Weather and Agriculture A  WebQuest for 4th Grade

Introduction

Weather affects our lives everyday.  If the temperature outside is low, you dress in warm clothes so you don't get too cold.  And when the temperature outside is really hot, you dress appropriately to try to remain cooler. When you listen to the weather report to find out how to dress for the weather that day, do you ever think about how weather is affecting your food or the clothes you will buy? It is true, weather is important to agriculture--where and how your food is grown and the natural products grown that are used to make the clothes you buy. Do you always hope that the weather will be sunny and warm?  If you were a farmer, you might want the weather to be different.  Sometimes, they too like the weather to be sunny and warm.  However, sometimes, they hope for a rainy day.

Task

Since weather is so important in the production of food and clothing, it is your task to learn how the weather affects your food supply and convince your classmates how important weather is to their food supply. Without this valuable knowledge, you might one day go to the grocery store to buy food and find them empty.  Many people could go hungry or starve like they do in some African countries today.

Process

Step 1:  You are a weather forecaster on the local radio station.  Write the weather report for today telling about temperature and precipitation.  The title of your report should be the month and name of your state.  For example, "February in Kansas."  Include in your weather report some comments to local farmers about crops and or animals.  Your comments should indicate your understanding of the production of some of these crops: corn, soybeans, peanuts  or animals such as dairy cows or sheep. Or perhaps you would like to select another farm animal or crop.

Step 2:  Refer to a  weather glossary.  Work in groups of three.  Prepare a PowerPoint presentation that demonstrates ten different weather terms that you have selected from the glossary.  Then present information on the effect of that kind of weather on agricultural crops or animals.  For example illustrate the effect of drought on a corn crop or the effect of a blizzard on cattle.

Step 3:  Check the crop weather report for your state. Click on this site and then click on your state to read about the weather and its effects on crops.

Step 4: Prepare a graphic organizer (table) that lists the different kinds of clouds.  Include the name of each, a photo of each, what kind of weather each is associated and how you would expect each type to effect  crops or livestock.

Conclusion

You now understand weather and its effects on agriculture. You realize, therefore that weather effects whether we have enough food.

Evaluation

Grading Rubric

Teacher Page

Credits 

This WebQuest was created by teachers participating in Missouri's Agriculture in the Classroom program at Missouri State University through a USDA grant.  The template on this site was adapted from a template from The WebQuest Page and the original was designed by Dr. Lyndon Irwin.  Assistance for this project was provided by Mrs. Barbara Irwin, M.S. and Mrs. Diane Olson, M.S.

Teachers are encouraged to adapt this lesson for classroom use only.  No part of this publication may be transmitted, stored, recorded or published in any form without written permission from Missouri Farm Bureau.

This page was developed by Lyndon Irwin, reviewed by Lyndon and Barbara Irwin and is maintained by Missouri Farm Bureau.

Please address questions to Diane Olson at Missouri Farm Bureau or Dr. Lyndon Irwin at Missouri State University. 

©2005 Missouri Farm Bureau, All Rights Reserved!

Last revised on June 10, 2006