Rain, Rain ,Come our Way!

Project Plan

Title: Rain, Rain Come Our Way!

Summary
Students measure rainfall over a period of time in order to collect, analyze, and graph data.

Description

Students will be a part of a county-wide telecollabortive project that requires the students to measure rainfall and collect data. Data will include temperature, humidity index, and inches of water daily. They will track the rainfall over a month.

Students will be asked to report their data throughout the experiment in the class GoogleDocs daily. The teacher will take the class averages for all of the data and submit it to the site’s GoogleDoc once a week.

Objectives:

 

CCSS.Math.Content.2.MD.D.9
Generate measurement data by measuring lengths of several objects to the nearest whole unit, or by making repeated measurements of the same object. Show the measurements by making a line plot, where the horizontal scale is marked off in whole-number units.

CCSS.Math.Content.2.MD.D.10
Draw a picture graph and a bar graph (with single-unit scale) to represent a data set with up to four categories. Solve simple put-together, take-apart, and compare problems1 using information presented in a bar graph.

• Students will be collecting data daily on the temperature, humidity index and rainfall daily. They will take this information and submit it on a GoogleDoc. They will also will be measuring the rainfall with a ruler. This data will be presented in the end in a graph of their choice. They then will analyze the data by comparing their information to other schools.

CCSS.Science.Content.3.MD.A.1

Gathering and question data from many different forms of scientific investigations which include reviewing appropriate print resources, observing what things are like, or what is happening somewhere, collecting specimens for analysis, and doing experiments.

CCSS.Science.Content.3.MD.C.1

Recognize that clear communication is an essential part of doing science because it enables scientists to inform others about their work, expose their ideas to criticisms by other scientists, and stay informed about scientific discoveries around the world.

• Students will be collecting information from online resources such as weather websites. They also will be observing the weather and rainfall. While collecting this information they will be analyzing their observations in class. Students will also be also analyzing other data form students around the county.

 

CCSS.SocialStudies.Content.3.MD.B.1

Classify places and regions in an environment using geographic characteristics.

• Students will analyze the data from the GoogleDoc in order to classify different areas around the county based on their geographic characteristics and level of rainfall. They will be concluding the type of region based their findings in the GoogleDoc.

 

Student Age Levels
2-4 (Primary)

Dates
Start Date: November 02, 2015

End Date: November 27, 2015

Overview:

Students have been revisiting the water cycle. They also have been working with many mathematic skills such as data collection and statistics of information. They will be put in five groups in order to form a group for their month project.

Day One:

Student will explore the website’s homepage.

• Watch the short clip and discuss why they think it is important to collect data on rainfall. Students will reflect on their ideas on the Padlet link on the website. (Review cyber safety)

• Explain to the students that over the course of the month they will be utilizing their mathematician skills by collecting data on the amount of daily rainfall. Students will then share and compare their data using GoogleDocs with other schools in Baltimore County.

• They will review the water cycle by analyzing the Water Cycle page on the project website.

Materials:

• Water-safe liquid container (teacher choice) per two students

  • Suggestions: cut off two liter soda bottle, butter tub, paint bucket

• Wooden rulers

• Thermometer

• Pencils

• Open space outdoors (no canopies or trees blocking possibility of rainfall)

 

 

Procedures:

• Students find a safe location for water-safe containers (consider discussing possible locations)

• Check the water-safe container daily between 11am- 1pm depending on schedule.

• Groups will work together to measure the amount of water in the container, the temperature, and humidity index. They will use a variety of resources such as a ruler, thermometer and www.weatherchannel.com .

• Once they return back to the classroom, have the group go to the Class Rainfall GoogleDoc page to record their data.

• At the end of the week students will find the averages for all the data and the teacher will submit it to the County Rainfall GoogleDoc.

Expected outcomes
Students will choose a graph of their choice to represent the data. They will discuss with a classmate using Epals on trends in data, observations, and the overall experience.

Curriculum area
Science, Math, Social Studies