Evaluating+Weather+-+Proverbs,+Tornadoes+and+the+Weatherman

=** Title: Evaluating Weather - Proverbs, Tornadoes and the Weatherman**=

**Grade Level:** 4 **Authors:** Lori Willey and Janet Murphy

//For additional free online lessons integrating media literacy and critical thinking into the curriculum, go to[| www.projectlooksharp.org.]//

**Summary:** These three 4th grade lessons use media literacy to teach and reinforce core knowledge about weather while teaching critical thinking skills. In lesson #1, students research and evaluate common weather sayings while learning to evaluate websites. In lesson #2, they research, discuss, and present on hurricanes and tornadoes and evaluate the accuracy of different media portrayals of wild weather. In lesson #3, students will learn about weather forecasting and meteorology and analyze the credibility of a local weather forecast. All three lessons help students to identify scientific accuracy and recognize when other factors (familiarity, drama, aesthetics) often impair our evaluation of information.

** Lesson 1: Evaluating Weather Proverbs - Myth or Science? **
**Objectives:**
 * Students will understand the scientific background behind weather proverbs and sayings, conduct research on their origins and evaluate their validity.
 * Students will evaluate websites critically as research tools.
 * Students will share their research and findings both orally and in a hallway presentation.

**Lesson Steps:**
 * 1) Full group discussion about weather predicting before the reliable and sophisticated instruments that meteorologists use today. Acquaint students with the idea that our forefathers looked to the sky, the earth, their joints and muscles and animal life to predict the weather.
 * 2) Cards will be distributed to the students with weather saying on the front. Students will ask 10 classmates if they are familiar with the saying and if they believe what it means. Students will share results.
 * 3) Students will research the validity of their weather saying in pairs. They will be required to find out if the saying was scientifically based while using credible sources.
 * 4) In the computer lab, students will learn to evaluate the credibility of websites.
 * 5) Follow up with additional weather related research on websites chosen by teacher.
 * 6) Students will report their findings to their classmates.
 * 7) Students will create a bulletin board for the hallway. Using a folded piece of construction paper, students will write their proverb on the outside of the flap, and when lifted up a literal and scientific explanation will be revealed.
 * 8) Students will learn how to cite their sources and then will cite the websites and books used. They will also give a brief explanation as to the credibility of the websites giving specific website evaluation criteria.

**Materials:** Cards with weather sayings on them to be investigated Internet access Computers/laptops Templates for children to explain their assigned saying, assess its validity, and research its origin Grading rubric Website Evaluation [|Powerpoint]

**Additional Resources:** __A January Fog will Freeze a Hog__, by Hubert Davis __A Book of Weather Lore__, by Edward Dolan Wolff, Barbara. //Evening Gray, Morning Red.// New York: Macmillan, c1976 Lockhart, Gary. //The Weather Companion: an album of meteorological history, science, legend, and folklore//. New York: John Wiley & Sons, Inc., c1988 Dolan, Edward F. //The Old Farmer's Almanac of Weather Lore: The fact and fancy behind weather predictions, superstitions, oldtime sayings and traditions.// Dublin, NH: Yankee Publishing, c1988. Edheads Weather Predicting[| Game]

**Lesson 2: Hollywood's Hurricanes - Facts or Fiction?**
**Objectives:**
 * Students will learn about the specific weather conditions that result in a tornado or a hurricane.
 * Students will identify which storms are considered severe weather, how they begin, how are they measured, and how are they predicted.
 * Students will evaluate how “Hollywood” distorts scientific facts and discuss why.
 * Students will discuss the impact of Hollywood’s distortion of scientific fact upon audiences.
 * Students will participate in a storm debate, presenting their information trying to convince the listeners that their storm is the most wild.

**Lesson Steps:**
 * 1) Students will be broken into two equal groups, each with a teacher. First they will collectively chart what they already know about their assigned severe weather. (on sticky notes and then moved to poster)
 * 2) Working together or alone, students will use reading material to discover some facts about their storm. They will be guided to find out specific information such as size, duration, destruction, prediction, and measurement of storm.
 * 3) Using pictures and Powerpoint, the teacher will synthesize the information that the children have found and collect this data on a worksheet for the kids to share.
 * 4) Students will pair up with another student from the opposite group and “teach” their severe weather to the classmate from the other group. (jigsaw learning)
 * 5) In the computer lab, using an Inspiration document, the students will make a Venn Diagram comparing hurricanes and tornadoes. (teacher made-students click and drag components, including photographs, to proper spots) Once completed, students can print and then watch the two non-fiction hyperlinked videos that are imbedded into the Inspiration document.
 * 6) Students will watch and discuss small clips from movies with severe weather. They will critically analyze what is factually true and what is a distortion of science. They will explain both orally and written.
 * 7) Students will share their results, thoughts, feelings and opinions in a class discussion.

**Materials:** Movie clips from movies depicting severe weather such as //Twister, Flood, The Day After Tomorrow.// Age appropriate non-fiction movie clips and documentaries on hurricanes, tsunamis and tornadoes.

