Brief Description

Students will work on a WebQuest.  They will be following weather forecasters on local weather channels.  In groups, they will write a thank-you letter to the station they believe has the most accurate predictions.

Standards and Frameworks

Technology Standards

• 6T-E1.  Determine when technology is useful and select and use the appropriate tools and technology resources to solve problems
• 5T-F1. Recognize electronic information sources
• 5T-E1. Locate information from electronic resources
• 3T-E2. Use a variety of technology tools for data collection and analysis

• W-E1. Use correct spelling, punctuation, capitalization, grammar and usage, along with varied sentence structure and paragraph organization, to complete

effectively a variety of writing tasks
• W-E3. Write a summary that presents information clearly and accurately, contains the most significant details and preserves the position of the author
• W-E6. Write formal communications, such as personal or business letters, messages, directions and applications, in an appropriate format and for a specific audience and purpose

Academic

• Students will be able to analyze information gathered from media resources.
• Students will decide and defend their choice of a weather forecaster as being the most accurate.
• Students will create a document sighting evidence of predicted weather accuracy.

• Use technology device(s) to collect and record data (e.g., science probe, graphing calculator, PDA {personal digital assistant}, alternative keyboards, webcams, GPS and Internet)
• Identify electronic research resources
• Define subject searching and devise a search strategy to locate information using available electronic research resources (i.e., electronic card catalog, online or CD-ROM reference sources, grade level appropriate Internet resources)

• Basic knowledge of Internet

• Computer, recording paper (offered online), access to internet, television or newspaper

Students are working in groups of four.
Special Ed-student can work with a partner on his individual part.
Visually impaired student-she will enlarge the font on her screen and print the online papers in a larger font
SEI-have a strong English speaker read to SEI students, allow student to give verbal responses
Gifted-students can graph and calculate percentage of correct predictions, create a weather broadcast

Procedures

• Students will be put into groups of 4.
• Students will go to http://www.amphi.com/teachers/vwirth/weatherweb
• As a team of 4, students will record daily weather predictions for 5 days.  They will write the prediction of high and low temperatures for the following day then they will find the actual temperature for the day.  At the end of the five days, the group will meet to analyze and discuss their findings.
• They must come to consensus and decide which local news station best forecasted the weather.
• As a group, they must compose a rough draft and final draft letter to the station they believe was the most accurate in weather predictions. They must express the group’s opinion, sighting specific data, as to why they prefer that stations weather forecast.

The rubric on the Webquest will be used to assess the letter that is written to the news station.

Teacher Name: Valerie Wirth
Site: Wilson K-8
Date Submitted: February 5, 2003