All about extreme weather phenomena

Introduction

You know how the weather looks like in Switzerland, because you experience it every day. But do you know how it is in other places on this earth? Every single day happen natural catastrophes and other extreme things. But the people living in these parts of the world are more or less used to the weather phenomena.

In this task you will find out a lot about extreme weather situations such as hurricanes, blizzards, tornados and thunderstorms, about special places on the earth where extreme conditions predominate and you will create a typical weather forecast for one of these places.

Have fun finding out all about extreme weather phenomena and let's create an impressing weather forecast for your classmates to show how weather is in different places on our world.

Picture: cc Kakela (via Flickr.com)

Task

This task is built up in three steps.

1) You will find out all about the following types of extreme weather: Hurricanes, blizzards, thunderstorms and tornados.
Create a handout (about 1 A4) where you describe the extreme weather situations in words and with pictures. You will also have to add a little reflection where you explain which type of weather situation you like most and why, and if you would like to experience one of these weather types and why or why not.

2) You will make a reasearch to these three different places on the earth: Oymyakon in Siberia, Death Valley in the United States and Srinagar in India. These places have very special climatic conditions. Find out what conditions are meant and describe them in a handout (about 1 A4) as well.

3) With all this new knowledge you are a weather expert now. You chose one of these three places mentioned in task two and create a typical weather forecast for it. You will have to create a powerpoint presentation with suitable pictures and data to be able to present and describe the place you have chosen to your classmates.

Picture:cc Kyle Cheung (via Flickr.com)

Process

Note: For all your research you are allowed to use all the sources you would like to on the internet. You don't have to use the links below, but they are a suggestion. For any question respective vocabulary you can consult http://dict.leo.org/ende/index_de.html.

1. Get information on the following weather types and write down notes on a piece of paper.

Hurricane:

Scholastic http://teacher.scholastic.com/activities/wwatch/hurricanes/index.htm

Weather Whiz Kids http://www.weatherwizkids.com/hurricane1.htm

Sky Diary http://skydiary.com/kids/hurricanes.html

Horrific Hurricanes http://whyfiles.org/073hurricane/index.html

Tropical Twister http://kids.earth.nasa.gov/archive/hurricane/damage.html

NSSL Flooding http://www.nssl.noaa.gov/education/svrwx101/floods/

Thunderstorm:

Weather Whiz Kids http://www.weatherwizkids.com/weather-thunderstorms.htm

NSSL http://www.nssl.noaa.gov/education/svrwx101/thunderstorms/

NSSL Lightning http://www.nssl.noaa.gov/education/svrwx101/lightning/

NSSL Damaging Winds http://www.nssl.noaa.gov/education/svrwx101/wind/

Sky Diary http://skydiary.com/kids/lightning.html

Powerful Storms http://www.learner.org/exhibits/weather/storms.html

Blizzard:

Weather Whiz Kids http://www.weatherwizkids.com/weather-winter-storms.htm

NSSL http://www.nssl.noaa.gov/education/svrwx101/winter/

Scholastic (includes Blizzard timeline) http://teacher.scholastic.com/activities/wwatch/winter_storms/index.htm

Ice and Snow http://www.learner.org/exhibits/weather/iceandsnow.html

Tornado:

Scholastic http://teacher.scholastic.com/activities/wwatch/tornadoes/index.htm

Weather Whiz Kids http://www.weatherwizkids.com/weather-tornado.htm

NSSL http://www.nssl.noaa.gov/education/svrwx101/tornadoes/

Sky Diary http://skydiary.com/kids/tornadoes.html

Powerful Storms http://www.learner.org/exhibits/weather/storms.html

2. Sum up all your findings in a word document (about 1 A4, 11. Pkt.). Add typical pictures and understandable explanations to your article. Don't forget to add a little reflection where you explain which type of weather situation you like most and why, and if you would like to experience one of these weather types and why or why not.

