WWW Site Analysis

Site's Name: The Daily Planet

Site's URL: http://wx3.atmos.uiuc.edu/

Date of Analysis: January 25, 1998

Rating: A

reviewed by: Gooda Student

1. Description of the kind of person for whom this site would be useful
   K-16 teachers and students interested in weather information. Doesn't require a technical background
   
   
2. What do you know about the author?
   This server is brought to us by the Department of Atmospheric Sciences at the University of Illinois. No specific author's names are included.
   
   
3. Can you E-mail the author? site? yes
   
4. Has the site won awards? Which?
   
5. Does the site have advertisements? No
   
6. What is the date this site was last revised?
   April 23, 1998
7. How easy is it to find information at this site?
   This site is well organized. There is a table of contents which explains the resources available
   
8. Site description: what information and resources are available? What does the homepage look like? What links are available? .
   
   The following options are available at the main menu:
   • Weather and Climate Products - other weather sites on the Internet
   • The Weather Visualizer - customized weather maps
   • Online Guide to Meteorology - has a series of sub menus which lead to an assortment of hands-on, collaboratively based lesson plans. Topics include: Clouds and Optical Effects, Forces and Winds, Weather analysis and forecasting, Thunderstorms and Toradoes, Special Regional Weather, Weather in Middle Latitudes and Especially Elementary.
   • UIUC-CoVis Geosciences Web Server -resources and expertise to support project-based inquiry in geoscience education.

   
   
   I investigated the meterology products link and then the Especially Elementary sub menu. Lots of quality lesson plans are available.

   

   I checked the weather unit for grades 2-4. Lesson plans were available in science, social studies, drama, reading, writing, math, art, geography and classroom props. All focused upon weather themes. In science there were 14 lessons which included the topics of precipitation, condensation, night creatures, the water cycle and seasons to name a few. I examined the water cycle lesson to find that this had three prequisite lessons: evaporation, condensation, and precipitation. Objectives, materials, introductions, body, conclusion, evaluation and followup were available for every lesson plan. There were also links to the followup lessons, comments about the unit, information about the authors of the lesson plan and links to the weather unit home page. The water cycle lesson focused on students building terrariums and observing the condensation on the lids.

   ---

   
   A second unit available was WEATHER HERE AND THERE.
   It's an integrated weather unit which incorporates interaction with the Internet and hands-on collaborative problem solving activites for students in grades four through six. This unit is divided into six lessons. The lessons integrate math, science, geography, and language arts in the process of teaching and learning about weather phenomena. Students become involved in collaborative problem solving using e-mail as well as through joining projects offered via the Internet.

    

9. Indicate specific features of the site:
   
   The following were available at this site.
   • sound
   • downloads of sounds
   • animation
   • maps
   • clip art
   • lesson plans

   
   

10. Site Strengths Good organization, easy to locate information and excellent lesson plans. . Links to more information and a glossary of "weather" terms.
    
    
11. Site Weaknesses Through a link to resources on the subject page, one can find other Internet resources however when I clicked on weather information the server did not find the file. .
    
    
12. Additional CommentsThis is one to bookmark if you ever plan to teach weather. I particularly liked the way multidisciplinary approaches were used in learning about weather in the lesson plans