Example · Sciences · P3 · Scotland

Mapping the Stromness Wind

Morag, Stromness, Orkney

Built by ALF Studio from exactly what each teacher typed, then changed the way that teacher teaches.

What she typed · word for word

“Where is the windiest corner of our playground? Pupils build cup anemometers and wind socks, test them in the yard and down at the pierhead, record the wind each day for a week on a class chart, and tell the janitor and Parent Council where the new shelter and planters should go.”

On the form: Scotland (Curriculum for Excellence) · P3 · Sciences · 3 weeks · 2 lessons a week, 60 minutes · Stromness, Orkney

Why it is here

Orkney bairns turn the wind everyone moans about into evidence that decides where the shelter goes.

What a school would ask first

A railings-only rule near the water; blunt pencils and straws, no pins.

Example teacher

Morag

Stromness, Orkney

Teaches: P3 Sciences, Scotland (Curriculum for Excellence).
Her lessons: 2 a week, 60 minutes.

Standards on the form

SCN 1-07a: By investigating forces on toys and other objects, I can predict the effect on the shape or motion of objects.Chosen with Choose your own
SCN 1-15a: Through exploring properties and sources of materials, I can choose appropriate materials to solve practical challenges.Chosen with Choose your own

The unit as she left it

Drafted Oct 8 in 17 seconds · 4 changes since

Sciences · P3 · 3 weeks

Mapping the Stromness Wind

Driving question

Where is the windiest spot around our school?

Standards

SCN 1-07a

By investigating forces on toys and other objects, I can predict the effect on the shape or motion of objects.

TAUGHT IN Week 1, activity 2; Week 2, activity 1; Week 2, activity 2; Week 3, activity 1; Week 3, activity 2ASSESSED BY Predicting and Explaining Motion

SCN 1-15a

Through exploring properties and sources of materials, I can choose appropriate materials to solve practical challenges.

TAUGHT IN Week 1, activity 1; Week 1, activity 2; Week 2, activity 1; Week 3, activity 2ASSESSED BY Choosing Materials for Tools

Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0.

Overview

Pupils in P3 explore wind force across their school grounds and down by the pierhead in Stromness. They build wind socks and cup anemometers from chosen scrap materials to test how moving air pushes objects. After tracking wind strength across four locations on a shared chart, pairs create an advice map showing the windiest and calmest spots to help the janitor and the Parent Council decide where to place a new outdoor shelter and garden planters.

Entry event

The teacher brings the class outside on a gusty morning with a light silk scarf, a heavy coat, and a paper plate. Pupils watch how the wind pushes each item and try to predict which corner of the playground will blow their scarves the hardest.

Need to know

How does the wind push things?
What materials make a good wind catcher?
Which corner of our yard gets the strongest gusts?
Where should the janitor put our new shelter?

Week by week

Your lessons: 2 a week, 60 minutes.

Week 1

Test how wind pushes different materials and build a class wind sock.

Read a picture book about stormy island weather, test tissue, plastic, card, and ribbon in front of a classroom fan, and sort which materials catch wind best.
· 1 lesson
Build a simple wind sock using chosen plastic strips and tape, take it into the playground, and observe how wind pushes it up.
· 1 lesson

Supports

Provide picture cards with textures and arrows showing wind direction for EAL pupils, offer pre-cut tape and plastic strips for ASN pupils, and challenge advanced pupils to explain why heavy card stays flat while plastic lifts. Give pupils a picture recording sheet with a 0 to 3 wind scale (still, breeze, windy, gale) so they can record without writing numbers.

Deliverable

A tested wind sock and a drawing showing how moving air pushes the fabric.

Week 2

Build cup anemometers and measure wind strength at different school spots.

Construct paper cup anemometers using cups, plastic straws, pins, and wooden pencils, testing how faster breath makes them spin quicker. Put pupils in mixed pairs for the outdoor readings, one holds the anemometer and counts, one records.
· 1 lesson
Walk across four outdoor spots, including the harbour gate and playground corners, counting cup spins in 30 seconds to record on a shared chart. Add a windy afternoon walk to the pierhead at Stromness harbour so pupils can compare a reading by the water with the playground ones.
· 1 lesson

Supports

Use visual tally boards with colour codes for recording spins to assist EAL and ASN pupils, discussing the wind turbines pupils pass on their school run rather than watching a wind farm video, with paired adult support for pin handling; extend pupils by having them compare sheltered wall readings with open harbour gusts.

Deliverable

A completed wind speed tally card comparing four locations.

