Students in third and fourth grade science classes wrapped up their ecology unit this week with a livestream Q & A with Fox 2 meteorologist Chris Higgins.

The unit began with creating nature journals to record daily abiotic elements of weather such as temperature, precipitation, humidity, wind and clouds. After students practiced recording data, they incorporated analysis in small ways by looking at how the weather/abiotic elements interacted with the biotic elements such as the plants, animals, and us!

Analyzing weather data led into a study of larger ecosystems based on climate regions. Climate regions were part of the curriculum earlier in the year, so this lesson drew on science classes from the fall and helped the students understand the connections between weather (day to day conditions in the atmosphere) and climate (weather over long periods of time).

The opportunity to meet with Mr. Higgins gave the students an even greater purpose for data collection! With the sudden shift to completing this lesson online, the weather journals and livestream with Mr. Higgins were great ways to bring the lesson outside of the classroom and help students grasp the concepts. Seeing another adult repeating the concepts in a different way can help students connect to the information and see its usefulness in their lives.

Students were able to ask Mr. Higgins questions specific to their experiences with weather, such as how lightning is formed or why the weather in Missouri can change so quickly. You can watch the entire lesson below to find the answers to those questions and more!

Thank you Mr. Higgins for offering this opportunity to our scholars!

Learn More About City Academy’s Curriculum

 

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