A great outdoor activity

This is a nicely organized and well-explained lesson. It would be a great outdoor activity to use in conjunction with a weather unit as students use clouds to predict the weather. The lesson... See More

This is a nicely organized and well-explained lesson. It would be a great outdoor activity to use in conjunction with a weather unit as students use clouds to predict the weather. The lesson has a nice introduction in which students think about cloud height compared to other commonly tall objects. Then students learn how to identify clouds by using a simple dichotomous key. From their identification of clouds, students then learn what type of weather leads to the observed clouds. If this lesson is done for many years at the same time of year, then students could compare their weather events with past year’s weather events to learn about long term weather patterns. Although this is primarily written for middle school students, it would fit well into a high school Earth School class. I have a rambunctious group of freshmen this year and I think this would be a perfect field activity for them.

Perfect for a weather unit

While intended for a middle school class, I use this resource with my high school earth science students when we study weather. It provides descriptive terms for clouds that are easy for my... See More

While intended for a middle school class, I use this resource with my high school earth science students when we study weather. It provides descriptive terms for clouds that are easy for my students to grasp. The dichotomous key provided in the lesson is exceptional. It is straight forward and concise so it can be taken outside for cloud identification. Once my students have learned to properly identify clouds, they can use that identification to predict the weather conditions. This is a very practical set of lessons.