Oh God! I've really done it now - the head of my daughters' primary
school wants me to go and talk to year 6 children about their weather
project - on the strength of my interest in the subject and that
parents keep asking about my weather station that recently went live
on the net. I've a few props - such as thermometers, rain gauge, an
old Oregon AWS, an old Meteosat Met Office image and rainfall of
England and Wales Met Office map.

I haven't agreed yet and am unsure if I have the authority to talk
about the subject - though I think they are looking for an amateur to
try and portray what sparked his interest in the subject - and
hopefully get kids interested too. Anyone on here done something
similar - tips gratefully received.

On 13/12/2012 11:11, Scott W wrote:
Oh God! I've really done it now - the head of my daughters' primary
school wants me to go and talk to year 6 children about their weather
project - on the strength of my interest in the subject and that
parents keep asking about my weather station that recently went live
on the net. I've a few props - such as thermometers, rain gauge, an
old Oregon AWS, an old Meteosat Met Office image and rainfall of
England and Wales Met Office map.

I haven't agreed yet and am unsure if I have the authority to talk
about the subject - though I think they are looking for an amateur to
try and portray what sparked his interest in the subject - and
hopefully get kids interested too. Anyone on here done something
similar - tips gratefully received.

.... great to hear! Go for it. Don't go with too structured a plan: just
talk about your interest - the 'props' will help - youngsters like snow
(ask questions - what is snow, where does it come from etc.), rainbows
.... plenty to talk about there ... high wind (they go nuts in the
playground when it's a windy day - discuss why high winds sometimes and
not others) ... red sky etc., always good for a question and answer
session early on (get some dialogue going or it can quickly go flat) ...
prepare for the inevitable questions such as ... "my Dad says global
warming is rubbish": you may agree or disagree but at least it gives you
a lead in to talk about why the earth is naturally warmer than it would
be without all those gases floating about ... so what are the gases?
Water vapour .... gets forgotten ... basis of clouds, rain, fog, etc.

Year 6 (what's that? 10-ish?) can be on the edge of being tricky as
they've been around a bit and can be cynical but play the nutty weather
fanatic and you'll not go wrong :-) If you don't know, say so: 'cos many
things that kids ask about we don't know either!

Martin.


--
West Moors / East Dorset
Lat: 50deg 49.25'N, Long: 01deg 53.05'W
Height (amsl): 17 m (56 feet)
COL category: C1 overall

Scott W wrote:

Oh God! I've really done it now - the head of my daughters' primary
school wants me to go and talk to year 6 children about their weather
project - on the strength of my interest in the subject and that
parents keep asking about my weather station that recently went live
on the net. I've a few props - such as thermometers, rain gauge, an
old Oregon AWS, an old Meteosat Met Office image and rainfall of
England and Wales Met Office map.

I haven't agreed yet and am unsure if I have the authority to talk
about the subject - though I think they are looking for an amateur to
try and portray what sparked his interest in the subject - and
hopefully get kids interested too. Anyone on here done something
similar - tips gratefully received.

I did the same thing many moons ago. Much more traumatic than presenting a
paper at a professional conference. One thing I learned is that the kids live
in a very black and white world so be careful what you say. I was trying to
emphasise a point and said something like

"Look at the weather we have today ..............."

and immediately half of them got up and went to the windows to look out!

--
Norman Lynagh
Tideswell, Derbyshire
303m a.s.l.

On Dec 13, 11:11*am, Scott W wrote:
Oh God! I've really done it now - the head of my daughters' primary
school wants me to go and talk to year 6 children about their weather
project - on the strength of my interest in the subject and that
parents keep asking about my weather station that recently went live
on the net. I've a few props - such as thermometers, rain gauge, an
old Oregon AWS, an old Meteosat Met Office image and rainfall of
England and Wales Met Office map.

I haven't agreed yet and am unsure if I have the authority to talk
about the subject - though I think they are looking for an amateur to
try and portray what sparked his interest in the subject - and
hopefully get kids interested too. Anyone on here done something
similar - tips gratefully received.

They love to look at instruments.
Start with the raingauge and get them to guess what it is and why it
is shaped as it is.
Get a dialogue going early.

