Learning
Environment

The learning process will take place during a typical fifth grade classroom. Students will conduct their research in the elementary's computer lab and the outdoors at school and at home. All students must participate in the research assignment in order to receive a grade.

Description of Students

The participating students are in the fifth grade ages 9 to 11.

Standards

Standard 4

Materials

• access to computer and internet
• journal (students must make sure they have one)
• thermometer (provided by the teacher)
• pencil

Procedure

1. Prior to the class, the teacher needs to make sure that they have all the needed materials available.
2. The teacher should at the beginning of the class play a video of a weather forecast or if they have a live feed they should use that in order to capture the attention of the class. If it is a recorded video the teacher should prep it before the beginning of the class.
3. After showing the class the video, the teacher should then tell the class that they are going to use the next several days to predict the weather during and outside of class.
4. The teacher should then say to the class that they are going to be using the website Netvibes in order to make a legit weather forecast in the future.
5. From day one and beyond until this lesson is finished the teacher should teach the class important weather terms and how meteorologists make a weather forecast.

Application

After the teacher tells the class the initial instructions of what they are doing the teacher should let the class go outside to take the temperature and to gather other important information so that they can make a reasonable forecast when it comes time to turn the forecast in. Students will also be asked to repeat what they did at school, at home and try to compare the data for similarities. While at school and at home students should compare their information to that of Netvibes using their own personal account. After this is completed (teachers should allow for three to five days of research) students should be able to create their own weather forecast for the next three days.

Evaluation

When the students finish their forecast they should turn it in. After the next three days pass and the correct information comes in the teacher should award the student(s) with the most accurate forecasts with some sort of an award like extra credit. Students will then be encouraged to use Netvibes for further use in weather forecasts plus the additional information that can be found on Netvibes that can be very helpful to them as well.