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Seasonal Changes Through Our Eyes and Yours:
An online collaborative investigation of seasonal changes
Standards:
Science K.8The student will investigate and understand simple
patterns in his/her daily life.
Key concepts include
a) weather observations;
b) the shapes and forms of many common natural objects including
seeds, cones,
and leaves;
c) animal and plant growth; and
d) home and school routines.
Mathematics K.14
The student will display gathered data in object graphs, picture
graphs, and tables,
and will answer questions related to the data.
Project Timeline:
Data collection weeks
February 6-10
March 12-15
April 23-27
Project objectives:
Students will use a digital camera to photograph a selected tree
during each of the
data collection weeks and will keep a tree journal to record
seasonal changes theynotice in that tree.
Daily, a student will read the temperature from a thermometer
and add it to an
Excel spreadsheet, which we will use as a class to create a line
graph of seasonal
temperature change.
Monthly, students will draw a picture and write a description of
themselves wearing
weather-appropriate clothing and doing weather-appropriate
activities to
document human responses to seasonal changes.
After analyzing our data and comparing it to data from other
schools via theSeasonal Changes Through Our Eyes and Yours project
page, students will identify
that seasons are not the same everywhere, but in Virginia, the
change from Winter
to Spring occurs between February and April and is marked by
warming
temperatures and budding plants.
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Project Implementation:
1. Register
Register for Seasonal Changes Through Our Eyes and Yours by
emailing the project
coordinator, Linda Brandon [email protected].
2. Introduce the project
Ask the students what season it is now. Ask the students what
season is coming
next. Ask the students to describe what they know about Winter
and Spring.
Document their ideas on the board. Ask what changes they might
expect to see over
the next several weeks in plant life and temperature. Ask
children how people
might dress or act differently in response to those changes.
Have the students
brainstorm ways that they could measure seasonal changes.
Explain that they will
be participating in a very exciting project along with schools
across the world.
Show the students the project webpage at
http://lakelandschools.us/do/lbrandon/Seasons/home.htm. Explain
that they will
be observing and recording changes in trees, changes in
temperature, and changesin clothing over the next two months.
Further explain that we will be sharing and
comparing the data we collect with schools across the world so
that we can see what
seasons are like in other places too.
3. Temperature Collection
Temperature collection will be ongoing throughout the project.
One student each
day will be designated as the Weather Helper. Each morning, the
Weather Helper
will read the temperature from a thermometer outside the
classroom and the
teacher will help the student add this temperature to a database
in Excel.
At the end of each of the data collection weeks, upload the
temperatures for thatweek to the project page. Have the students
compare the temperatures they
recorded that week to the temperatures recorded by other classes
on the project
webpage.
At the end of the final data collection period, the teacher will
create a line graph
from this data. The class will analyze the graph together. Ask
students what they
notice about the line. Ask the students to explain why the line
changes the way it
does.
4. Tree Journal
Divide students into groups of three. During recess, have each
group select a tree tostudy in the schoolyard. Explain that
students will be visiting this tree once each
month to see how the tree they selected changes from winter to
Fall. Explain the
students will have different tree jobs. They will take turns
leaf observer, ground
observer, and animal observer. Students will also rotate to have
the additional job
of tree photographer.
mailto:[email protected]:[email protected]:[email protected]://lakelandschools.us/do/lbrandon/Seasons/home.htmhttp://lakelandschools.us/do/lbrandon/Seasons/home.htmhttp://lakelandschools.us/do/lbrandon/Seasons/home.htmmailto:[email protected]
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On Monday of the data collection weeks, the groups will visit
their trees. Each
student will have a sheet of paper and a pencil. The tree
photographer will take a
picture of the tree using the digital camera. The leaf collector
will do a leaf rubbing
and write a sentence about the changes they notice in the
leaves. The ground
observer will examine the ground around their tree, drawing a
picture and writing
sentence about what they observe. The animal observer will look
for signs ofanimals around their tree, drawing a picture and
writing a sentence to record what
they observe. Each observation page and a print out of the
digital photograph will
be compiled into a group tree journal entry. At the end of each
data collection
period, the teacher will upload the digital photo and tree
observations to the project
webpage and students will compare their trees to the trees
observed by other
classes. At the end of the project, students will compile their
tree journal entries
into group books entitled Our Tree these books will be placed in
the classroom
library.
4. Me Throughout the Seasons
On Wednesday of each data collection week, the students will
draw a picture ofthemselves wearing weather-appropriate clothing
and write 2-3 sentences about an
activity they like to do in the current weather conditions.
At the end of the last data collection period, the students will
compile their drawings
into a class book entitled Me Throughout the Seasons, which will
be placed in the
classroom library. The students will discuss how their clothing
and activity choices
changed to fit the weather.
5. Project Closure
During the last week of the project, direct students to use
their time at the computer
station that picking one participating class from the project
page and investigatinghow that class data was different from our
own.
At the end of the week, ask students how each of the components
our class studied
changed over time. Document their responses on the board. Ask
them if the other
classes they examined observed these same changes. Prompt them
to explain why
or why not. Ask them what our observations taught us about how
weather, plants,
animals, and people change from Winter to Spring. Prompt them to
identify that
seasons are not the same everywhere, but here, the transition
from Winter to Spring
is marked by warmer temperatures and budding plants. People and
other animals
respond to these changes by shedding coats and being more active
outside their
homes.
