Project Groundhog

The students will determine the groundhog prediction of either six more weeks of winter or an early spring and see if the prediction was accurate by recording daily weather data for six weeks. Over that six week period the students will be comparing their weekly data with schools around the USA and Canada using the Project Groundhog website.

A lesson plan for grade 2 Mathematics and Science

By Jane Diamond

Learn more

• Project Groundhog to be used in the lesson
• Weather.com can be used for daily forecasts or current weather conditions

Related pages

• Weather watchers: This is a week long activity during which the students record the weather, track weather changes, and make predictions about future weather patterns.
• Weathering the water cycle: Condensation: This lesson introduces students to condensation as one phase of the water cycle. Through the use of the four lessons in this series students will learn that the water cycle is a continuous cycle. The other lessons in this series include lessons on evaporation and precipitation as well as a conclusion.
• Weather for the day: In this lesson, students will use previous knowledge and classroom resources to determine current weather conditions and temperature.

Related topics

• Learn more about Groundhog Day, data collection, environmental science, estimation, mathematics, measurement, meteorology, observation, science, temperature, weather, wind direction, and wind speed.

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Learning outcomes

Students will:

• Use record keeping skills to record daily temperature, wind direction and speed, and type of weather.
• Use the internet to compare and contrast temperature and weather with schools all over USA and Canada using the Project Groundhog website.
• Find temperature in Fahrenheit and change to Celsius when entering data on Project Groundhog.
• Make a prediction using a stuffed groundhog to see if there will be six more weeks of winter or an early spring then compare and contrast predictions of other schools in USA and Canada using Project Groundhog.
• Use their six weeks of collected weather data to determine the accuracy of the groundhog’s prediction and compare their results with other schools in the USA and Canada using Project Groundhog.

Teacher planning

Time required for lesson

6 weeks

Materials/resources

• pencil
• weekly weather recording sheets for each student from Project Groundhog
• stuffed groundhog or similar looking animal
• What is the Temperature? activity sheet
• Wind Finder activity sheet
• construction paper (one per student)
• outdoor thermometer
• class set of Fahrenheit/Celsius thermometers
• a beaker or container to collect precipitation marked in inches/centimeters

Technology resources

• internet access

Pre-activities

• One week prior to Groundhog Day, the teacher should register on the Project Groundhog website and determine the name of his or her class’s team.
• Using a graphic aid (circle map) the students should share the different types of weather and precipitation they know.
• Another circle map should be used for the children to give their background knowledge of Groundhog Day.
• The students should do “What Is the Temperature” activity to gain skills for reading temperatures on thermometers. This is also a good time to have them give a reading in Fahrenheit and then same reading in Celsius. (This skill will be needed later on in the lesson.)
• Wind Finders can be made and used to have the students learn how to collect data about wind direction and speed.

Activities

On Groundhog Day

1. The teacher and students go outside with the groundhog and determine whether s/he sees a shadow. Then a discussion should be held as to what that means: six more weeks of winter or an early spring. (If the groundhog sees his shadow it’s six more weeks of winter.)
2. The teacher first models how to go to the Project Groundhog website by using the bookmarks tool. The teacher then guides the students through the site using the color monitor.
3. Each student decorates a weather folder, a folded piece of construction paper.
4. Using the weather chart from Project Groundhog, the teacher models how to record weather data on the chart.
5. The students record the daily temperature using the outdoor thermometer.
6. Students should be able to have access to a window to look for the weather for the day and record on the weather chart.
7. The teacher will choose two or so different “meteorologists” daily to go outside and find the wind direction and speed using their Wind Finders, and record the data on the temperature sheets. These “meteorologists” also must look at the precipitation container and report their measurements of precipitation to the class that day along with wind speed and direction. The wind direction and speed can be recorded on the worksheets and the precipitation measurement can be recorded on the back of the weather chart.
8. Each student should take turns being a “meteorologist.” There also must be a place where the students can safely collect their data on wind and precipitation. The precipitation collector must be in the same place outside the school or classroom. (The teacher should have gone over with the students how to identify wind direction and speed.)

Every School Day After Groundhog Day

The students should take fifteen minutes to record their weather data on their charts.

Every Friday

1. As a whole class activity, the students tally up the number of different kinds of weather in one week and with the teacher’s help find the average temperature.
2. The classes involved in Groundhog Project on the website, must enter their weekly weather data every Friday. Students should enter their data for the week.
3. Since the average temperature is required to be entered as Celsius, the students, with the assistance of the teacher, can use the conversion tool already built into the site to change the temperature from Fahrenheit to Celsius. Or the children, after learning what the average temperature was for the week, can read a Celsius and Fahrenheit thermometer to make the conversion.
4. With a teacher’s help the students can print the weather data from other schools on the team.

At the End of the Six Weeks

1. The students review the prediction of their groundhog. Then the students look at the six weather charts that contain the data of all the weather data they have collected.
2. The students should determine from the six weeks of weather data whether or not their groundhog’s prediction was accurate.
3. Looking at their data on the Project Groundhog website on the color monitor, the students and teacher should be able to determine whether the groundhog’s prediction was correct. The teacher should encourage the students to look at the temperature averages over the six weeks and the weather changes.
4. The teacher can assess the students’ understanding of recording weather information by collecting and reviewing the students’ weather charts.
5. The results of the groundhog’s prediction for our school should be entered into the Project Groundhog website.

Assessment

• Following weekly recording of weather on weather charts, the teacher will review each students’ data and look for indications of accuracy in recording temperature (either in Fahrenheit or Celsius), type of weather, and wind direction and speed.
• After looking at their weather charts which allow them to record the temperature in Fahrenheit and Celsius and type of weather, wind speed and direction, the teacher should be able to comment and return the weather charts to the students. The teacher should also be able to see whether or not the students’ information was correct.
• Looking at the weather charts of the students will show that they have or have not recorded correctly the temperature, and assessed weather changes on their weather charts that record one week of weather information at a time. The students will have recorded this information for six weeks. Each week the teacher looks at the collected data from the students weather chart.
• Each time the students selected to be meteorologists give the wind speed and direction and measure precipitation, the teacher can check their wind data recorded on the wind worksheet and precipitation data recorded on the back of their weather charts to see if it is correct.

Supplemental information

Thinking Maps And Tools For Learning are produced by Thinking Maps Inc.

Attachments:

• Temperature
• Wind

Comments

• On a bulletin board in the school’s hall, I set up of Project Groundhog information. I included the names and places of the other schools on our team. I had our prediction of the groundhog posted. I also had a space for each week and we had different students weather charts posted for each week. We also posted the weather for the other schools on our team. The students wrote comments that compared the other schools’ weather with ours. We added those comments to the bulletin board. And finally we posted the results on the bulletin board. Many teachers and students were following the information on our bulletin board. A first grade teacher asked our students to come a present the results to her class.
• Every day I chose two different children to do the wind readings using their own Wind Finders. I used the recording of the weather as a daily morning activity. The children would independently record as much information as they could. Then I would record children’s responses in weather chart on overhead. Every Friday, I would choose 3 to 4 students to enter the weather data of the Project Groundhog website.
• It seems that there is a lot of teacher guided help in some areas of this lesson, but the whole lesson is six weeks long. I found that by the second week, the children really knew what to do. But I needed to guide them initially so they were clear on what to do.