Teachers' Page
Curriculum links and lesson ideas
Raincatch is relevant to the National Curriculum* in the following areas and is designed with Key Stage 2 in mind. You will find the subjects below together with links to the relevant "schemes of Work" pages of the DfES Standards site, which provide teaching ideas and plans.
Geography
Pupils learn where water comes from and how rain is formed. The water cycle can be taught and related to the curriculum. There are many areas that can be taught using RainCatch. These include rivers, how rain is formed, rain shadows etc.
BBC
Lessons for children
Teaching
ideas and plans for Geography
What
will the weather be like today or tomorrow? How does weather vary
around the world?
How
does the weather compare in each of these places?
Linking
weather reports: What's in the news
Science
Raincatch links to many areas in science. Rain must be measured, for the project. Evaporation and condensation can be taught.
Teach how matter changes state and water
evaporates and falls as rain
Unit
5D: Changing state
Teach how weight is affected in air and
water
Unit
6E: Forces in action
ICT
Raincatch is ideal for teaching ICT. The project introduces concepts such as databases and spreadsheets by actually using them. Children will be able to download their observations from our database in spreadsheet form, investigage different ways of searching for data and enter information into a database.Search RainCatch
observations by using the database
Unit
2C: Finding information
Explore and teach the use of databases. Raincatch uses
a relational database
(
links to curriculum)
Use spreadsheets such as the RainCatch
spreadsheet. Children's observations can be downloaded in an Excel
spreadsheet on the observations pages.
Unit
5D: Introduction to spreadsheets
Use the internet to explore databases
and collect and interpret information
Unit
3C: Introduction to databases
Compare ways of measuring and recording
environmental data
Unit
5F: Monitoring environmental conditions and changes
Mathematics
The RainCatch Project has many links to the teaching of mathematics, including calculating volume, depth, weight from other measurements. Children are asked to enter various measurements and can be taught how to calculate volume, depth, area and weight.
Children learn to calculate various measurements
Calculations Page
Excellent
Site with lessons and games
Foreign Languages
Children learn to describe the weather
in another language
Lesson
Ideas
Music
* (England and Wales only. For Scotland see here and for Northern Ireland see here)
