Weather Science Excel Computer Project: How Accurate is Your Local Weatherman?

Welcome to my Excel Project about weather. I always do a theme for the year in my computer classes and last year it was weather.

Our Excel project was creating spreadsheets to compare the predictions of 3 local TV station's weathermen to what actually happened according to The Weather Channel or weather.com. I assigned each grade to different TV station and they had to keep tract of the predictions and actual weather for a period of 2 weeks. We included what type of weather was predicted, Sunny, Cloudy, Rainy, etc., the high/low temperature, the wind speed and we used a website from the National Weather Service to calculate the Wind Chill based on the temperature and wind speed. At the end of the two weeks, we created charts and graphs to show the weather patterns for that period. We also used formulas to calculate the average high/low temperature, wind speed and wind chill during that time.

This has to be one of the most fun projects I have ever taught. The kids were very competitive to see if their assigned weatherman was the most accurate. Learning about the wind chill was a highlight as well. On another website also with the National Weather Service, we learned about heat index. We couldn't chart it since we were doing the project in January but some of my returning students the next year told me they charted index during the summer. Several parents commented to me that their kids were taling more about the weather and watching the local stations more. They could tell their parents what wind chill and heat index meant. Kids love it when they can teach their parents something don't they?

Included in this curriculum are very detailed lesson plans, no previous computer experience required, a sample of the project, spreadsheets to printout for the kids to track the weather at home, and a parent letter to send home with the spreadsheets to explain the project. Obviously, you will have to revise the letter to suit your own local TV stations. I have also included a letter to my fellow educators that purchase this curriculum explaining a little about it and my projects in general.

I hope you enjoy this unit. I think it is one of the best I've written so far. Thanks for considering it.