The range of stories and lore on which this project will focus is broad--stories about historic events such as the Siren tornado, sayings about regular seasonal events, traditional expressions or proverbs about weather, observations people use for deciding where and when to catch fish, hunt deer, or plant potatoes, and stories of Wisconsin weather scientists. We will look for stories that are told especially well, in order to understand the art of storytelling. We will look for stories that highlight traditional life in Wisconsin, in order to understand the cultural basis of storytelling. We will look for stories that illustrate particular weather principles, in order to understand the science behind the stories.
The Madison-based partners and the four K-12 teachers and their students will collect Wisconsin weather stories during the summer and fall of ’03. Then we will analyze them. The scientific analysis will include: reading weather maps, analyzing local variables such as temperature, moisture, cloudiness, and precipitation, analyzing concurrent larger weather systems, graphing weather reports, and making weather observations. The folkloric analysis will include: identifying the traditional elements in the story related to place, ethnicity, beliefs, occupation, gender and other factors. The artistic analysis will include: identifying the artistic elements in the telling of the narrative such as use of pitch, intonation, timing; and evaluating effectiveness of the narrative for communicating ideas.
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