Background

Common weather phenomena include wind, cloud, rain, snow, fog and dust storms. Almost all weather phenomena occur in the troposphere (the lower part of the atmosphere). Weather occurs primarily due to air pressure, temperature and moisture differences between one place and another.

Weather affects all living things, including humans, on a daily basis. Humans have the advantage of being able to control the climate inside buildings, or cloth themselves appropriately for going outdoors, and can also measure the weather and predict it into the near future so that weather surprises are minimised.

The Wadawurrung are the indigenous inhabitants to the west of Melbourne, including Bacchus Marsh, where Ecolinc is situated. For tens of thousands of years prior to European settlement, they lived on the land as hunters and gatherers. Seasonal changes in the weather, availability of foods and other factors would determine where campsites were located. Their seasons reflect this connection to the land, and differ from the four seasons of the Europeans.

Key Learning Question

How does weather affect our daily lives?

Learning Intentions

In this progam students will:

• Investigate wet-weather phenomena including clouds, lightning and rainbows
• Learn about temperature, how to read a thermometer, and how the temperature affects what we do and how we dress
• Learn about the seasons of the indigenous people of Southern Victoria.

Activities

Students will:

• Undertake some simple experiments to help understand wet-weather phenomena, including clouds, lightning and rainbows
• Test thermometers to understand how a thermometer works
• Through story-telling, learn how the Wadawurrung people used the seasons to understand the land and how live as hunters and gathers

Note:

• Maximum number of students for this program is 75 per day.

Victorian Curriculum

Science – Earth and space sciences

• Observable changes occur in the sky and landscape; daily and seasonal changes affect everyday life (VCSSU046)

Geography – Places and our connections to them

• Weather and seasons and the ways in which different cultural groups, including Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples, describe them (VCGGK067)

Mathematics – Using units of measurement

• Level F: Use direct and indirect comparisons to decide which is longer, heavier or holds more, and explain reasoning in everyday language (VCMMG078)
• Level 1: Measure and compare the lengths, masses and capacities of pairs of objects using uniform informal units (VCMMG095)
• Level 2: Name and order months and seasons (VCMMG118)

Learning Continuum

The following Learning Continuum is a guide for teachers to show the links between the programs. Ecolinc offers onsite, online and through outreach. The Learning Continuum can be used to access Ecolinc resources to support the development of units of work.

Outreach programs are conducted by an Ecolinc education officer at your school. They are available to moderately disadvantaged primary schools in the Geelong, Ballarat and western suburbs areas (or within 100km radius from Bacchus Marsh)