Meteorology Today! Gr 4 Project Based Learning Activities and Rubric for Weather

In this unit, students have an important job! They will become meteorologists for an important weather magazine called “Meteorology Today”! Throughout this project, students will be investigating weather patterns and weather maps for a US region. They will research from a meteorologist’s point of view. Students will be broken up into 5 groups by US regions. Students will report their findings on an online website for the magazine (There is not a real webste—they will present in person or in front of a camera). Since facts are important, each group must follow the steps to learn about and teach their topic of expertize, but may choose any reasonable way to present their topic. As with any project based learning, students will create a driving question that will help them give true meaning to their project. Throughout the project, students should be asking and answering questions related to their topic and the standards. Students will follow steps of project based instruction and their rubrics as they research and present the research . I am spent about 1 1/2- 2 weeks on this project: five days to research, one or two days to pull it all together, and one day to shoot their video or present in person. Included in this packet are GPS standards, a project rubric/sheet, project based instruction steps, maps and a driving question sheet. Let me know what you think! Enjoy!