THE+WEATHER+PROJECT

Hi everybody! Here you will find directions and how to do the project.

The idea is that students from schools around the world measure their weather conditions each day for a few weeks and add them to this spreadsheet:

[|https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0AsK8CMziPXxidG1iWFpWQll2dmZnVUxlZjNQbk1CQ3c#gid=0]

and here is the file with all the information

or if you want it straight away...

Hi everyone,

Welcome to the International WeatherProject for October/November this year. We are so excited that you are all on board! =**1. Timeline**=

Here is a rough outline of the project timetable. A more detailed description of what we will be doing with our class at these times is attached below in case you'd like to use any of our other activities. Remember, you can be as involved as you like. If you like, you may just want to collect weather data and add it to the spreadsheet each day. Or you may like to be involved in the discussions etc. as outlined here:

8th - 30th April:


 * Introduce students to the project
 * Get students to introduce themselves and indicate their school's location on the google map (Schoology Discussion)
 * Students respond to the question “What impact does weather have on my life?” and respond to each others’ varied situations. (Schoology Discussion)

22nd April - 24th May:
 * Students introduced to weather equipment and shown how/where to record data online
 * Weather measurements begin (to continue for 3 weeks, daily if possible)
 * Please note that my school will be on holidays until the end of April. We will start collecting data on the 2nd of May. Go ahead and start measuring and recording without us!

1st - 24th May:


 * All schools to continue taking and recording weather measurements (via Google Docs)
 * Other activities at this stage could include learning how to calculate mean, and graphing other schools' data.

20th - 24th May:


 * Students locate a current Synoptic Chart and post for other schools to view (Schoology Discussion)
 * Other schools try to predict what will happen with the weather by interpreting the synoptic chart. (Schoology Discussion)

27th May - 3rd June:
 * Students learn to interpret Climatic Graph relevant to their own region. They analyse the graph to decide whether their recent weather recordings are average or different to average, which is then reported back to other schools. This way, other schools will know whether the weather measurements were atypical for this time of year. (Schoology Discussion)

3rd - 10th Jun e: (5th June - World Environment Day! We'll do something to celebrate :)
 * Students learn about further graph types
 * Students start to analyse data to answer the essential question “Where in the world is the best place to live, based on weather?”

Any time in June


 * Students decide which of the involved communities has the best weather conditions for living and create an advertisement promoting that community and its weather.
 * Students publish their advertisements and justifications of why they have chosen their location. (Schoology)

Please note: you are free to adjust any of this timing to suit you. This is just a timetable based on our Australian term. Your class may want to do parts of this earlier or later, or omit/add activities.

Most of the activities are up to you to organise and run yourself. If it says "Schoology Discussion" then it's something I'll post on Schoology to stimulate discussion. You are also welcome to post discussion topics as relevant to your class.

2. Contact Keeping the students in touch: we have three ways to do this.

Google Docs - hopefully all classes can use this to enter their weather data each school day. All data from all schools should be entered on this Google Docs spreadsheet: @https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0AqqSMJfcrOtvdHlUVy00am12dlZYLW5QVkNEbzdWaEE&usp=sharing<@https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0AsK8CMziPXxidG1iWFpWQll2dmZnVUxlZjNQbk1CQ3c>

There is a different sheet for each weather element (navigation at the bottom of the page). Please add a row for your school on each sheet. Our school is going to be measuring all of the weather elements, so we are on all sheets. If your school are only measuring temperature and rainfall, then just add to those two sheets. It should start looking like the attached image.

As you may be aware, Google Docs is currently limiting some access for students under 13 years old. This has been a bit of a problem for us so we are starting with a whole-class account. So it's up to you whether you enter data as a whole class from one google account, or if your students will use individual accounts and add the data themselves.

If you have additional weather data, please add days OR upload your other data to the Schoology course for students to view.

Schoology All schools are welcome to join the Schoology class. This space will mean that students can: - introduce themselves without being restricted by timezones - post comments to discussion boards - upload synoptic charts, photos of weather conditions that day, etc.

All of my students follow the steps below to join up themselves. I would definitely recommend this for secondary school students, as it means they can join discussions individually. Primary teachers may just like to sign in themselves and classes respond to discussions as a class (although they are more than welcome to join individually too.)

In the Materials section, there is a folder for us to share teaching materials. If you are interested, we can also create a teacher group within the class so that we can discuss how things are going without the students viewing it. This may be easier than lots of group emails.

To use Schoology (it's free; very similar to Edmodo): 1. Go to www.schoology.com<@http://www.schoology.com/

//Schoology // All schools are welcome to join the Schoology class. This space will mean that students can: - introduce themselves without being restricted by timezones - post comments to discussion boards - upload synoptic charts, photos of weather conditions that day, etc.

All of my students follow the steps below to join up themselves. I would definitely recommend this for secondary school students, as it means they can join discussions individually. Primary teachers may just like to sign in themselves and classes respond to discussions as a class (although they are more than welcome to join individually too.)

If you are interested, we can also create a teacher group within the class so that we can discuss how things are going without the students viewing it. This may be easier than lots of group emails.

To use Schoology (it's free; quite similar to Edmodo): 1. Go to **www.schoology.com ** 2. Click "**Sign Up**" 3. Complete the sign up process, entering your school name as well as nominating yourself as an "instructor". 4. Once you have signed up, click "**Courses" > Join Course** (will drop down at the top of the page). 5. Enter this code: 6CV75-FPR7C

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 18px;">6. This should let you join the course "**International** **<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 18px;">Weather ****<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 18px;">Project ****<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 18px;">: Destination Sunshine? **<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 18px;">" <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 18px;">If you'd like further help with this, let me know and I can take you through the process over skype. My skype name is symingtoninsydney.

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 18px;">I would like to know how many of you are interested in joining us in the Schoology course space. I'm hoping it's most of you. Once you let me know, either by replying to this email or joining and looking around the space so you understand what it's like, then I will post more comprehensive instructions for you to get your students online. It's a safe space with only students and teachers, and I will give you each teacher permissions so you can monitor all progress.

//<span style="color: #ff9100; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 18px;">Skype // <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 18px;">It will be up to individual schools to contact each other for Skype discussions - as you know, it can be tricky negotiating time zones.

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 18px;">Within the Schoology space, we will add a world map with all our locations and school names on it so you can see who's involved.