and which are land. Use the points of the compass to describe the locations.

Developing this idea -
This same technique could be used to make a multimedia map to explore, centred on an area of the children's choosing. This could include pictures, text, statistics, routes, and hyperlinks. It could also be used to link to videos as long as they were available as an URL online. Here is an example based on the Isle of Coll. It will also be useful to record places the children have visited.

Climatic Zones

It is interesting to find some average weather data for somewhere in each climatic zone. The use of average data is important if the climate is going to be researched rather than the weather. Looking at the year's averages for temperature and rainfall will also show whether the location has seasons. This data can then be graphed so that it is easy to compare.

Objectives
to recognise patterns
to ask and respond to questions about weather around the world
to use geographical vocabulary correctly

Method
Look at a climate map and choose a country to find data for. A clear map of the zones can be found on econet. This also provides clear descriptions of the different zones. These descriptions also name some of the countries in that zone. It is worth discussing the fact that some of the countries are so big that different parts are in different zones. Australia is a good example. Remember that there will also be examples in atlases, which may also have helpful text.

When you know which locations you are going to research for each type of climatic zone, you will need to find some average weather data. You can find average temperatures at climate ZONE.com. (PLEASE NOTE - this site does have one advert on some pages, sadly not the best one for children to see. You will need to consider if it is suitable for your children to use.) This activity will also provide an opportunity to reinforce the names of the continents, and what a continent is. You need to click on the continent first, then click on the right country. Scroll down to the map, and select a place that is in the correct climatic zone. Scroll back up and click on that place name to see the weather data. You will find that your first choice may not have data available. If this is likely to cause frustration, check and choose the locations for them to research. The chart below gives some places which have comparable weather data which fits in with the data being collected;

(IMPORTANT - click on 'centigrade' on every data page to see the degrees Celsius.) Explain to the children that they need to enter the number just as they are, with the decimal point. Show them how to use the full stop for the decimal point. (Reassure them that the decimal places are just fractions - less than one.) Enter the details of the location and the weather data in the table on the Climatic Zone Data Sheet. You could just enter the data from one month, or you could fill in data for the four seasons. You will then be able to see if this location does have seasons. If it is more practical split the zones between different groups, they can then share their data.

To finish off this work, graph the data and see what it shows. Compare what the data shows to the descriptions of the climatic zones. Do they match? Graphing the data with pencils and crayons would be great, but you can also use a spreadsheet. Both methods support mathematics work well. An example spreadsheet, and a blank spreadsheet are included in the resources on the right. Load them into MS Excel, edit the place names (on the graphs you just click in the text box and edit), then as the data is entered the graphs will draw themselves. Hopefully the children will notice warmer/colder, wetter/drier, clear seasons/no clear seasons and snow/no snow. Remind them that the data they have used has been collected over many years to give these averages. That means that they are looking at climate rather than weather.

Using maps...

Whenever you use a map with children take a little time to get over an extra mapping teaching point. In this instance you could remind the children that because the world is a sphere, when the land is represented on a flat surface the shapes will not be accurate. Although the link on the right may be a practical representation to use, occasionally show other ways of representing land and sea. A traditional atlas or geography text book is still an essential tool, and will contain helpful pages. Also look at real globes and Google Earth to see the earth in its true form.