This unit on weather, climate, and water cycling is broken into four separate lesson sets. In the first two lesson sets, students explain small-scale storms. In the third and fourth lesson sets, students explain mesoscale weather systems and climate-level patterns of precipitation. Each of these two parts of the unit is grounded in a different anchoring phenomenon.
The unit starts out with anchoring students in the exploration of a series of videos of hailstorms from different locations across the country at different times of the year. The videos show that pieces of ice of different sizes (some very large) are falling out of the sky, sometimes accompanied by rain and wind gusts, all on days when the temperature of the air outside remained above freezing for the entire day. These cases spark questions and ideas for investigations, such as investigating how ice can be falling from the sky on a warm day, how clouds form, why some clouds produce storms with large amounts of precipitation and others don’t, and how all that water gets into the air in the first place.
The second half of the unit is anchored in the exploration of a weather report of a winter storm that affected large portions of the midwestern United States. The maps, transcripts, and video that students analyze show them that the storm was forecasted to produce large amounts of snow and ice accumulation in large portions of the northeastern part of the country within the next day. This case sparks questions and ideas for investigations around trying to figure out what could be causing such a large-scale storm and why it would end up affecting a different part of the country a day later.
- Subject:
- Environmental Science
- Atmospheric Science
- Material Type:
- Activity/Lab
- Assessment
- Lesson Plan
- Student Guide
- Teaching/Learning Strategy
- Unit of Study
- Author:
- Advisory Team
- Assessment Specialist Colleen O’Brien
- Boston College Emily Harris
- BSCS Science Learning Audrey Mohan
- BSCS Science Learning Dawn Novak
- BSCS Science Learning Katie Van Horne
- BSCS Science Learning Lindsey Mohan
- BSCS Science Learning Tracey Ramirez
- Columbia University Elisabeth Cohen
- Indian Woods Middle School Ann Rivet
- Indian Woods Middle School Whitney Smith
- Lombard Middle School Vanessa Hannana
- Michael Novak
- Northwestern University Renee Affolter
- Pilot Teacher
- Reviewer
- Teachers College
- The Charles A. Dana Center
- The University of Texas at Austin Abe Lo
- Unit Advisory Chair
- Unit Lead
- Weather Outreach
- Williston Central School Heather Galbreath
- Writer
- Date Added:
- 08/04/2020
