Polona Vodičar, Osnovna šola Vransko, Tabor
Our school participates with some other European countries in an international project Head in the clouds. The project enhances our knowledge about the weather. Third graders studied the weather for three months in the previous school year. At first we found out what we already knew about the weather and what we were interested in. We developed some simple instruments for measuring meteorological phenomena. We found the instructions for making a simple thermometer and a simple anemometer on the internet. We also made a windmill and a simple hygrometer. We were measuring different meteorological phenomena with our own weather instruments and with the instruments we bought for three weeks (in different months). We were also watching the weather forecast on accu weather and comparing our results with the results measured by Netatmo weather station on https://www.netatmo.com/en-US/weathermap/bounds/46.278954964156306/15.018614127502588/46.22001684963453/14.853819205627588. We were also monitoring the weather in Spain and Latvia because these two countries are in our project too. We were monitoring the weather via project blog http://cloudserasmus.blogspot.si/p/activities.html. At the beginning pupils wrote some hypotheses that were accepted or rejected at the end of the project. Pupils wrote the collected data into a chart and used PowerPoint to present them graphically. A presentation of all hypotheses shown also by graphs was made at the end of the project. The hypotheses were accepted or rejected by the help of these graphs. Pupils learned how to measure precisely, how to observe and how to make notes. They got to know the research steps, how to make hypotheses and how to accept or reject them. Most of third graders know how to present data graphically and how to prepare a PowerPoint presentation. Each pupil made a graphical PowerPoint presentation with the data collected within the project. The website netatmo.com was presented to the pupils. They could monitor the weather in different parts of the world there. They also learned how to get some useful information by surfing the net. They learned a lot about other European countries. Within the project pupils connected and completed the knowledge they already had and the new knowledge. Pupils exceeded the weather and procedures learning standards compared to the ones prescribed by the curriculum. Third graders gained useful knowledge through this project. They will use it later in their lives.
