First Activity--The Perplexing World of Weather Prediction

Thank you for visiting our class blog! This blog is intended to be interactive, which means that I would like each of you to take part in a classroom discussion by posting on it. Since this is our first activity, I'll direct your attention to the button on the bottom of this blog entry which reads, "comment." You click this button to bring up a field where you can type your thoughts and share them with me and the rest of the class. Once your classmates have posted, you will be able to see their messages as well.

Today we are going to start a project to learn a little bit about weather, something that affects each one of us. Why, I got caught in an unexpected snowstorm just today! Did you know that there is a field of science completely devoted to studying weather patterns? It's called meteorology. To learn more about it, click on this link below and skim through some topics that interest you.

http://library.thinkquest.org/C0112425/child_chapters_1.htm

1--Our project is going to involve you doing a little bit of research on the internet. For your first post today, I would like you to first tell us which type of weather interests you the most (thunderstorms, snow, rain, wind, hurricanes, tornadoes, tsunamis, heat waves etc.). Keep this in mind because we are going to use these later.

On the same post, I'd like you to go to the weather channel's website:

http://www.weather.com/?from=gn_logo_welcome

After you've reached the weather channel homepage, type your zip code into the field on the top that reads Enter Zip, City or place. Enter your zip code (ask a parent if necessary) and hit enter.

2--Once you've done that, please record in your first post the current temperature and the weather prediction for tomorrow.

Tomorrow, and every day for the rest of this week, please visit the weather channel website and post whether the weather prediction was correct, and post the prediction for the next day.

3--On the last day (Friday), please write up one paragraph on how accurate the weather predictions were during the week. Then write a second paragraph on your favorite type of weather. Feel free to have fun with it! Look it up in an encyclopedia, or with the help of a parent, look up your favorite type of weather online. Share what you learned with the class!

4--Finally, read at least three of your classmates' comments on different types of weather.

Let's see what we can learn about together!

Good luck meteorologists!