What makes our weather? The weather segment is probably the most-watched part of a nightly newscast. We ask, "What's the weather for today?" almost before we get out of bed some mornings. We're all curious about the weather, what it will be and what makes it what it is. In the Kids as Global Scientists (KGS) curriculum, students learn how to answer those questions for themselves. Using real-time weather data from the Internet, along with archival weather data, students investigate weather and climate concepts in their city. Each KGS class is also linked via the Web to KGS classes across the country in order to share data and results with other students. Meteorologists and other weather experts join in chat room discussions to support the students' inquiry. | G'day!
Our names are Mickey, Donovan and Brennan. We live in Canberra. We go to school at Manissa Primary School. We have kangaroos, all sorts of birds come to our school like galahs, sulphur-crested cockatoos, magpies, crows, currawogs, Indian minors, wedge-tailed eagles, pewees and pelicans. We have eucalyptus trees. Is it hot where you live? |
A message board greeting from three global scientists in Australia | Kids explore the driving question of the unit in three phases:
|  | Getting Excited about Weather: In this phase, students introduce themselves to KGS students at schools in Detroit and across the country using the KGS Message Board. They also become familiar with weather terms and maps through newspapers and television weather news clips and begin to explore elements of local weather. Students then organize themselves into groups to study one of four topic areas: clouds and humidity; precipitation; temperature and pressure; and winds. | | Becoming Local Experts: Students begin an in-depth study of their chosen topic areas with special attention to local weather phenomena. Using satellite images, maps, experiments, almanacs, and books, students collect real-time data to answer such questions as, "How do clouds form?" "What causes wind?" "What causes precipitation?" and "What causes changes in air pressure?" | | Sharing Expertise: The focus of this phase is to help students synthesize and integrate what they have learned about individual weather elements. Further, students are challenged to adopt a more global view of weather phenomena. On-line contact with other KGS students is integral to this phase. Students also explore severe weather through personal accounts in articles or essays and write a story to share the ideas they have learned about weather and how it affects people's lives. |
| The Kids as Global Scientists project is one of two weather units in the One Sky, Many Voices project, which has a Web site of its own. Click here to go there now. Please contact Steve Best at 734-647-2975 or Deborah Peek-Brown at 313-596-0113 to learn. | Please click on these thumbnails to see screenshots of this software: |  | This is the first screen used when accessing Internet-based weather information. Students can point to a city, and immediately see its current temperature, relative humidity, winds, and so on, shown both numerically... |  | ...and graphically. |
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