|
|
|
Printer Friendly Version
Investigation Question 1:
How can you tell the speed of the wind?
|
What To Do
|
|
Presenting the Investigation
Question
|
|
Introduce your students to the investigation question: "How can
you tell the speed of the wind?"
Have your students discuss the question in pairs, then in groups, and then as a whole class. Record their answers on the flipchart.
Have your students brainstorm ideas about how this investigation question could be investigated.
- Design an experiment that could be used to test the investigation question.
- What materials would be needed?
- What would you have to do?
- What would be measured?
- How long would the experiment take?
Back To Top
|
|
Assessing What Your Students Already Know
|
|
Have your students discuss the investigation question, first in pairs,
then groups and then as a whole class:
- How much do they already seem to understand about wind speed?
- What ideas do they have about how the speed of wind could be measured?
- Which of these ideas can be tested?
Now ask them:
- What are some of the ways you can make air move?
- How can you show that air moves? (Students might suggest things
like blowing a feather or fanning with a piece of cardboard.)
- If they can't see the air, how can we tell if it is moving quickly
or slowly? (After all, if you are running, I can see how quickly
you are going.)
- Provide a variable speed electric fan. Turn it on low, then medium,
then high. Have your students close their eyes and tell you how it feels
on their faces at each setting.
- Next, ask students to open their eyes while you repeat the settings.
What did they see? (Hair blowing, clothes billowing, papers flying
off desks, etc.)
- Finally, ask your students to imagine that they cannot hear or see
the fan. What clues tell them where the fan is in the room? (The
direction in which objects were blowing.)
Tell the students that in this investigation they are going to learn
to describe the way air moves outside. Tell them they will be making observations
of wind speed and direction, and that these are important when we describe
the weather conditions. They will record both of these observations on
the daily weather charts.
Back To Top
|
|
Exploring the Concept
|
|
1.
|
|
Take the class outside to make observations about wind speed. (You
may have to wait for a windy day - or at least for a day with some
air movement for this first field observation). Have your students
make their observations at some distance from the building to minimize
the building's effect on the flow of air.
|
|
2.
|
|
Encourage the students to use the type of environmental descriptors
given on the Beaufort Scale, but without making direct reference
to the scale. (If no column of smoke is available and the air
feels very still, ask the students to suggest other indicators of
calm or light air movements. Suggest looking at the school's flag
or the way their loose clothing or long hair reacts. If wind chimes
are available in the area, what do the students hear from the chimes?
Ask if they feel air moving on their faces. Let them drop dry grass
or bits of leaves to see how they are moved by the wind as they
fall--don't use whole leaves as they will tend to flutter regardless
of the wind speed and may be confusing. Tell the students that you
will add these suggestions to the Wind Scale when you return to
the classroom).
|
|
3.
|
|
If there is a significant breeze, ask the students if it is constant
or if it comes in spurts or gusts. Turn their attention to the behavior
of the trees in particular. (They will find that the wind often
starts at a slow speed-making leaves rustle--and accelerates to
moderate--making small branches move. Scientists reporting wind
speeds generally note the highest speeds observed. For example,
"Wind gusts up to 20 miles per hour").
|
|
Ask the students about other things they observe when the wind is
at the "moderate breeze" level. (They might suggest how the flag
flaps, how their clothing billows, how their faces feel cold, how
the dust from the road blows, how small pieces of trash fly about
and so on.)
|
|
|
|
4.
|
|
Ask the students to imagine a very windy day, maybe even one where
winds could damage things. How might they describe the movement
of objects in the environment on such a day?
|
|
5.
|
|
Return to the classroom and write some of their observations on
sentence strips or large paper. Have the students suggest how those
observations can be sequenced to show wind of increasing speed.
|
|
6.
|
|
Have your students study a copy of the Beaufort Wind Scale. They
should quickly see that it provides an estimate of the wind speed
using indicators like smoke columns and tree movements. Be sure
that the students understand the descriptors given on the table.
Show the students that you have left extra room to write more descriptions
in the last column. Have the students add their own observations
in the third column where they think they match the speed given
on the Beaufort Wind Scale.
|
|
|
Back To Top
|
|
|
