| Time needed for the activity: | approx 30 minutes |
| Students profile/age of the student: | 6-12 years old |
| Climate change topic | Extreme weather phenomena |
| Connected subject in the curriculum | Science, |
| Skills and competencies to be developed | critical thinking, content knowledge, teamwork, listening skills, |
| Terminology, keywords | Weather station, pine cone, weather |
| Teaching techniques and tools: | storytelling, brainstorming, case study… |
| Methodological recommendations for the implementation | The whole class can gather pine cones together, or they can collect them with family members and bring them the next day with them. Great activity to spend some time outside. Later with the reports from the students explain why pine cones react like that. |
| Materials needed: | – Pine cones, – Blue tack or modeling clay – Paper – Pencil |
| Materials offered | Source: https://www.science-sparks.com/pine-cone-weather-station/ |
Activity description, instructions for teachers
With this activity your students will build a weather station out of pine cones, and also learn how nature has a amazing way to spread a plants seeds( in our case Pine tree)
In the link provided explain your students how pine cones react on the weather with their mechanism for spreading their seeds. Students then, can make their own weather station out of pine cones!
Here are some guiding tips:
- Everybody gets 5 pine cones
- They can tag them with modelling clay at home outside their window, where they can observe it
- Everyday they for a week or two, they take notes on how the cones behave when the weather changes
- After two weeks they bring their reports in the class and present them
- The teacher explains why the cones open and close regarding the weather
| Source: | https://www.science-sparks.com/pine-cone-weather-station/ |
| Additional Source: | https://www.rnz.co.nz/national/programmes/ninetonoon/audio/201855498/pine-nuts-come-from-pine-cones-fact |
Extreme weather phenomena/ pine cone weather station