3. Get information on the following three places.

Oymyakon:

Weather Online http://www.weatheronline.co.uk/reports/climate/Russia.htm

Daily Mail http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2280650/Oymyakon-coldest-village-earth-Weather-takes-turn-worse-71C-Russian-hamlet.html

Daily Mail http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2266374/Oymyakon-coldest-village-earth-Temperatures-drop-71-2C-locals-wear-glasses-freeze-faces-school-shuts-falls-52C.html

Mother Nature Network http://www.mnn.com/earth-matters/climate-weather/photos/7-of-the-coldest-places-in-the-world-to-live/oymyakon-russia

Atlas Obscura http://www.atlasobscura.com/places/oymyakon-arctic-circle

Foreca http://www.foreca.com/Russia/Oymyakon

Death Valley:

National Park Service http://www.nps.gov/deva/naturescience/weather-and-climate.htm

American Meteorological Society http://journals.ametsoc.org/doi/pdf/10.1175/BAMS-84-12-1725

Live Science http://www.livescience.com/38054-why-death-valley-hot.html

Foreca http://www.foreca.de/United_States/California/Furnace_Creek

Srinagar:

Weather Online http://www.weatheronline.co.uk/reports/climate/India.htm

Foreca http://www.foreca.de/India/State_of_Jammu_and_Kashmir/Srinagar

The Guardian http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/sep/11/kashmir-monsoon-floods-million-displace-pakistan-india-aid

BBC News http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-29195885

About Travel http://goindia.about.com/od/planningyourtrip/a/indiamonsoon.htm

National Geographic Education http://education.nationalgeographic.com/education/encyclopedia/monsoon/?ar_a=1

4. Sum up all the interesting findings respective the weather and climate about these places in a word document (about 1 A4, 11 Pkt.). Add to each place at least one picture. Add also an explanation to your favourite place of these three. Where would you prefer to live? Why?

5. Create a typical weather forecast for one of these three places (Power Point) for a day.

First of all give a short explanation to the place you have chosen. Where is it? How many people live there? Which is the actual information about the place? Was it in the news?

Then create your fictional but possible weather forecast for the next day. Include all the important information needed such as the upcoming temperature, rain- or snowfall, hours of sun shining during the day, short prediction for the upcoming week, air humidity etc. Add suitable pictures and eventually a video. Feel free to get inspiration on common weather forecasts such as on SRF (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hR-BFnSrUcM ) or BBC (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jIZvHkqTOV4 ) etc.

Prepare yourself to present your weather forecast in class.

Picture: cc Maarten Takens (via Flickr.com)

Evaluation

	Beginner 1	Advanced 2	Expert 3
Research	The pupil manages to sum up the necessary amount of information.	The pupil collects a good amount of information about the asked content.	The pupil sums up more information than needed.
Research Time	The pupil surfs on the suggested websites without a concret plan.	The pupil surfs on the suggested websites and is able to filter out the necessary information.	The pupil not only surfs on the suggested websites but is able to include other sources as well and does this quickly.
Technical Objectives	The pupil manages to hand in almost 2 A4 word documents and a power point presentation of approximately 4 slides. To import pictures into the documents the pupil needed to ask for help.	The pupil hands in 2 A4 documents and a power point presentation of about 7 slides. The pupil could import pictures with little help of classmates.	The pupil hands in more than the 2 A4 documents and a power presentation of approximately 9 slides. He/she didn't need any technical help.
Content	The collected content is largely missing and mostly incorrect.	The collected content is provided and mostly correct.	The collected content is provided and fully correct.
Written texts	The texts are faulty and difficult to understand.	The texts are short but correct and understandable.	The texts are well-thought-out, informative and correct.
Presentation of the weather forecast	The pupil doesn't present his/her weather forecast by heart and gives only little information.	The pupil manages to get his/her message across but needs to squint at her/his notes from time to time.	The pupil speakes freely and gives a good and complete overview of his/her content.

Conclusion

This WebQuest was designed to give you an insight into the research of different weather types and weather information such as weather forecasts or climatic details.

By passing this WebQuest and presenting your weather forecast to your class you learnt many different things such as looking up information on the internet, writing the necessary information down in keywords and adding them to a logical text on word. You also had to follow instructions step by step and gather all the information needed. You learnt how to create a word document and how to design it with suitable pictures and appropriate titles. The weather forecast you have created in a power point presentation which you needed to layout appealingly and where you needed to sum up all the things you have researched in the previous steps.