Naohiro Yoshimoto

In order to understand that water vapor, which causes heavy rainfall in Japan during the rainy season and summer, is transported to the vicinity of Japan by the general circulation of the atmosphere on a global scale, we developed and implemented an inquiry teaching material using WEB weather maps. In this practice, three types of WEB weather maps were utilized, and the core of the lesson was for individual students to explore the origin of water vapor in a composite manner based on the cloud, rain, and wind information that could be read from the maps. The results of this practice with third-year lower secondary school students demonstrated that, after the lesson, 71% of the students were able to find and express the possibility that water vapor was transported from at least as far away as the Pacific and Indian Oceans, based on their comprehensive consideration of several different sources of information about the origin of water vapor. Moreover, 77% of the students were able to consider multiple pieces of meteorological information in a composite manner, and this led them to consider the connection between meteorological conditions around Japan and the global atmospheric general circulation. In addition, 37% of the students showed an enhanced interest in weather through the use of the WEB weather maps, and 20% of the students felt that they would like to use the maps in the future. The usefulness of the teaching material using the Web weather maps developed for this study is therefore considered to be effectively demonstrated.