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.

Objective
SWBAT explain and provide evidence for how water is cycled through ecosystems.

Big Idea
How can a model help us understand the hydrologic cycle? Students revise their models, and extend what they have learned to help them construct an understanding of how water is cycled on Earth.

Explore the impact of human activities on water resources.

GeoInquiries are designed to be fast and easy-to-use instructional resources that incorporate advanced web mapping technology. Each 15-minute activity in a collection is intended to be presented by the instructor from a single computer/projector classroom arrangement. No installation, fees, or logins are necessary to use these materials and software.

CK-12 Earth Science For Middle School covers the study of Earth - its minerals and energy resources, processes inside and on its surface, its past, water, weather and climate, the environment and human actions, and astronomy.

Students look for (and document) evidence of the water cycle, photosynthesis, and decomposition in the schoolyard. Students should have prior experience with these processes before doing this activity. This activity can be used as a culminating activity for Lesson 3, Parts A-C.Students answer the essential question: What evidence of the water cycle, photosynthesis, and decomposition can we find in the schoolyard?

As a society, we use land in many different ways. The way we use land has a tremendous impact on how water flows over and through land as it makes it way to streams, rivers, and the Great Lakes. When rainwater falls on land, it gradually makes its way downhill. In developed areas, including both farms and urban areas, there is much less vegetation to slow the water down. As a result, the water moves quickly over the surface of the ground, picking up dirt and other materials and carrying it along with the flow of water. This process is known as "erosion." The suspended material, called "sediment," is carried through the watershed to the streams, rivers, and lakes. Success with this lesson will happen when students are able to explore the land use around sample Michigan sites, and use that information to analyze which sites have the highest average sediment levels and which have the lowest.

Rivers are incredibly important to our society and our environment, but we haven't always treated our rivers as well as we should. By using pictures taken from satellites orbiting the earth, we can examine rivers all over Michigan and try to identify those rivers that appear to have higher water quality and those that appear to have lower quality. Based on the illustrations provided, students will be able to make a number of observations about the quality of Michigan's rivers. Two specific rivers, the Rouge River and Escanaba River, will be observed and conclusions made about water quality and types of land use surrounding it. Lesson success will include having students log into ArcGIS Online to explore the river nearest their home so they can produce a table of observations and a 3-5 sentence paragraph to summarize their findings.

In this weather-related activity, learners make a portable cloud in a bottle. Learners discover that clouds form when invisible water vapor in the air is cooled enough to form tiny droplets of liquid water. You an accomplish the same cooling effect by rapidly expanding air in a jar using a wide-mouth jar, rubber glove, matches, and tap water. This activity can be conducted as a demonstration or by learners with adult supervision.

Between 70 and 75% of the Earth's surface is covered with water and there exists still more water in the atmosphere and underground in aquifers. In this lesson, students learn about water bodies on the planet Earth and their various uses and qualities. They will learn about several ways that engineers are working to maintain and conserve water sources. They will also think about their role in water conservation.

In this sixth grade science lesson, students will learn the main components of soil and discuss how soil is created in nature as well as how we can conserve it in the garden.

When you ask the question “What is geology?” most people will initially respond that it is the study of rocks. This is true, but geology is also so much more than that. The truth is that geology is an intricate part of your everyday life.

Meet savvy scientist and inventor Hedy Lamarr, also known for her career as a glamorous international movie star. Dubbed "The Most Beautiful Woman in the World," Hedy actually preferred spending time creating inventions in her workshop to strutting down the red carpet. Hedy co-invented the technology known as frequency hopping, which turned out to be one of the most important scientific breakthroughs of the twentieth century! Today's cell phone, computers, and other electronic devices would be more vulnerable to hacking without the groundbreaking system discovered by a world-famous actress and gifted inventor. The resource includes a lesson plan/book card, a design challenge, and copy of a design thinking journal that provide guidance on using the book to inspire students' curiosity for design thinking. Maker Challenge: Create small groups. Pass out one of the challenges listed in the lesson plan/book card to each group for them to come up with an invention that will solve the problem at hand.

Meg set out to climb up and investigate the rain forest tree canopies — and to be the first scientist to do so. But she encountered challenge after challenge. Male teachers would not let her into their classrooms, the high canopy was difficult to get to, and worst of all, people were logging and clearing the forests. Meg never gave up or gave in. She studied, invented, and persevered, not only creating a future for herself as a scientist, but making sure that the rainforests had a future as well. The resource includes a lesson plan/book card, a design challenge, and copy of a design thinking journal that provide guidance on using the book to inspire students' curiosity for design thinking. Maker Challenge: Your community has many different areas to explore - it might be a park, a grocery store, a forest, or an alley. For some people, it might be difficult to explore these areas because they may have differing abilities. Select one area in your community, and come up with a plan to build a way for it to be more accessible to everyone.

A document is included in the resources folder that lists the complete standards-alignment for this book activity.

The earth’s atmosphere may seem thick when compared to something like your height—but it’s surprisingly thin when compared to the earth’s radius. Here, you can find out exactly how thin, using strips of plastic to model the correctly scaled thickness of the atmosphere on a globe.

A young girl has a wonderful idea to make the most MAGNIFICENT thing! But making her magnificent thing is anything but easy, and the girl repeatedly tries and fails. Eventually, she quits, but a walk with her dog and time to think, she comes back to her project with renewed enthusiasm and manages to get it just right. The resource includes a lesson plan/book card, a design challenge, and copy of a design thinking journal that provide guidance on using the book to inspire students' curiosity for design thinking. Maker Challenge: Create small groups. Pass out one of the challenges listed in the lesson plan/book card to each group for them to come up with an invention that will solve the problem at hand.

A document is included in the resources folder that lists the complete standards-alignment for this book activity.

OpenSciEd middle school is NGSS-aligned science curriculum. Designed for all students and teachers, OpenSciEd includes student-facing materials as well as teacher guides. As with most instructional materials, excellent professional learning for teachers should be provided. For more information in Michigan contact the Michigan Mathematics and Science Leadership Network, starrm@mimathandscience.org

In this activity, students interpret the landscape using topographic maps of well-known national parks.

GeoInquiries are designed to be fast and easy-to-use instructional resources that incorporate advanced web mapping technology. Each 15-minute activity in a collection is intended to be presented by the instructor from a single computer/projector classroom arrangement. No installation, fees, or logins are necessary to use these materials and software.

In this activity, learners create a tornado in a bottle to observe a spiraling, funnel-shaped vortex. A simple connector device allows water to drain from a 2-liter bottle into a second bottle. Learners can observe the whirling water and then repeat the process by inverting the bottle. Use this activity to talk about surface tension, pressure, gravity, friction, angular momentum, and centripetal force.

This lesson focuses on the availability of freshwater on Earth. Students review the basic terms and processes associated with the water cycle, play a game to determine the percentage of the Earth’s surface covered by water, work together in groups to estimate the distribution of water in the various locations on Earth where it is found, and discover how much fresh water is available on Earth for human use.

This lesson focuses on how we use water in our daily lives.Students calculate their weekly water use and predict howtheir use would change if water were less available or morecostly.