National Wildlife Federation
It's All in the Name: Weather Versus Climate
What goes up when rain comes down? An umbrella! Activity eight in the series of 12 explores weather and climate. In pairs, participants analyze maps, watch a short video, create a weather forecast, and complete a reading to determine the...
Curated OER
Understanding Weather and Climate Patterns
Learners research the climate patterns of various locations and make predictions based on their findings. They determine the importance of latitude and longitude in weather and climate. Students create graphs displaying their collected...
US Environmental Protection Agency
Weather and Climate: What's the Difference?
Future weather forecasters collect daily temperatures over a period of time. Afterward, they compare their data with monthly averages, as researched on national weather websites, in order to grasp the difference between weather and...
Chicago Botanic Garden
Historical Climate Cycles
What better way to make predictions about future weather and climate patterns than with actual climate data from the past? Young climatologists analyze data from 400,000 to 10,000 years ago to determine if climate has changed over...
K20 LEARN
The Parched Plains: Weather And Climate
How do meteorologists differentiate between droughts and dry spells? Introduce the concepts of weather forecasting and prediction with an insightful research-based lesson from the K20 series. Partners synthesize individual research from...
Colorado State University
If You Can't Predict the Weather, How Can You Predict the Climate?
Why is the weather man wrong so often? Young climatologists discover how chaos rules both weather and climate through a math-based activity. Using an iterative equation, the class examines how small day-to-day weather events total up to...
Center Science Education
Hurricanes and Climate
Feeling under the weather? This lesson on hurricanes can whip things up! With professionally designed maps and handouts, teach your future weathermen (or women) where, when, and how hurricanes occur. They identify hurricane regions and...
US Environmental Protection Agency
Tree Rings: Living Records of Climate
Open with a discussion on weather and climate and then explain how tree rings can provide scientists with information about the earth's past climate. Pupils analyze graphics of simulated tree rings from various US locations for the...
PBS
Mountain Weather: Orographic Lift
Why do so many mountain ranges exist next to a desert? As part of a larger series, PBS 6-8 Weather and Climate answers this question. The presentation offers diagrams and photographs of the development of a rain shadow. From Oregon to...
California Academy of Science
California's Climate
The United States is a large country with many different climates. Graph and analyze temperature and rainfall data for Sacramento and Washington DC as you teach your class about the characteristics of Mediterranean climates. Discuss the...
Rainforest Alliance
Climate Educator Guide
Climate change is a hot topic in the news. Class members examine carbon dioxide data to analyze trends of our atmospheric makeup over time. They also discuss climate and climate change, and determine how these changes are affecting life...
PBS
Sea Surface Temperature, Salinity, and Density
Earth's vast ocean is full of mysteries! Science scholars discover the big-picture properties that influence its characteristics at different latitudes using a instructional activity from PBS's Weather and Climate series. After...
Port Jefferson School District
Climate Patterns
Young climatologists explore the factors that contribute to a region's climate in this two-part earth science activity. To begin, learners are provided with a map of an imaginary planet and are asked to label global wind and...
Curated OER
Bringing Rain
Students research folklore and scientific information about rain and water cycles. Then they communicate their understanding of water cycles by creating mobiles showing each stage. Students also write their own folk tales, explaining the...
Curated OER
Weather & Climate
Sixth graders differentiate weather and climate. In this earth science instructional activity, 6th graders complete a KWL chart about the two. They complete a worksheet by identifying whether a certain statement describes weather or...
NASA
Geographical Influences
"If global warming is real, why is it so cold?" Distinguishing the difference between weather and climate is important when it comes to understanding our planet. In these activities, young scientists look at the climate patterns in a...
Curated OER
Newport Weather Project
Students study weather and climate patterns using computer and Internet resources. They collect temperature information and share it with other classes via e-mail using graphs
Space Awareness
Continental Climate and Oceanic Climate
There's nothing better than a cool breeze blowing in from the ocean. Scholars explore how water affects change in temperature using a hands-on experiment on climate. They use measurement tools to compare the continental and oceanic...
American Museum of Natural History
Make Your Own Weather Station
Scholars build a weather station equipped with a wind vane, rain gauge, and barometer. Following an informative page about the weather, learners follow steps to build their pieces then turn into meteorologists to chart the weather they...
PBS
Regional Patterns of Climate: Pacific Northwest
Climate systems involve sunlight, ocean, atmosphere, ice, land forms, and many other factors. Scholars explore each of these variables related to the Pacific Northwest rain forest. They use an online interactive to investigate the polar...
Discovery Education
How's the Weather?
Young meteorologists explore different aspects of the weather while learning about measurement devices. They build instruments and then set up a weather station outside and measure temperature, humidity, air pressure, wind speed, and...
Curated OER
Weather and Climate
Pupils identify the words plain and climate and discuss what would happen if it never rained. Students identify and interpret the weather in Poland and create a web illustrating various weather patterns. Pupils write a 4-line poem...
National Wildlife Federation
The Tide is High, but I’m Holding On… Using ICESat Data to Investigate Sea Level Rise
Based on the rate of melting observed from 2003-2007 in Greenland, it would take less than 10 minutes to fill the Dallas Cowboys' Stadium. The 17th lesson in a series of 21 has scholars use the ICESat data to understand the ice mass...
Curated OER
Analyzing Tree Rings to Determine Climate Change
Students examine how to locate and access data sets. For this climate change lesson students import data into Excel and graph it.