Address science standards and specific objectives with Google Earth during hurricane season.  Turn on the weather and hurricane tracking layers then begin your data collection.  What a phenomenal tool!  Last year I even trained a few students to lead this activity at the teacher computer and SmartBoard so that I could move around the room and monitor the work other students were doing.  Definitely one of the more meaningful technology experiences last year.  Planning to implement it again this year.  Students even transferred their data from the ISN (interactive student notebook) into an Excel template complete with graphs of the various weather factors.  Check out this FreeTechnologyforTeachers  article for more info.

National Science Content Standard D: Weather changes from day to day and over the seasons. Weather can be described by measurable quantities, such as temperature, wind direction and speed, and precipitation.
NC COMPETENCY GOAL 3: The learner will conduct investigations and use
appropriate technology to build an understanding of weather and climate.
CCS Objectives: Use precise weather instruments to collect local weather data.  Describe the impact of prevailing winds on North Carolina's climate. Choose a region and research weather data over a particular time period. Create a graph of weather data to determine the climate trends within a region.  Classify the chosen region into one of the five world climate zones. Describe the ocean's effect on hurricane formation.


 

If you are looking for a way to meet the modifications needed by your struggling readers during content area instruction, I have just the tool for you.  Spokentext is a website that will convert existing documents of many types into speech.  Once you have registered for your free account, you can begin creating files.  I even uploaded my test documents for translation.  Now I have read aloud accommodations available for multiple students all at the same time.  If you need more detailed information, feel free to email me at: [email protected]

    Heather Kaiser

    I have been teaching in CCS for 12 years.  I am a facilitator of mentor training, raising the bar: infusing rigor into your lessons,  and quality tools.

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