Activity 1

Designate 4 classrooms in the school building, one facing south, one facing east, and one facing west, and one facing north. Place a thermometer in the window in each room on the same surface and compare and contrast the results.
Change the surfaces under the thermometers from no paper, to black paper, to white paper,  to aluminum foil and recheck the results. Which surface absorbs the most heat and why?

Activity 2

Using 4 paper cups,  fill one with water, one with milk, one with jelled Jell-O and leave one empty. Place a thermometer in each one and measure the temperature. Wait 10 minutes  and repeat the experiment.  Which cup has a higher temperature? Ask the students to determine why, by looking at the materials used.

Activity 3
 

Using the weather section of the newspaper:  (a.) have students learn the vocabulary used (b.) find the average temperatures for all the states in the midwest for one week.  Compare and contrast one other region. What factors contribute to the differences?

Activity 4
After students understand angles in math study how the angle of the sun relates to weather phenomenon.

Activity 5

Using a meter stick at a 90 degree angle, make a shadow chalk drawing once a month (on the same day, time and position on the playground) for the school year to determine the position of the sun during the seasons. Have the students measure the direction and length of the shadows  on the days recorded. Make several graphs of the information and discuss learned material. How does the sun's angle affect the shadow?

Activity 6

Identify and study  reoccurring weather phenomenon in Chicago as an individual research project. Compare and contrast Kansas' tornadoes, Florida's hurricanes and California's drought.

Activity 7

Study weather vocabulary words  (a.)write what a meteorologist would say on a news broadcast about one day's weather
(b.) several students would be asked to orally present a weather broadcast to the class.

Activity 8

Go on the school playground on a warm day and repeat activity 1 using different surfaces and different colors to see which surface  absorbs the most heat.