The Met Office launches programme for 7-14 years olds

The Met Office is launching a schools programme to help young people understand and prepare for the impact of weather and climate on their communities. This long-term investment in education brings to life the Met Office’s expertise and authority in world-leading science and meteorology through resources designed to improve young people’s engagement in maths, science, technology, the arts and humanities.

“Weather and climate affect everything from the way we live, to what we eat, to our personal safety”, said Felicity Liggins education manager at the Met Office. “We want to help bring this context to life through our schools programme and help young people understand the wide-reaching impacts of weather and climate change locally and globally, for people, places and businesses.”

The programme’s free set of curriculum-linked resources are based on insight from Met Office scientists and a cross-nation group of teachers who have created a suite of lesson plans and DIY summer activities. The resources focus on key themes including extreme weather, forecasting and prediction, technology and innovation in weather, weather and climate stories and people in weather and climate. New resources will continue to be added in the months and years to come.

The Met Office has taken a fresh approach to cross-curricular learning by focusing on real-world examples that help young people draw connections through their lives and the world around them. This focus makes the lessons relevant and appropriate to a range of skills, and enables them to: 

• Explore innovative data visualisation technologies and their use across industries

• Reflect on the ‘fake news’ agenda and understand the importance of reliable, credible sources of information within weather stories

• Demonstrate creativity through design tasks linked to weather prediction
• Discover the diverse, unexpected careers available in weather and climate
• Develop risk assessment strategies and skills to safeguard communities during extreme weather events

“As well as being designed to help students develop transferable STEM skills such as spotting patterns in data, making informed decisions and communicating information to different audiences, they cover aspects of the core curriculum and bring each theme to life through fresh, fun and topical new contexts,” said Jenn McEwan, primary class teacher and panel member involved in co-developing the resources.

“I am confident that the new perspective that these resources bring will support educators in communicating just how complex, vital and interesting both weather and climate prediction are. Consequently, this will encourage learners to explore career possibilities in this area.”