Tracking Zelda

Description:
In this activity students will track a hurricane using given coordinates.

Materials:
     Hurricane tracking maps
     List of coordinates for imaginary Hurricane Zelda

Procedure:
1. Begin the lesson with the initiating questions or choose some questions of your own. Listen to the students' responses and try to determine what the students already know about hurricanes and hurricane tracking. Try to identify any misconceptions students may have and use this information to alter the lesson to meet the needs of the students.
2. Distribute maps to the students.
3. Have students read the coordinates from the data chart provided and mark them on their maps.
4. Take students outside the school; limit their observation time to ten
minutes or less.
5. Have each student fill in information on the observational chart.
6. If possible, call a school 30 minutes away from you (30 minutes in the
direction from which the wind is blowing. Each day the direction may be
different; it will depend on the wind, therefore, the school will be
different). Ask the school about the weather at that school.
 
 

Teaching Tips:
Make sure the students are aware the exercise is to predict the weather
because it will then be easier to introduce the relevant/irrelevant
information skill.
If you do not have a psychrometer, two thermometers can be used instead.
Place a piece of dampened cloth around the bulb of one thermometer. The
water evaporation will lower the temperature.  Since the rate of
evaporation is dependent upon the amount of water vapor in the air, the
wet bulb thermometer is used to determine humidity. To read the chart
remember you need the temperature (dry bulb) and the DIFFERENCE
between the dry bulb reading and the wet bulb reading.
Assessment:

 
 
For Your Information:
Although all of the information recorded by the student pertains to
weather, not all information is useful in weather prediction. Each item can
be discussed and its relevancy to weather prediction determined. For
example, temperature and humidity are important in determining our
comfort and are irrelevant for predicting weather.

The amount of cloud cover can be described in four words:
Fine: the sky has 1/4 or less of cloud
Fair: the sky has 1/4 - 1/2 of cloud
Cloudy: the sky has 1/2 - 3/4 of cloud
Overcast: the sky is almost completely covered with clouds
When calling another school have all the information you want written
down. Keep you requests simple and non-technical.

Assessment
Have the students track the weather data from the newspaper for a week
making their own weather predictions.