Students will identify some weather-tracking tools used by meteorologists and make a tool for a classroom weather station. To determine students' level of knowledge about hurricanes, begin the lesson by asking students to play a word association game. Challenge students to see how many different words they can come up with related to hurricanes within a specified time period. Record all the words on the chalkboard. Discuss the word list, and then explain to the students that they will use the Internet to learn more about hurricanes.
Students can look at the first site to see what conditions are necessary for a hurricane to form.
Have students complete Section 1 of the activity sheet. Using the second site, students can develop a classroom mini-weather station by making weather tools. Have students click the links mentioned in Section 2 of the activity sheet and print out the directions for making the five tools listed. Discuss the home page with students and then have them independently explore the site by clicking on each of the links. Section 1 Order of answers may vary, but should include the following four conditions.