Program Description

The Sky Watchers Program is back for 2006 and better than ever! Our site provides free teaching material on the subject of weather, including explanations, experiments and activities which overlap into related subjects like mathematics and geography.  Our free downloadable teacher's guide addresses the learning outcomes in the Pan Canadian curriculum. 

We also offer an opportunity to bring weather out of the realm of the abstract for your students.  It doesn't have to be "just another subject" . . . weather observing can be a regular part of your school day!  To reinforce their classroom lessons, your students can take daily weather observations and enter them online into our Sky Watchers database.

Data from all participating schools are posted to the Web site linked from Sky Watchers Weather.  Students can then compare their observations to those of other schools across the province or across the country.  To encourage participation, prizes are awarded to students and to schools at various points throughout the school year.  For details, visit our Club Sky or What's New pages.

This year, you have more choices than ever:

• you can download our free Sky Watchers Guide to Weather and use it as a stand-alone teaching resource . . . but we're hoping you'll like it so much you'll want to explore further . . .
• you can download our Guide and register to participate online so that your students get the full benefit of the program.  Every registered school also receives this year's incentive -- a Student Activity Booklet -- and qualifies for the draws for free weatheradios!

• If you don't want to spend your time printing off the Guide, you can purchase the printed material (which includes the Guide and several other classroom resources) and register at the same time through the link on the side menu.  To see what's included, visit our Equipment and Resources page.
• If your school doesn't have access to weather instruments and you'd like to purchase the complete kit of printed material and instruments, you simply choose that option on the registration form.

The recommended suite of instruments includes a barometer, an anemometer, a maximum/minimum thermometer, a sling psychrometer and a rain gauge.  But don't let lack of equipment hold you back!  Many schools operate with just an ordinary thermometer and a barometer.  The teacher's guide includes a table for estimating wind speed and instructions for building a rain gauge, so you're all set!  Alternatively, schools with access to an automatic weather station can enter those readings into our database too.

Whichever option you choose, you can enroll for the 2006-2007 school year by selecting the "Register" option on the side menu, or simply click here.

Enroll today . . . and give them a reason to love science!