MetLink Activity 5

Getting an overall picture of what is happening

It is suggested this activity could be used or adapted for use by pupils in the 7 to 11 age range (National Curriculum for England and Wales Key Stage 2).

The aims of this activity are:

+ to develop an awareness of where places are in the world.
+ to use IT skills in finding information.
+ to use graphical skills in presenting information, including making use of standard weather mapping symbols.
+ to describe weather conditions and they vary in different locations.
+ to work together and co-operate in teams.

The Activity:

You need the following:
Outline maps of different parts of the world: Europe, Africa and Arabia, North and South America, Australia, South-East Asia.

1. Atlas. If you have access to Microsoft Encarta that would be good. Or you can use an atlas book.
You can work in pairs or small teams to share this work

For the part of the world on which your team is working:

1. Go to the MetLink observations database for today via the MetLink Home page
+ Click on Data central
+ Click on Search observations
+ Make sure the dates are set for today
+ Click on Search now

This will lead you to all of the observations for today made by MetLink participants around the world.

2. Decide which elements of the weather you will investigate, such as maximum and minimum temperatures, rainfall, wind direction & force, cloud amount and types etc.

3. Find the locations of the MetLink participants for the part of the world on which you are working using the MetLink observations list. A list of what the country codes mean can be found by clicking on the drop-down menu labelled Country at the top of the observations page. Mark the positions of the participants on your outline map and write in their names.

4. Mark the observations on the map for the elements you have decided to show. You should agree as a class on how you will do this. For example you might decide to show maximum temperature in a red circle and minimum temperature in a blue circle. You could make use of the standard key used by the Meteorological Office. Please click here for the key.

5. You could look at the webcam images on MetLink. Click on each of these direct links to webcam pictures:
Middlesbrough in England
Barcelona in Spain
Berlin in Germany
Bornholm in Denmark (southern Baltic Sea)
Genoa in Italy
Ibiza, part of Spain
Rijeka in Croatia
Stintino in Sardinia
Utsjoki in Finland
Zakynthos in Greece
Marsala in Sicily, Italy
Jerewan in Armenia
Cairo in Egypt
Sagres in Portugal
Foxtrap in Newfoundland, Canada
Cape Town in South Africa
These are all images captured at a particular time, which you can note down.
Print, cut out, and paste the images in the correct places for any locations in your chosen part of the world.

6. When your map is complete, discuss as a group what it shows you about the weather as observed by the MetLink participants in your chosen part of the world. Appoint one person in your group to note down your main ideas. Each group can then report back to the whole class in turn. The whole class can then discuss and come to conclusions on what the weather around the world today is like, as observed by MetLink participants.