NASA - National Aeronautics and Space Administration

Meteorology: An Educator's Resource for Inquiry-Based Learning for Grades 5-9 is written as a supplement to existing Earth and space science curricula for grades 5-9. The guide may be used in both formal and informal educational settings as well as at home. It should be used in conjunction with lectures, discussions, textbooks and other teaching material. This guide is not intended to be a complete course in meteorology; rather, its function is to assist educators in instilling excitement in learning about meteorology by permitting the learner to take increasing responsibility for his/her learning. The learner should experience "how we arrive at what we know," rather than memorizing what we know. This publication was developed to enhance the understanding of inquiry-based learning from the educator/teacher’s perspective as well as from the learner’s perspective. Inquiry-based learning has many levels. In general, inexperienced learners and younger learners will require more guidance than more-experienced and older learners who are better equipped to take responsibility for their learning. There are four levels of inquiry defined in this publication, confirmation-verification, structured inquiry, guided inquiry and open inquiry. The levels will be further defined and explained in the introductory chapter.

Image to right: The cover of the guide is shown here. Click on the image to view or download the guide in a 508 compliant format. Credit: NASA

You can also download individual chapters of the guide (click on the pdf link for each chapter you want to download):

• Introduction and Chapter 1, +pdf
• Chapter 2: Weather and Climate, +pdf
• Chapter 3: Surface Color and Effect of Temperature Change, +pdf
• Chapter 4: Angle of Light Rays and Surface Distribution, +pdf
• Chapter 5: Barometer Basics, +pdf
• Chapter 6: Constructing a Barometer, pdf
• Chapter 7: Does Air Have Weight?, +pdf
• Chapter 8: Can You Show That the Temperature of Air Has an Effect on Its Weight and Its Direction of Vertical Movement?, +pdf
• Chapter 9: Are Cold Liquids More Dense Than Warm Liquids?, +pdf
• Chapter 10: Does Air Contain Water Vapor?, +pdf
• Chapter 11: A Sling Psychrometer and Relative Humidity, +pdf
• Chapter 12: How Clouds Form —Understanding the Basic Principles of Precipitation, +pdf
• Chapter 13: Tornado in a Box, +pdf
• Chapter 14: Design Challenge: What Factors Determine the Comfort Level of Air?, +pdf
• Chapter 15: Bringing More Meaning to Weather Predicting: the Weather Station and “Reading” the Sky Help Put It All Together, +pdf
• Chapter 16: Predicting Weather by Connecting the Basic Cloud Types With Information Collected from the Weather Station, +pdf
• Appendices, +pdf
• About the Authors , +pdf

NASA Langley Research Center