Weather Watching in Antarctica!
Objective:
To experiment with various weather watching instruments. To analyze how weather affects how lives and what it is capable of doing to our planet.
Materials:
thermometer, anemometer, rain gauge, barometer, almanac, atlas, and chart for recording data.
Lesson:
Our scientists are preparing for their trip to Antarctica. While there, they will study the weather intensely, analyzing what affects weather might have on the ozone problem. Prior to their departure, the group will test their meteorological instruments to verify that everything is working properly. For two weeks, our group will check the air temperature, wind speed, wind direction, air pressure, precipitation amounts, and general weather conditions each day. Keeping all of their data on charts, the group will determine the mean temperatures and other averages using their math skills. Knowing that their equipment works properly, our scientists will now use almanacs and other resources to determine average temperatures in Antarctica for the time of the year that they are traveling there. As a final step in this lesson, the scientists will compare and contrast weather conditions in Antarctica with those here in Connecticut. Our group will hypothesize on what effects the weather might have on the depleting ozone layer and possible solutions to this environmental problem. Several groups may want to share their findings with each other to see any similarities or differences.
