Difference between climate and weather
| Students profile/age of the student: | 10 -12 years old… |
| Connected subject in the curriculum | Environment, school, teaching, activities, games |
| Skills and competencies to be developed | critical thinking, content knowledge, teamwork, listening skills, decision making… |
| Terminology, keywords | Environment, environmental, Climate Change |
| Teaching techniques and tools: | storytelling, warm-up activities, brainstorming, role games, case study… |
| Materials needed: | Reading, exercises, story to be told in class, topic of an essay |
| Materials offered | Additional links: research.cnr.ncsu.edu/sites/wwcc/wp-content/uploads/sites/22/2016/03/ WWCC_Weather_Climate_Wildlife_FULL.pdf |
| The time needed for the activity | approx 40 minutes |
Description
Lesson Objectives:
– Collect and graph local weather and climate data
– Describe the difference between weather and climate
– Explain that daily weather is highly variable compared to long-term climate data
– Describe how weather is more variable than climate.
– Identify ways in which weather and climate events may affect local wildlife species.
At the end of this activity, students will be able to:
1. Collect and graph local weather and climate data
2. Describe the difference between weather and climate
3. Explain that daily weather is highly variable compared to long-term climate data
4. Describe how weather is more variable than climate.
Identify ways in which weather and climate events may affect local wildlife species.
Description: Students collect and graph local weather data and overlay it with 30-year average temperatures for that location. They then play a game to understand the difference between weather and climate and the impacts of each on local wildlife species.
Pre-activity: Introduction and data collection
Introduce or review the concept of weather with students. Students should know how the cycling of water within the hydrosphere influences weather. Students should also know how winds form and how major storms such as hurricanes and thunderstorms develop. Have students list various aspects of weather data (temperature, precipitation, wind, cloud cover, humidity) and how the data could be collected for each aspect.
Ask students to describe how weather can affect them. Ask students how they think the weather may affect wildlife. Answers may include a severe storm toppling trees where flying squirrels or eagles are nesting, a hurricane eroding a beach and destroying sea turtle nests, a heatwave decreasing dissolved oxygen in a stream so that hellbender or trout eggs suffocate.
Explain to students that as a class, they will be tracking the weather over the course of a week.
Explain that each day, working in pairs, students will collect temperature, cloud cover, precipitation, and wind observations, as well as the time the data was collected. This can either involve the entire class each day, or you may choose to send one or two pairs of students outside daily and report to the class.
Have students record their data on the Weather, Climate & Wildlife student sheet or in their weather journal.