Fold and Forecast
Provided by: Columbia Climate School International Research Institute for Climate and Society|Published on: November 17, 2022|Last updated: September 26, 2026
Grades: 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12
Type: Lesson Plans
Subjects: Earth and Space Sciences, Mathematics
Authors: Columbia Climate School International Research Institute for Climate and Society
Location: Earth
This resource has been reviewed by SubjectToClimate's climate scientists and verified for scientific accuracy and up-to-date information. Learn about our review process →
This resource has been reviewed by SubjectToClimate's climate scientists and verified for scientific accuracy and up-to-date information. Learn about our review process →
Synopsis
- This hands-on lesson about weather forecasting and modeling uses a paper airplane demonstration to help students understand weather forecasting and probabilities.
- Students will build paper airplanes, perform a couple of experiments, and then apply that information to climate models, forecasting, specific weather events, the butterfly effect, and ENSO.
Teaching Materials
Positives
- This is a hands-on and engaging lesson that students will remember and enjoy.
- It gets students out of their seats to participate in a physical activity.
- Teachers can use this student-facing presentation to give students visual support during the lesson.
Additional Prerequisites
- Students should have prior knowledge about basic weather terms, such as precipitation, and be competent with fractions and percentages.
- There are additional teacher prep materials provided in the lesson, including a 12-minute video tutorial showing how to set up the paper airplane tests.
- Students will need paper to make their airplanes and teachers will need placeholders and dividers for the activity.
Differentiation
- Math students can practice graphing out the results of their airplane experiments.
- Science classes can use this activity to reinforce the importance of data collection, data analysis, and using more than one model to predict possible outcomes.
- In a language arts class, consider having students journal about a weather event they experienced or a time that they used a weather forecast to plan a trip or event. After the lesson, have students return to their writing to add information about what they learned.
This guide contains activities that would stretch students' capabilities in qualitative weather forecasting. They would get to understand the processes that influence weather and ways to make weather and climate projections. This resource is insightful and recommended for teaching.
Teaching Tips
Standards
Resource Type and Format
Scientist Reviewed
This resource has been reviewed by SubjectToClimate's climate scientists and verified for scientific accuracy and up-to-date information. Our review process ensures that every resource in our library reflects the current state of climate science.
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