Week 3

Map wind findings and present shelter and planter recommendations to the janitor.

Draft a large pictorial advice map in pairs, marking the windiest areas with wind symbols and quiet spots with flowers to locate planters and shelters.
· 1 lesson
Present the completed advice maps to the school janitor and Parent Council reps in the classroom, explaining which corner needs shelter.
· 1 lesson

Supports

Provide pre-printed icon stickers of planters, wind, and shelters for ASN and EAL pupils; encourage advanced pupils to give verbal reasons comparing harbour wind with playground wind.

Deliverable

A labelled playground recommendation map presented to visitors.

Critique and revision

End of week 3, lesson 1

Pairs share their draft map with another pair during a carpet circle, offering two stars and a wish about symbol clarity and shelter placement.

Student reflection

Pupils circle smiley faces on a reflection sheet and share aloud one thing they discovered about how the wind pushes objects.

Final product

What they make

A colour-coded playground map showing wind patterns with sticky icons indicating where the shelter and garden planters should go.

Options

Pairs choose between drawing custom wind arrows or sticking pre-cut symbols, and select whether to present the planter spot or shelter spot during the talk.

Who sees it

The school janitor and Parent Council representatives during lesson 2 of week 3.

Teams

Pairs chosen by the teacher, grouping pupils with complementary practical and talking strengths.

Rubric3 rows · 4 levels

Criterion	beginning	developing	proficient	advanced
Predicting and Explaining Motion SCN 1-07a · individual	States that the wind moves the tool but cannot say if it will move fast or slow.	Predicts whether cups will spin or streamers will lift when taken outside.	Predicts and shows how stronger wind pushes the cups faster and lifts streamers higher.	Explains how wind force changes between open harbour air and sheltered walls using test evidence.
Choosing Materials for Tools SCN 1-15a · individual	Selects materials randomly without matching them to wind catching.	Chooses light materials for streamers with teacher prompts.	Selects lightweight, flexible materials that catch air effectively to build working wind tools.	Justifies why light plastic or paper works better than rigid card for catching gusts.
Partner Collaboration Collaboration · team	Requires frequent adult reminders to share wind instruments or map paper.	Takes turns holding instruments or markers when prompted by an adult.	Shares materials and takes turns counting spins and sticking map symbols collaboratively.	Listens to partner ideas about shelter spots and agrees on map placements smoothly.

Predicting and Explaining Motion

SCN 1-07a · individual

beginning

States that the wind moves the tool but cannot say if it will move fast or slow.

developing

Predicts whether cups will spin or streamers will lift when taken outside.

proficient

Predicts and shows how stronger wind pushes the cups faster and lifts streamers higher.

advanced

Explains how wind force changes between open harbour air and sheltered walls using test evidence.

Choosing Materials for Tools

SCN 1-15a · individual

beginning

Selects materials randomly without matching them to wind catching.

developing

Chooses light materials for streamers with teacher prompts.

proficient

Selects lightweight, flexible materials that catch air effectively to build working wind tools.

advanced

Justifies why light plastic or paper works better than rigid card for catching gusts.

Partner Collaboration

Collaboration · team

beginning

Requires frequent adult reminders to share wind instruments or map paper.

developing

Takes turns holding instruments or markers when prompted by an adult.

proficient

Shares materials and takes turns counting spins and sticking map symbols collaboratively.

advanced

Listens to partner ideas about shelter spots and agrees on map placements smoothly.

Materials

A picture book about strong winds and stormy coastal weather
Paper cups, plastic drinking straws, pushpins, and pencils with erasers for anemometers
Assorted scrap materials including ribbon, tissue paper, plastic bags, card, and string
A simplified bird's-eye map outline of the school grounds and nearby pierhead area
Handheld stopwatches or 30-second sand timers

Week 3, ready to teach

2 lessons · Built Oct 8 in 58 seconds

The week card on her unit reads: "Started from your changes to weeks 1 and 2: Made it local, Added a scaffold, Changed the grouping, Swapped." Each lesson is a page for her, the task sheet is for the class, and ALF wrote the attachments the lessons hand out.

Week 3 · Lesson 1 of 2

Mapping our wind tallies

Minutes60

Prep10 minutes

Parts4

BuiltOct 8

Checkpoint

Each pair shades wind zones and places recommendation stickers on their playground outline base sheet, checked by the teacher against their tally card.

Learning intention

We are learning to predict the effect of wind forces on objects across different school locations.

