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Basic Skills Activity Ideas:
- General History of Meteorology
ACTIVITIES:
- Assign students to do biographical sketches on the
scientists/philosophers mentioned in this introduction. You may also
wish to do biographical sketches on the co-workers of the people
mentioned, or the hundreds of other scientists who are not mentioned
here, but who have moved scientific understanding to a higher level.
- Pick any meteorological variable (temperature, dewpoint,
pressure, winds). Find out what instruments are used to measure that
variable and research the history of that instrument. Include how the
design or method used in measuring that variable has changed since
its invention.
- Have students research animals or plants whose activities have been
used to forecast the weather (birds, squirrels, flies, groundhogs,
horses, trees) Try to determine possible explanations of why these
animals have been linked to weather events.
- Have students find proverbs or folk tales which are used to
forecast weather. Challenge the students to think of any reasons why
these proverbs will or will not work.
- Ask students to describe the most interesting (verbal and/or
written) weather event they've experienced.
- Create a weather bulletin board or a weather poster. Find articles
in newspapers and magazines about occurrences which made the weather
"newsworthy" and post them.
- Sounds of the weather. Series of tapes with environmental sounds,
(e.g. thunderstorms, rain showers, breezes, etc.) are available at
local record stores. Play one of these and allow the students to
write about how the specific sounds affect them, what the sounds make
them think about, or have them draw pictures which represent what
they visualize while listening.
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