Hello everyone!
Over the last two weeks, students have been learning about the Water Cycle and then began work on and currently finishing up their Heating & Cooling Inquiries. During the inquiry, students created an experiment to see whether soil or water heated faster and which cooled faster. This was to have them revisit the topic of heat transfer we were talking about not that long ago. It also pre-frame's the topic of Sea & Land Breezes we'll be discussing soon.
Below is an image of Water Cycle Diagram's that students created in class as a summative/quiz grade.
Starting today, students were introduced to their 3-week weather observation assignment.
Attached to the right is the PDF of the assignment that you can take a look at for what your student will be doing. Overall, students will be observing the weather each day until February 14th. They will only need to take 2-3 minutes a day to make their observations. They are NOT allowed to use technology or outside resources. That means NO thermometers, barometers, compasses, phones, computers, apps, websites, news channels, etc.
Students should ONLY use their 5 senses to make their observations. Well... they probably won't use taste, but all other senses will allow them to make great observations.
The goal of the assignment is for students to observe and understand trends or patterns in the weather. They can use their observations to predict future weather! During the next 3 weeks we will be talking about a bunch of ways to make their observations even MORE exceptional!
At the end of the 3-week assignment, we will be doing a classroom discussion. Students will have to participate 3 times during the discussion to receive full credit. To keep students accountable, I'll be checking students observation packets each Friday. Students should remember to bring their packets to class on Friday since those weekly checks will count as a homework grade.
Please note: If students fail to complete their observations, or have more than 5 observations missing in their packet, they will not participate in the classroom discussion and will be given an alternative textbook assignment that is not nearly as fun! I encourage you to be active in their observations because you may also notice some really cool things about the weather! 😁
I anticipate that majority will have their packets completed. Students should only be doing their observations out of school and they should not be doing them in class (any class). This should be a great grade booster for students. It's a lot of fun!
I will be doing the project with them and making my own observations daily so I can compare students observations to mine.
If you have any questions on how you can help your student, please let me know! You can email me at curtis_silverwood@conestogavalley.org
Thank you,
Mr. Silverwood
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