Melinda Petersen

Petersen's lesson idea, "Weather Station-An Interdisciplinary Approach", will marry a variety of subjects to help students analyze our planet's hydrosphere and atmosphere. Through a series of inquiry-based investigations, her students at Western Sky Middle School will study the water cycle and eventually make educated predictions about the weather in their area. They will also fulfill all of the Arizona Earth Science Standard objectives while learning about the historical, mathematical, linguistic and scientific impacts of weather-related topics. Students will learn everything from how ancient cultures predicted the weather to how to integrate mathematic principles in analyzing weather-related data. Not only will the more than 300 students in her sixth-grade class be directly impacted, but more than 900 students in the school will benefit from the information generated from this cutting-edge module. Petersen resides in El Mirage.