Processing Information

The sixth graders have been working diligently on becoming experts on a specific extreme weather in science. Our unit includes a few outcomes: students will be able to conduct research on specific severe weather patterns and collect data to be shared with other students on these phenomena; as well as write about a severe weather action plan, and finally present their findings to the whole class.

For the past few weeks, students have been collecting as much information about their extreme weather as possible. Their findings have included: the development of the storm, the science behind the process of the storm, safety tips, destruction costs/effect on the economy, etc.

This past week, I realized students needed a day to pause from researching and process the information they were gathering. I had them sift through their pages of research and choose pertinent information about their extreme weather. From there, students created “traveling concept maps”. Each table had their own chart paper for the concept map, and for 2 minutes they wrote as many facts about their extreme weather as they could. After the 2 minutes were complete, the map would “travel” to the next table to gain new information from a different group of students. Then, they had another 2 minutes to add additional information about their extreme weather.

This activity allowed students to read other facts people have gathered and it also gave students the opportunity to read, process, and write the research they’ve been collecting over the past few weeks.