Primary – Grade 5 Weather Station

Grade 5 are currently finishing up their unit under Sharing the Planet. Our central idea is

 Biodiversity relies on maintaining an interdependent balance of organisms within systems.

As part of a formative assessment, students were inquiring into biomes from around the world. They identified climate, biotic and abiotic factors, food webs and human impact. Inspired by weather maps in atlases, the students were interested in finding out more about the weather. As part of their independent work, they decided to develop their own personal inquiry into weather systems and design a weather station. They researched the tools that meteorologists used, types of clouds and the conditions connected to them, the beaufort weather scale and the symbols that meteorologists use to record the weather.

With this knowledge, the students planned and created their own weather station, including a wind vane (wind direction), anemometer (wind speed), thermometer (temperature) and barometer (air/atmospheric pressure). The student’s decided to display their weather forecast daily to the BIS community in front of the grade 5 classroom.

As well as displaying the weather, the students were able to analyse weather patterns and make predictions based on the knowledge they gained. Taking action through personal inquiry and sharing with the community. Finally, grade 5 were invited to share their knowledge with their Kindy friends. A wonderful way to wrap up the unit.