I showed a group of 7 yr olds a used radiosonde once and explained how
it measured temperature as it went up.
One bright spark piped up 'Is that in the troposphere?' Not bad for a
7 yr old.

The metlink site may be useful.
http://www.metlink.org/

Len
Wembury

"Scott W" wrote in message
...

Oh God! I've really done it now - the head of my daughters' primary
school wants me to go and talk to year 6 children about their weather
project - on the strength of my interest in the subject and that
parents keep asking about my weather station that recently went live
on the net. I've a few props - such as thermometers, rain gauge, an
old Oregon AWS, an old Meteosat Met Office image and rainfall of
England and Wales Met Office map.

I haven't agreed yet and am unsure if I have the authority to talk
about the subject - though I think they are looking for an amateur to
try and portray what sparked his interest in the subject - and
hopefully get kids interested too. Anyone on here done something
similar - tips gratefully received.

Hi, Scott,
As a retired primary school head teacher I am probably not the best one to
advise. It takes a long time to learn all the tricks of the trade! Some
people are natural primary school teachers, others have to work at it, some
haven't a clue. It's not about qualifications, it's about understanding
children and being in charge.
At that age, give them practical things to do and don't talk for too long -
they only take in about 10 minutes information / hour if you're lucky.
If you think weather forecasting is difficult ......
I expect the class teacher will stay in the room, if so has he/she got good
discipline? If so, it's a doddle, if not they will have you both for
breakfast!
Don't smile too much until you've got them eating out of your hand, then
it's easy!
HTH
Ken

On Thu, 13 Dec 2012 03:11:16 -0800 (PST), Scott W
wrote:


I haven't agreed yet and am unsure if I have the authority to talk
about the subject - though I think they are looking for an amateur to
try and portray what sparked his interest in the subject - and
hopefully get kids interested too. Anyone on here done something
similar - tips gratefully received.

I'm in the trade as it were. To promote some education after your
visit stick to some basics:

how they can measure wind speed by observations ( the old Beaufort
that refers to chimney smoke, umbrellas etc) (pictures are easy)

And have a scale of temperature with appropriate arrows showing
hottest temp ever recorded in UK, lowest, average for their area for
December (or winter) and ditto for summer. Basic terms like cool,
mild, hot

how they can measure rainfall.

perhaps three common cloud types

See what the school has in equipment

ask whether your talk will lead to a daily chart etc

Plenty of variation within time constraint.

Allow time for pupils to see and handle props.

Always tempting to pack more in than you need.

Hope that helps

R

Hilton

On 13/12/2012 12:38, Ken Cook wrote:
"Scott W" wrote in message
...

Oh God! I've really done it now - the head of my daughters' primary
school wants me to go and talk to year 6 children about their weather
project - on the strength of my interest in the subject and that
parents keep asking about my weather station that recently went live
on the net. I've a few props - such as thermometers, rain gauge, an
old Oregon AWS, an old Meteosat Met Office image and rainfall of
England and Wales Met Office map.

I haven't agreed yet and am unsure if I have the authority to talk
about the subject - though I think they are looking for an amateur to
try and portray what sparked his interest in the subject - and
hopefully get kids interested too. Anyone on here done something
similar - tips gratefully received.

Hi, Scott,
As a retired primary school head teacher I am probably not the best one
to advise. It takes a long time to learn all the tricks of the trade!
Some people are natural primary school teachers, others have to work at
it, some haven't a clue. It's not about qualifications, it's about
understanding children and being in charge.
At that age, give them practical things to do and don't talk for too
long - they only take in about 10 minutes information / hour if you're
lucky.
If you think weather forecasting is difficult ......
I expect the class teacher will stay in the room, if so has he/she got
good discipline? If so, it's a doddle, if not they will have you both
for breakfast!
Don't smile too much until you've got them eating out of your hand, then
it's easy!
HTH
Ken

Alternatively, the ubiquitous 'Clip around the ear' for insolence. LOL

On Thursday, December 13, 2012 6:11:50 PM UTC, Robin Nicholson wrote:
On Thu, 13 Dec 2012 03:11:16 -0800 (PST), Scott W

wrote:





I haven't agreed yet and am unsure if I have the authority to talk

about the subject - though I think they are looking for an amateur to

try and portray what sparked his interest in the subject - and

hopefully get kids interested too. Anyone on here done something

similar - tips gratefully received.



