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Grade Level: 6-8
Academic Areas: Mathematics, Science
Duration of service: Semester Long
Character Virtues: Civic Virtue and Citizenship, Responsibility
Service Areas: Environmental
Service Learning Project:
Students will participate in a semester long community based
project tracking local weather data. Students will learn that
weather describes conditions of the atmosphere at a given location
for a short period of time. Students will then decide where to
effectively place weather tracking equipment to obtain the most
useful data. Students will recruit targeted local community members
to house the weather equipment and to report back the data to
the class. Once community members agree to participate students
will organize a meeting to inform these participants about the
expectations of the project and the data collecting process. Students
will contact participants at a regularly scheduled interval to
obtain the collected data. Students will place collected data
into organized tables, charts, graphs, and maps. Once data collection
is complete, students will analyze the results, draw conclusions,
and create a final report to be shared with the community.
Goals and Objectives
Academic
Learning Goal: Students will understand that weather describes
the conditions of the atmosphere at a given location for a short
period of time.
Standard: MST (2)
Learning Goal: Students will analyze collected data to create
a profile of local weather and local climate through the use of
graphs, tables, maps, and charts.
Standard: MST (1)
Service
Community need: Lack of public awareness of local weather patterns
to maximize efficiency and productivity both agriculturally and
for businesses that rely on being outdoors.
Possible Community Partners: Residents in specific geographic
areas, local meteorologists, local outdoor./agricultural related
businesses
Objective: Students will be responsible for communicating and
collecting data from involved residents/businesses.
Objective: Students will share data with local residents through
generated charts, graphs, and tables through available forms of
media (local newscasts, presentations, newsletters, etc.)
Character
Virtue: Responsibility
Objective: Students will maintain their commitment to communicate
with local residents/businesses involved in the project.
Virtue: Civic virtue and Citizenship
Objective: Students will provide valuable data to interested community
members on local weather patterns.
Key Activities
Key Planning Activities
1. Students will meet as a group to discuss how the creation
of a local weather network in the area will benefit community
interests.
2. Students will learn about how to collect appropriate weather
data using the specified equipment.
3. Students will learn how to generate and organize collected
data.
Key Service Activities
1. Students will teach involved participants to appropriately
collect data using the provided equipment.
2. Students will contact community participants to collect data
at scheduled intervals and may also schedule site visits.
3. Students will generate charts, graphs, maps, and tables to
illustrate the results in a variety of media forms. Students will
then deduce how weather and climate vary in a geographic area.
4. Students will communicate results to interested parties through
available forms of media.
Key Reflection Activities
1. (oral) Students will be asked how they feel their interactions
with participants will affect the success of the results in regards
to the character virtues.
2. (written) Students will write about an event that was significant
to them relating to the creation, supervision, and reporting of
the weather network data.
3. (performance) Students will create flyers demonstrating their
roles as citizens. The flyers will be distributed at the community
assembly.
Demonstration Activity
Students will present their findings at a community assembly
and be recognized by school and district officials. The presentations
will conclude with a reception. Everyone involved with be invited
to attend the presentations and reception.
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