ICT Unit 8: Public Information Systems
To be undertaken as part of the Weather and Climate topic in Year 8: Summer Term, 2nd Half. It will replace part of the content. Pupils must collate data from a variety of sources to develop a public information service about weather. This needs to meet the needs of a specific audience.
I propose that we teach 6-7 lessons of the original SoW, and towards the end of term, and therefore the year, there will then be a need to move on to the following scheme of work. The areas are not necessarily lessons. (See separate lesson grid which is again a guideline only…)
1: Introduction to Weather data collection
Video a selection of weather forecasts the day / week before
Photocopy newspaper forecasts
Printout from Internet sites which give real-time forecasts.
Ideally the latter 2 would be for the day when the lesson was taking place so that you could look at the prevailing conditions and assess how accurate the forecast was.
Methods used to show the information:
graphics, graphs, statistics in tables, text, weather symbols
Need to identify:
Discussion: why are the forecasts different ?
What expectations do the pupils have of a forecast: what information do they actually need ?
Could run through a checklist of some of the details provided by certain types of forecast e.g Shipping forecast and whether they would actually need to know it
Existing resource: Dept. has a Met Office pack to help pupils prepare forecasts: use of Video camera perhaps to tape their own forecasts, or to prepare one within a 30 second time limit for the end of radio news bulletin.
Use of digital camera which people could use to take a picture of the forecast sheet with symbols from the Met Office pack.
Could also do Power Point presentations of the forecast.
Prepare blank slides, or ones with UK maps and they need to add the captions.
Homework: Do a survey. Perhaps need a prepared questionnaire or use one from existing source
2. Primary/Secondary Data Sources (could form part of section 1)
Start with a summary of the answers on the homework task.
What are the most common elements of the forecast that people want information on: e.g temperature, wind, chance of rain (‘brollibilities’)
Where can weather data come from ? – Brainstorm
In pairs, could consider the types of data and look at what limitations they have ?
3. Specification
How is the weather information going to be presented ?
What is the target audience ? – sports teams / trips / holidays
Report to go in Year 8 registers ? Board in hall ? Text messaging service for a subscription ?
4. Intro to Weather Station
Pupils are shown the weather station, and a handout is produced to explain how it works. There are certain requirements to understand certain terms. (This has yet to be produced)
Also in the process of trying to download data already logged, which could also be given to use as a data plotting task on an outline graph.
5. Data Interpretation and Presentation
Student groups take it in turns to access the weather station and read off the current weather conditions.
Access Internet site and get forecasts from a range of sites.(Grid to record various forecasts will be produced by then..)
6. Produce the report
As a result of the previous sessions, this is where the pupils put together their plans for the reporting of weather conditions.
Having decided on the format, the report needs to be produced and then ‘delivered’ to the target audience.
7. Evaluation of the Work produced
Final stage in the process.
Produce a sheet which allows them to assess the success of the exercise. They could consider the limitations of their report.
AP
05/01