Over the last 500 years humans have gone from seeing a man in the moon to seeing a man on the moon. This phenomenal advance in collective learning has taken place thanks in large part to a group of strategies which have come to be referred to as The Scientific Method. If humankind has made so much progress by using the Scientific Method, then why not teach all our children to use it at an early age rather than waiting until high school or college to teach a few who are fast-tracked into science and technology careers. If we have made this much progress with a few humans using these strategies, then what will our collective learning curve look like if we are all trained to make science discoveries and/or to appreciate the discoveries of others?

Wednesday, October 17, 2007

AIR PRESSURE VS CLOUD COVER

OBJECTIVE: FIND THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN AIR PRESSURE AND CLOUD COVER.

TIME NEEDED: Several whole class periods and about five minutes at the beginning of ten class periods

MATERIALS:
Barometer
Cloud Chart
Computer Access to Weather Data

PROCEDURE:

1. Have students read for information about air pressure.
2. Present the problem: How does air pressure affect cloud cover?
3. Have students state their hypothesis: If air pressure increases, cloud cover will
(increase) (decrease) (stay the same). I think this way because
4. Elicit a table to organize information:
Date Time Air Pressure % Cloud Cover Type of Clouds
5. Over the next two weeks, have students measure the air pressure at the beginning of class and observe the clouds from the window.
6. Take students outside to observe cloud cover on several different days when different kinds of clouds are visible.
7. Have students observe clouds as they walk to and from school.
8. Show students how to find the barometric pressure on line from the closest weather center.
9. Have periodic class discussions to analyze the data.
10. After two weeks students analyze the data and draw a conclusion as to whether their original hypothesis is supported by the data.
11. Students write a Lab Report with the Following parts: Problem; Hypothesis; Materials: Procedure; Data Table and Analysis, Conclusion.
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1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Good for people to know.

November 10, 2008 at 2:28 PM

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