You will be working together as a group exploring web sites that I have selected. You should start with the pages that are labelled 'Background Information' before dividing into groups. Because this is a week long assignment, some jobs may require small amounts of work each day, while others may require more reading and could be broken into short periods. You must each complete your assignments by Friday, so plan your work accordingly. Each group has their own Task to complete and a separate set of web sites to use. There is a task organizer and an evaluation rubric in Background Information to guide your work.

Phase 1 - Background Information
These sites are important because they will provide basic information about the topic as a whole. Everyone should explore these sites before starting your Task. Take the time to each do the weather reporting activity. It is not only fun, but it will also provide you with what types of information to look for and include in your own weather reporting.

• Weather Reporting Activity
• Differences between Weather & Climate

Phase 2 - Roles
These roles were chosen because they each define the most important elements of Meteorology. Each of you has been assigned a particular role with links and instructions below. Here are the general instructions for all of you. Please see your specific instructions and questions below.

INSTRUCTIONS:

1. 2 members from each WebQuest team will explore one of the roles below.
2. Read through the files designated for your group. You can print out pages and underline the parts that you feel are important or cut and paste from the webpage into a word processor.

3. Remember to include the URL of the page you take information from so you can return to it and use it as a citation.

4. Focus what you've learned into one main opinion that answers the Big Quest(ion) or Task.

Meteorologist Job Description:

• Meteorologist

You task is to read and research the education and training needed to become a meteorologist. You will need to write down your answers to the following questions and share them with the group.
1. What is the definition of a meteorologist?
2. What training do you need?
3. What information do you feel should be included in a weather report (forecast)?

Researching water cycle and weather words:

• Water Cycle Description and Terms
• Informational site about weather and atmosphere
• Types of Clouds

Use these links to answer your questions. Then report your answers to the rest of the group.

1. Why do meteorologists need to know the water cycle?
2. What makes clouds different from each other?
3. Explain the difference between weather and climate.
4. What information should be included in a complete weather report?

Current weather conditions:

• National Weather Service
• U.S.A. Climate

Use these links to answer the following questions. Then report your information to the rest of the group.

1. Locate your hometown on the Unites States weather forecast map. Report the current weather conditions including temperature, air pressure and precipitation (or lack of). Then write a 5 day forcast for your town using the information from these sites.
2. What information do you think should be included in a weather forecast?

Interesting Weather 'Tidbits' to include in forecast:

• Phases of the Moon

Use these links to answer the following questions. Then report the information to your group.

1. What phase of the moon do we have today?
2. Is there a full or new moon this week?
3. Is there a special moon this week?
4. Is there a holiday or special event that happened on this day in history that should be included in the weather forecast?

Graphing:

• Graphing

Use this link to create a graph of the data recorded this week for temperatures and precipitation of your hometown. (This activity cannot be done until the data has been collected)

Phase 3 - Reaching Consensus
You have all learned about different parts of Meteorology, Weather & Climate. Now group members come back to the larger WebQuest team with expertise gained by searching from one perspective. You must all now complete the Task as a group. Each of you will bring a certain viewpoint to the answer: some of you will agree and others disagree. Use information, pictures, movies, facts, opinions, etc. from the web sites you explored to convince your teammates that your viewpoint is important and should be part of your team's response. Your WebQuest team should write out an answer that everyone on the team can live with.

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Conclusion

So is an elephant smooth, rough, soft, or hard? Well, when you're blindfolded and only *looking* at one part, it's easy to come up with an answer that may not be completely right. It's the same for understanding a topic as broad or complex as Meteorology: when you only know part of the picture, you only know part of the picture. Now you all know a lot more. Nice work. You should be proud of yourselves! How can you use what you've learned to see beyond the black and white of a topic and into the grayer areas? What other parts of Meteorology, Weather & Climate could still be explored? Remember, learning never stops.

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Content by Jessica Smith, jessbernier2003@yahoo.com http://www.kn.att.com/wired/fil/pages/webweatherje.html Last revised Tue Oct 21 11:09:26 US/Pacific 2008