The Weather/Math Lesson
Designed by Anne Hampson


Overview :	

Students will collect and organize weather data from different sources and areas in the country.  The students will graph and organize the data to present to the class.

Prerequisites Skills :	

* Students can hand draw a line, bar, and circle graph given the data.
* Students can calculate the mean, median and mode and understand the difference between them, given the data.
* Thermometer Reading.
* Students can create a chart to organize data.

Materials :

* One computer with internet access.
* LCD panel and overhead projector.
* Paper
* Ruler
* Thermometer placed on the outside of the classroom window.
* Classroom bulletin board with a chart of the temperature at 8:00am and the weather condition for your school and other school(s) from different states.

Introduction :

Teacher Note : Before you begin this project,  write an e-mail address to Bill Wallace and find another class of the same grade in a school from another state.  Communicate (e-mail) with the teacher so you can share weather information.  If you are really brave, you can communicate with two or more schools from different states.

Procedures :

1.	Start the interest of weather by reading the local weather forecast, gathered from the internet, on the morning announcements.

2.	Every morning students will read the temperature on the thermometer outside of the window and look at the current weather condition (sun, rain, cloud, or snow).  This information is placed on a chart on a classroom bulletin board.  The teacher will send an e-mail message to the teacher of the other school.  When the teacher receives the weather information from the other school, this information will also be added to the weather bulletin board.	

3.	For a one week  period (or longer), students will be taken to the computer with internet access (The Library Media Center).  Using the LCD, students will explore 'The Weather Map to the Internet' web page with the teacher.  Each student will choose a majior city in the U.S. and a major city outside of the U.S.  The student will create their own chart to keep the temerature and weather conditions.   

4.	For a one week period (or longer), each student will collect weather data from a media source of their choice (Channel 3 News, The News Journal, ect.).  The students will create their own chart to keep data on the forecast of the high temperature and weather condition.  Every morning, from the internet, the actual high temperature and weather condition will be written on the board about the previous day. Discussions will be held at the beginning of class to see if any media source had a correct prediction.  The class will calculate percentage of correct forecast (also calculate other percents when different discussions occur).  

5.	 At the end of the given time,  students will create a line graph on temperature and a pie graph on weather conditions by hand, or if the student has access to a computer, by computer.  Students will analyze the data by calculating the mean of the forecasted and the actual temperature and compare these results.  Students will compare and analyze the data collected from outside the classroom window, the school from another state, a majior city in the U.S., and a majior city outside the U.S.

Evaluation :

Students will be evaluated by thier oral presentation of the data collected and their conclusions from the anaylsis.  Student will display their graph when giving the oral presentation.