My Very Own Thermometer!

Lesson Plan - Get It!

Audio:

Take a step outside!

• What is it like out there? Is it sunny, rainy, warm, or cold?

Maybe it is a very cold, or maybe it is very hot! Speaking of hot and cold weather, there are many different places in the world that can be either really hot or really cold. When you explain how hot or how cold something is, you are explaining its temperature. If you were to go to Brazil (a country in South America), you would see that the weather is very hot and that it has a high temperature. However, if you were to go to Antarctica, you would see that the weather is very cold and that is has a low temperature.

• What is it like where you live? Is the temperature very hot, cold, or somewhere in-between?

Speaking of temperature, you have probably heard someone on the news channel say, “It is currently 72 degrees and will be sunny outside this afternoon.” The person making this announcement is a scientist who studies the weather and informs people about what the weather will be like.

• Do you know what this scientist is called?

If you said that he or she is a meteorologist, you are correct!

• You may hear a meteorologist giving their hourly weather report as they do every single day, but have you thought about how they know it is 72 degrees outside?
• How is air temperature measured?

As you may have already guessed, meteorologists use thermometers in order to tell what the temperature is outside. You can be a meteorologist too, and use a thermometer to tell what the temperature is everywhere you are! Check in with Flo to see what is in store for you today!

• Did you know you could make your very own thermometer?
• What do you think Flo noticed when her thermometer was placed in the hot water and then the cold water?

Thermometers serve a great purpose in many ways for many people, every single day. They are useful tools that meteorologists use to help them study the weather and weather patterns of a location.

• Before you go any farther in this lesson, can you think of other careers that use thermometers on a daily basis?

Keep reading to find out by going to the Got It? section.