Geogra3: Three lessons about the weather

In this week’s Geogra3 I thought I would share three video clips that can be used in geography lessons, specifically based on the weather. 

• Wild Weather with Richard Hammond - WIND

I often find that students struggle to get to grips with the idea of wind and the movement of air from areas of high pressure to areas of low pressure.  But Hammond provides some engaging ways to illustrate this and references the extreme types of weather that can occur.  He looks in-depth at the formation of firewhirls in wildfires and also considers the difficulties involved in measuring the wind speed of a tornado below 50m.  

2. When weather changed history - Hurricane Katrina

This video compares the contrasting experiences of Louisiana and Mississippi.  It considers the level of preparation, the impact and the responses to the event as well as the vital lessons to be learnt from the disaster.  The programme is an ideal way to either introduce the case study or as a way to recap.

3. Inside the Met Office, episode 1

This programme gains access to the Met Office in the UK and provides insight into the vital role it plays in people’s lives and also for businesses.  It shows how companies like EasyJet are prepared to pay extra to ensure they have accurate weather forecasting direct to their pilots, and also shows how supermarkets use forecasts to plan their logistics.  It’s a really useful way to start an exploration of careers linked to Geography, particularly if your school is hot on ensuring it links to the Gatsby benchmarks.

If you would like to utilise these video clips in your lessons but are limited on the time needed to prepare resources around them, you might want to have a look at the Geography Teacher Box vault.  Lesson presentations and worksheets with answers have just been added for each of these videos, so have a quick watch of the preview below to get an idea of what there is:

And that's it for this week!

PS - I love nothing more than supporting Geography teachers as we are a pretty awesome bunch.  

So here are five ways that I might be able to help you….

• The FREE resource booklet - 17 Q and A worksheets linked to documentaries
• The GTB Vault - Classroom-ready powerpoints and worksheets so you never need to feel guilty about showing a video in class again! New pick up and go lesson resources added every month and now with an option to pay in both US dollars and GB pounds!
• The Geography Teacher Box bookstore - boost your subject knowledge while supporting local independent bookshops
• Tote-ally Geography - A newly created store with tote bags designed specifically for geography teachers.
• Connect with other like-minded Geography teachers and share resources (suitable for teachers of students aged 11-18) - The GTB Facebook Group