**Additional Resources:** //Can it Rain Cats and Dogs//, Melvin and Gilda Berger //Hurricanes, Tsunamis, and other Natural Disasters//, Andrew Langley

"The Perfect Storm" showing the rogue wave that capsized the boat.

Compilation of videos of real rogue waves. Kind of cool to watch it before/after seeing the Perfect Storm clip.

Scene from "The Day After Tomorrow" where NYC is flooded by a tsunami wave.

Another "Day After Tomorrow" scene, this time featuring tornadoes.

A clip from the Korean movie "Tidal Wave." No Korean language experience required for this.

Scene from Twister.

The Hurricane, a 1937 film.

"The Day After Tomorrow" presentation



Extensions:
> > ** The following are extension ideas that have to do with the US response to Hurricane Katrina. Students will decode and evaluate the differing opinions on this topic. ** > > Diane Sawyer interview with President Bush about the relief effort for New Orleans. > [] > > > Trailer for "The Big Uneasy," a documentary that explores the idea that the Katrina disaster could have been avoided and why people weren't helped enough. > [] > > Mike Brown interview with Matt Lauer on the Today Show one year after Katrina. Talks about the failings of the disaster relief and was the only video I could find that features the "You're doing a heck of a job, Brownie" quote from George W. Bush. > [] > **Having trouble with this video, will try at school with better software.** > > Ted Koppel interviews then FEMA chairman Mike Brown 5 days after Katrina hit. > [] > > > Interview with Secretary of Homeland Security Michael Chertoff about pre-Katrina plans and the fact that they simulated similar results: > [] > > New Hampshire Army National Guard video promoting relief efforts of citizens. Highlights the positives of the relief effort. > [] >
 * Students research and present about a specific tornado, hurricane, tsunami or blizzard (presentation medium is their choice- could be orally, powerpoint, blog, etc)
 * Write a script for a weather report announcing a tornado watch or warning in your locale.
 * Think about the qualities that a storm chaser should have. Write a job description outlining those personal qualities.
 * Create a tri-fold brochure listing suggestions and safety tips during a hurricane or tornado.
 * Draw a diagram (and label) showing the formation of a hurricane as seen from above.
 * Label on a USA map the most likely areas for tornadoes. Explain why.

** Lesson 3: The Weather Forecast - Education or Entertainment? **
**Objectives:**
 * Students will explain how air masses (fronts) form and affect weather.
 * Students will read weather maps, interpret the symbols and terms, and identify how meteorologists track and predict weather.
 * The students will evaluate their response to two locally recorded weather reports based on the meteorologist, accuracy of forecast, and the broadcasting format.
 * Students will discuss which elements of the newscast most appealed to them and why.
 * Students will discuss how non-scientific factors can impact a person’s response to and choice of a certain weatherman/forecast.
 * Students will judge the credibility, accuracy, and strengths and weaknesses of the weather forecast.

**Lesson Steps:**
 * 1) Teacher will provide appropriate background material for students to prepare them to watch the weather forecasts. In a variety of formats (small and large groups, cooperative learning and teacher led) students will identify all elements that go into preparing and understanding a weather forecast. The teacher will play a weather forecast, and the students will write down the questions that they have.
 * 2) Working together or alone, the students will read, write, and talk about the science of weather forecasting.
 * 3) The students will use the rubric to evaluate the weather forecasts of two local meteorologists. They will watch, discuss, and compare the two weather forecasts analyzing many different elements. (see rubric)
 * 4) Students will discuss and defend the weather forecast they prefer and why in pairs. (hopefully with someone of differing opinion)
 * 5) In graded class conversation (everyone is required to offer at least one opinion statement and support it, no raising hands- you need to listen respectfully and contribute appropriately, you cannot talk until at least two people have contributed between your last statement) students will share their results, thoughts, and opinions on the two weathercasts and meteorologists
 * 6) Students will write a short piece making a judgment about which weather forecast they preferred and why. They must rank the importance of the rubric elements and defend their choice.

**Materials:** Recorded footage (from webpage) of weather forecasts for the same area for the same day. Biographical background material on the credentials of each meteorologist (from webpage).

Science textbook, Scott Foreman, Unit B lessons 3 and 4, plus leveled readers Various examples of weather maps

1. Students can evaluate/compare a local weather forecast station to a national one. 2. Students can evaluate a weather forecast for science vs. entertainment value. 3. Students can survey other students/adults for information about why they tune in to a particular weather station/forecaster.
 * Extension: **

// This lesson was produced during 2011-2012 as part of a collaboration between Project Look Sharp at Ithaca College and four NY State BOCES School Library Systems. The initiative brought together pairs of secondary science teachers and school librarians to develop models for integrating critical thinking and media literacy into secondary science content. The project was supported by federal LSTA funds awarded to the NY State Library by the Federal Institute of Museum and Library Services. // // To view additional lessons from this series go to: [|www.projectlooksharp.org]. //