EYFS units: The Meteorologist
Resources and activities themed around a STEM job, to build language and understanding around the world of work.
Overview
Meteorologists use special equipment and make forecasts of what the weather is going to be like. Meteorologist are:
Curious. Meteorologists want to know what the weather will be like in the future.
Observant. Meteorologists look at what the weather is like today.
Collaborative. Meteorologists work together with other people to get their job done.
Early Learning Goals links
Mathematics ELG: Numerical Patterns – Compare quantities up to 10 in different contexts, recognising when one quantity is greater than, less than or the same as the other quantity;
Understanding the World ELG: Past and Present – Talk about the lives of the people around them and their roles in society;
Understanding the World ELG: People, Culture and Communities – Describe their immediate environment using knowledge from observation, discussion, stories, non-fiction texts and maps;
Understanding the World ELG: The Natural World – Understand some important processes and changes in the natural world around them, including the seasons and changing states of matter.
Expressive Arts and Design ELG: Creating with Materials
– Safely use and explore a variety of materials, tools and techniques, experimenting with colour, design, texture, form and function;
– Share their creations, explaining the process they have used;
– Make use of props and materials when role playing characters in narratives and stories.
The Book
We have designed these STEM focused questions to use alongside the questioning you would usually use when reading a story. These questions are particularly suitable for Nursery aged children.
Activities
These adult led activities and provocations will support the introduction of the meteorologist career to the children in your setting.
STEM at home activities
We have included these links to our related STEM at home activities. These could be sent out for families to try at home, or run in school at a family session.
Visit our make a wind sock STEM at home page here.Resources
You can download our meteorologist poster to use in your setting.
Meteorologists need to know what the weather is doing now, calculate how this will change in the future and use their expert knowledge to refine the details.
They observe and record the weather 24 hours a day across the globe and combine this with satellite pictures to see how the Earth’s atmosphere is behaving: in terms of temperature, precipitation, air pressure and cloud cover.
Meteorologists use thermometers to measure temperature, barometers to measure air pressure and anemometers for measuring wind speed. They use weather balloons to measure temperature, air pressure, wind speed and wind direction in the troposphere, the lowest layer Earth’s atmosphere and where almost all weather conditions take place.
Meteorologists feed the weather data collected into a supercomputer that performs complex equations to create models that predict the future weather. They check their models to make sure their forecasts are going to plan and adjust them where necessary.
Did you know that some weather presenters on television and radio are meteorologists?
