Weather and Climate Unit

Last week we finished up our weather and climate unit for science! The kids had so much fun during this unit, and they got to do so many fun investigations. We started the unit off learning about weather, and what makes weather. Each day we went outside and observed the weather, and kept track of the data all month long!

Then we spent some time talking about severe weather. We learned about all of the different kinds of severe weather, and then focused on things that can happen in Madison. We did research on tornadoes, and learned how to stay safe during these events. Students got to model how tornadoes are created! 

Then we moved on to investigating what warms the Earth. We went outside and felt different objects and surfaces to see which felt warm and which felt cool. This led us to find out that the things that are in the shade are cooler, and the things in the sun feel warmer. 

After discovering that the sun is what warms things up, we moved on to our big unit question: how can we prevent a chocolate bar from melting in the sun? First, we needed to figure out what makes things melt. We did an investigation where the kids had to get an ice cube to melt in less than 10 minutes after coming up with a plan. We discovered that heat is what makes melt! They loved getting to melt the ice cubes and see what worked. 

To wrap up the unit, we needed to figure out how we could protect a chocolate bar from melting when placed in the sun (since the sun warms things up, it will make the chocolate melt). We created models and plans, and then got to build structures to protect the chocolate bar. Then we got to test it out, and of course eat the chocolate when we were done! They had so much fun during this science unit, and got to do so many hands on activities!