ND Curriculum Initiative

Subject & Standards

2. Science Inquiry: 5. Earth and Space Science:

Understandings & Goals

Enduring Understanding: I want my students to understand that the weather will play a significant role in their lives throughout the years. Paying attention to weather conditions may affect their safety. In addition, weather affects economics and students need to consider that when chosing a career or occupation; specifically in this rural area, farming and agricultural related careers.
Goal(s): Students will learn about weather and how it affects their daily lives.

Questions Answered

Essential questions: 1. How can I determine the weather by observation? 2. What activities are affected by weather? 3, In what ways can I determine what the weather will be? 4. Why does the weather change?
Objectives:1. Students will identify the tools used to measure temperature. 2. Students will classify clouds according to how they look and the weather conditions with which they are associated. 3. Students will describe weather conditions and determine those that are hazardous.

Assessment

What quiz and test items (e.g. simple content-focused questions that require a single, best answer) will provide evidence of understanding?
Students will identify clouds from pictures in a paper and pencil evaluation.
What academic prompts (e.g. open-ended questions or problems that require students to think critically and then to prepare a response / product / performance) will provide evidence of understanding?
When students are given a real-world scenario, they will be able to role play the event and how to respond to the situation(s).
What performance tasks and projects (e.g. complex challenges that are authentic, mirror the real world and require a performance or product) will you include that will provide evidence of student understanding?
Students will describe weather conditions in an oral presentation of a picture they have produced.
What other evidence (e.g. observations, work samples, dialogues, student self-assessment)of understanding will you collect?
1. I will informally question students as they record their personal observations of cloud patterns. 2. Student work samples will indicate if they understand how to respond to hazardous weather conditions. 3. Students will draw different cloud types.

Instructional Strategies

I will use a mix of the strategies in this unit. Since science Inquiry is also one of the content benchmarks that this unit addresses, I will use that as a means of doing simple investigations with the second graders. Cooperative learning and collaborate gathering of information will also be included. I will also incorporate some problem based strategies in both the instructional and assessment process.