Science Curriculum Preview Committee Clarification of Learning Results

Curriculum Organizing Questions	What is weather? What are seasons? What is the weather like in spring, summer, autumn and winter?
Elaboration	Students can start to keep daily records of temperature (hot, cold, pleasant) and precipitation (none, some, lots), and plot them by week, month, and years. It is enough for students to spot the pattern of ups and downs, without getting deeply into the nature of climate. Benchmarks p. 67
Specific Ideas	Earth's weather changes from day to day and over the seasons. Changes in temperature cause different weather. Changes in weather occur in a predicatable pattern throughout the year.
Developmental & Instructional Implications	Young children are naturally interested in everything they see around them -- soil, rocks, streams, rain, snow, clouds, rainbows, sun, moon, and stars. During the first years of school, they should be encouraged to observe closely the objects and materials in their environment, note their properties, distinguish one from another and develop their own explanations of how things become the way they are. As children become more familiar with their world, they can be guided to observe changes, including cyclic changes, predictalbe trends, and less consistent changes, such as weather. NSES p. 130
Examples	Chart weather conditions and compare and contrast changes over time. Keep an observational journal of changes in a tree over the year.