Weather station activity ideas

Martin Sutton, Maiden Erlegh School

Data quiz Simply making a quiz about the Maiden Erlegh weather station website helps to generate an initial interest in the information.

Historical data By getting students to look up historical records from the station - coldest, wettest, windiest, hottest, driest - they start to explore the wealth of data available to them. Ask them to create a school 'Book of Records' and update it every time a new record in each category is broken.

Tracking major weather events Keep a close eye on major weather events in the news such as hurricanes in the Atlantic or tornadoes in Oklahoma. Although this doesn't use the school weather station, by tracking topical events students begin to realise that weather forecasting is dynamic and current.

Comparing forecast data with recorded data This involves using a spreadsheet such as Excel and so carries cross-curricular links with Maths and ICT. Extension work can involve plotting the data in a graph and commenting on it. Students can then suggest reasons as to why the forecast is accurate / inaccurate. They may wish to investigate if it is more accurate at certain times of the day or year.

Looking for correlations Students plot graphs of factors such as air pressure, humidity and temperature then look for and try to explain correlations between them.

Forecasting Following on from the activity above, students can look at recent data and using their knowledge about these correlations try to forecast the weather for themselves. Their forecasts can be compared to the software forecast and also the commercial forecast.

Linking weather forecasting with everyday life Will the weekend bring barbeque weather? Will the school close due to snow on Monday? Will the motorway be closed again due to flooding? By making weather forecasting relevant to them, students will relish the challenge of making accurate forecasts and enjoy the power this gives them.

Which forecast is the best? The forecasts generated by the school software can be statistically compared to the commercial forecasts. Who is more accurate - the school, the BBC, the MetOffice, or the wealth of internet sites that try their luck at forecasting? Ask them why this is the case and make an enquiry of it.

Comparing your local area with distant locations Creating and comparing climate graphs for our local area (Reading) with other environments around the world forms a platform for learning. What are the differences? Why do they exist? What does this mean?

http://www.geography.org.uk/resources/weatherstation Tracking depressions More able students at KS4 and KS5 may wish to track the progress of a depression over their local area. Does the data being measured tie in with that available elsewhere? If not, why not? Get students to think ahead and suggest what will happen next in the sequence for each weather variable.

Presenting the weather forecast Task students with shooting a video of their weather forecast using video cameras, mobile phones or webcams. These can then be uploaded onto the school's website or VLE to create a sense of interest around the school and indeed the local community.

Logo design For some excellent cross-curricular links with Art, encourage students to design a logo for the school weather site, Weather Club or weather forecast 'broadcast channel'. Examples of logos designed by Maiden Erlegh students can be viewed on their weather website.

Creative writing Suggest that students write up their experiences in geography lessons or at Weather Club to improve their creative writing skills. Alternatively they could write scientific reports about the weather station and its forecasting accuracy. If the school's weather forecasting is found to be more accurate than national forecasting, this would be a great story to send to the local press and would further strengthen links between the school and the community.

Weather experiments Conduct weather experiments like making a cloud in a bottle or kinesthetic activities such as making their own weather instruments. I invite Year 12 students to participate in these activities with the younger Weather Club members to encourage leadership skills and provide them with extra curricular experience which is useful for their UCAS applications.

http://www.geography.org.uk/resources/weatherstation