I can interpret my rotation counts to find the windiest and calmest spots

I can decide where solid walls block moving air and shade sheltered zones

Need to know

Where does the wind push hardest around our school grounds, and where do walls block it?

Sequence, 60 minutes45 of 60 minutes planned. The rest is yours.

Starter · 5 min

Pairs inspect their completed wind speed tally card from last week. Pupils recall how moving air pushed their paper cups around Stromness harbour and playground corners, comparing high and low spin tallies.

Main · 10 min

Explain that moving air exerts a physical push on solid surfaces, turning anemometer cups and bending plants. Solid structures like stone walls block airflow, creating sheltered microclimates with lower wind speeds, whereas open expanses lack windbreaks, producing stronger gusts. Worked example, with example figures: a sheltered wall baseline count of 3 cup spins means calm air, while an exposed playground wind baseline count of 14 cup spins means strong push.

Task · 24 min

Pairs analyse their completed wind speed tally card to decide which zones were gusty or calm. Each pupil records s, the measured cup rotations, on their playground outline base sheet. Both partners colour code windy areas red and calm walls blue, then place pictorial advice icon stickers to locate planters in calm spots and shelters where gusts push hardest, while the teacher checks reasoning.

Check and plenary · 6 min

Each pupil hands in their own prediction note recording their calmest wall spot and highest spin tally for the teacher to keep. The teacher gathers pupils who missed the connection between high spin counts and windy spots to re-test airflow behind a desktop book wall. Next lesson pairs present their finished maps to the janitor.

Resources

havecompleted wind speed tally card

makeplayground outline base sheet

makepictorial advice icon stickers

havecoloured crayons and pencils

Watch for

Pupils may assume tall walls make wind stronger: have them blow against their hand flat versus holding a hard notebook in front to feel the blocked airflow.

Safety

Risk assessment needed: slips and trips on playground asphalt during outdoor boundary checks; pupils remain in paired lines within school perimeter under teacher and support staff supervision.

Support and challenge

Support.Writing and reading load: provide pictorial advice icon stickers showing clear visual symbols of wind, flowers, planters, and shelters so pupils map findings without written labels.

Challenge.Pupils verbally justify why harbour gusts had higher counts than open playground spots by comparing the lack of sea windbreaks.

Next lesson

Pairs practise their spoken recommendation script frame to explain map placements to the janitor and Parent Council.

Her three edits

Each labeled by ALF after the save

What Morag changed in the draft, in her own words, with the label ALF gave each change and the reason it suggested.

Made it localWeek 2 · Activity 2Probably: local context
Walk across four outdoor spots, including the harbour gate and playground corners, counting cup spins in 30 seconds to record on a shared chart. Add a windy afternoon walk to the pierhead at Stromness harbour so pupils can compare a reading by the water with the playground ones.
Added a scaffoldWeek 1 · SupportsProbably: support
Provide picture cards with textures and arrows showing wind direction for EAL pupils, offer pre-cut tape and plastic strips for ASN pupils, and challenge advanced pupils to explain why heavy card stays flat while plastic lifts. Give pupils a picture recording sheet with a 0 to 3 wind scale (still, breeze, windy, gale) so they can record without writing numbers.
Changed the groupingWeek 2 · Activity 1Maybe: fits my students
Construct paper cup anemometers using cups, plastic straws, pins, and wooden pencils, testing how faster breath makes them spin quicker. Put pupils in mixed pairs for the outdoor readings, one holds the anemometer and counts, one records.

Then she pressed Adapt this week

Week 2 · Swap the example

Her note, with Swap the example picked

“Drop the wind farm video and talk about the turbines pupils pass on the school run instead.”

ALF suggested. Week 2 supports swapped to local turbines instead of a wind farm video.

Kept · ChangedSwapped
Use visual tally boards with colour codes for recording spins to assist EAL and ASN pupils, with paired adult support for pin handling; extend pupils by having them compare sheltered wall readings with open harbour gusts.
Use visual tally boards with colour codes for recording spins to assist EAL and ASN pupils, discussing the wind turbines pupils pass on their school run rather than watching a wind farm video, with paired adult support for pin handling; extend pupils by having them compare sheltered wall readings with open harbour gusts.
Local turbines let students connect the lesson to familiar landmarks they see every day.

She kept 1 of 1, on ALF's second try.

Then ALF built week 3. The week card reads “Started from your changes to weeks 1 and 2: Made it local, Added a scaffold, Changed the grouping, Swapped.” Read the lessons.

Build one from your own idea

Type what you want to teach the way Morag did. ALF drafts the unit, and you change whatever does not fit your class.

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