Mississippi Science E.4.9B.3
The Standard
- E.4.9B
- Students will demonstrate an understanding of weather and climate patterns.
Design weather instruments utilized to measure weather conditions (e.g., barometer, hygrometer, rain gauge, anemometer, or wind vane). Use an engineering design process to define the problem, design, construct, evaluate, and improve the weather instrument. *
2026 Mississippi College- and Career-Readiness Standards for Science · Earth’s Systems and Cycles
Teacher's field guide
What This Standard Means
What Students Need to Do
- Students choose a weather condition to measure and plan an instrument for it. They build it, check its readings, and change a part that is not working well.
What Mastery Looks Like
- A student can explain what their instrument measures and how to read it. They can use a test result to find a problem, make a change, and test it again.
Common Misconceptions
- Students may think a wind vane measures wind speed rather than direction. They may put evenly spaced rainfall marks on a tapered bottle, where the marks will give inaccurate readings.
How to Assess It
- Show students an unmarked, tapered cup labeled as a rain gauge. Ask them to draw two changes that would make it usable and write how they would check its reading.
Lesson moves
Ways to Teach It
Give pairs straight-sided clear cups, rulers, and markers to build rain gauges, then pour in water and revise marks that disagree with a ruler.
Ask students to write why a wind vane cannot measure wind speed and which instrument they would build instead.
Play a matching game with cards showing weather conditions and pictures of rain gauges, wind vanes, anemometers, hygrometers, and barometers.
Place a class rain gauge near the school garden, record the next day's rainfall, and discuss whether the plants need watering.
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