I'm in the trade as it were. To promote some education after your

visit stick to some basics:



how they can measure wind speed by observations ( the old Beaufort

that refers to chimney smoke, umbrellas etc) (pictures are easy)



And have a scale of temperature with appropriate arrows showing

hottest temp ever recorded in UK, lowest, average for their area for

December (or winter) and ditto for summer. Basic terms like cool,

mild, hot



how they can measure rainfall.



perhaps three common cloud types



See what the school has in equipment



ask whether your talk will lead to a daily chart etc



Plenty of variation within time constraint.



Allow time for pupils to see and handle props.



Always tempting to pack more in than you need.



Hope that helps



R



Hilton

Don't teach a great deal. Let the children talk with each other, discuss what you've said and learn. Keep your introduction short and get them working in groups early and often.

Year 6 pupils are complex, eager and sophisticated learners already. They have experienced thousands of lessons and they know what they don't like. They will be polite, as they invariably are to guests, but watch for the ones looking down at their desks, not at you and fiddling with their pens. They are the ones telling you that you've gone on for too long. The last thing they want is someone coming in, standing in front of them and telling then about stuff they don't really want to know about for an hour............unless it is Justin Beiber, or New Direction - and I'm afraid you are neither. *))

PS Good luck I hope it goes well and well done to the head for recognising an opportunity to extend the learning of the older ones and to you for having the guts to say "yes".

In article ,
Joe Egginton writes:
Alternatively, the ubiquitous 'Clip around the ear' for insolence.
LOL

I note your LOL, but to be serious it might have been ubiquitous once,
but I suspect that anyone trying it nowadays would find themselves in
court.
--
John Hall

"Whenever people agree with me I always feel I must be wrong."
Oscar Wilde

On Dec 13, 12:38*pm, "Ken Cook" wrote:
"Scott W" *wrote in message

...

Oh God! I've really done it now - the head of my daughters' primary
school wants me to go and talk to year 6 children about their weather
project - on the strength of my interest in the subject and that
parents keep asking about my weather station that recently went live
on the net. I've a few props - such as thermometers, rain gauge, an
old Oregon AWS, an old Meteosat Met Office image and rainfall of
England and Wales Met Office map.

I haven't agreed yet and am unsure if I have the authority to talk
about the subject - though I think they are looking for an amateur to
try and portray what sparked his interest in the subject - and
hopefully get kids interested too. Anyone on here done something
similar - tips gratefully received.



As a retired primary school head teacher I am probably not the best one to
advise. It takes a long time to learn all the tricks of the trade! Some
people are natural primary school teachers, others have to work at it, some
haven't a clue. It's not about qualifications, it's about understanding
children and being in charge.
At that age, give them practical things to do and don't talk for too long -
they only take in about 10 minutes information / hour if you're lucky.
If you think weather forecasting is difficult ......
I expect the class teacher will stay in the room, if so has he/she got good
discipline? If so, it's a doddle, if not they will have you both for
breakfast!
Don't smile too much until you've got them eating out of your hand, then

What age is age 6?

If they are ten years old, treat them as adults. If they are 6 years
old they can only take in stuff that is almost pure immediacy. Don't
be condescending to either. And like the man said, don't smile if you
don't mean it.

Stuff like paper darts and balloons with go down well with both but
for different reasons.

Can you heat a balloon up in a class to demonstrate gas pressure laws.
Older kids might be able to relate to kites, though I haven't seen a
child playing with one in decades.

You can't really take any of your weather kit in can you?
But you can demonstrate how perception of hot and cold varies with the
situation by inviting them to dip their hands in warm and cool water.
Or cool and cold water?

Then you just let them lead you, children are learning machines. One
of the first things they learn in school is how to switch off:

they only take in about 10 minutes information / hour if you're lucky.

That isn't true if they are interested.
What interests you about the weather?
What got you started or interested?
That is what may also interest some of them if you can remember that
far back.

Now I am off to see if I can make an hot air balloon out of a condom.