Weather, Or Not!

Weather, or Not!

Overview:

What causes changes in the weather? What are the effects of weather systems on temperature, precipitation, and other weather conditions? In this investigation, students work collaboratively to locate, collect, and analyze real-time (or archived) data to find changes in the weather. Based on this data, they make predictions of the possible causes of these changes; then, using an interactive map animation they confirm or refute their predictions. This inquiry-based lesson allows students to make connections between the interactions of air masses and their resulting weather conditions.

This is an excellent, engaging lesson that makes weather real and relevant and will give students an opportunity to explore our nation’s weather, to track storms, and to whet their appetites to further study of weather.

Lesson Concept:

Students will make connections between the interactions of air masses (fronts) and the resulting weather conditions (temperature, humidity, precipitation, pressure, sky condition, and wind).

·  A warm front is the boundary between the approaching warm air and cooler air. It is depicted by a red line with semi-circles.

·  A cold front is the boundary between the approaching cold air and the warm air. It is depicted on the map by a blue line with arrows/triangles.

·  The H stands for a high pressure cell or system.

·  The L stands for a low pressure cell or system.

·  Fronts travel across North America from west to east.

·  High pressure areas usually have dry weather, clear skies. Because high pressure inhibits clouds, the clear skies allow the solar radiation in, resulting in warmer temperatures.

·  Low pressure areas have unstable air, usually clouds and rain. Because air rises near low pressure areas, it often results in cloud formation because as the rising air cools, it condenses.

·  A cold front brings cold air resulting in lower temperatures. As a cold front moves into an area, the heavier, cool air pushes under the lighter, warm air. The warm air cools as it rises. If the rising air is humid enough, water vapor in it will condense into clouds and maybe precipitation.

·  A warm front brings warmer air (resulting in warmer temperatures), but when it collides with cold air, stormy weather results. As the warm air approaches, it goes over the dense cold air ahead of it. As the warm air rises, the water vapor in it condenses into clouds that can produce rain and snow.

·  Stationary fronts or occluded fronts may occur when warm fronts and cold fronts collide resulting in clouds, rain, or snow.

CA Science Standards (6th grade):

Energy in the Earth System

1. Many phenomena on Earth’s surface are affected by the transfer of energy through radiation and convection currents. As a basis for understanding this concept:

a. Students know the sun is the major source of energy for phenomena on Earth’s

surface; it powers winds, ocean currents, and the water cycle.

b. Students know solar energy reaches Earth through radiation, mostly in the form of visible light.

c. Students know heat from Earth’s interior reaches the surface primarily through

convection.

d. Students know convection currents distribute heat in the atmosphere and oceans.

e. Students know differences in pressure, heat, air movement, and humidity result in changes of weather.

NGSS Alignment:

MS-ESS2-5. Collect data to provide evidence for how the motions and complex interactions of air masses results in changes in weather conditions. [Clarification Statement: Emphasis is on how air masses flow from regions of high pressure to low pressure, causing weather (defined by temperature, pressure, humidity, precipitation, and wind) at a fixed location to change over time, and how sudden changes in weather can result when different air masses collide. Emphasis is on how weather can be predicted within probabilistic ranges. Examples of data can be provided to students (such as weather maps, diagrams, and visualizations) or obtained through laboratory experiments (such as with condensation).]

Crosscutting Concepts: Cause and Effect, Patterns

Science Practices: Using models, Analyzing and Interpreting data, Constructing explanations, Obtaining, evaluating, and communicating information. (Note: The Extension activities broaden the scope of the practices used by the students.)

Common Core Connection:

CCSS.ELA-Literacy.SL.6.2 Interpret information presented in diverse media and formats (e.g., visually, quantitatively, orally) and explain how it contributes to a topic, text, or issue under study.

CCSS.ELA-Literacy.SL.6.3 Delineate a speaker’s argument and specific claims, distinguishing claims that are supported by reasons and evidence from claims that are not.

(Extend Lesson: CCSS.ELA-Literacy.W.6.7 Conduct short research projects to answer a question, drawing on several sources and refocusing the inquiry when appropriate.)

ISTE NETS Standards:

1. Research and Information Fluency

Students apply digital tools to gather, evaluate, and use information. Students:

a.  plan strategies to guide inquiry

b.  locate, organize, analyze, evaluate, synthesize, and ethically use information from a variety of sources and media.

2. Digital Citizenship

b. exhibit a positive attitude toward using technology that supports collaboration, learning, and productivity.

Cyberinfrastructure Tools:

·  http://www.wunderground.com/ for students to collect weather related data.

·  Google Form to allow students to enter collected weather data.

·  Google Spreadsheet to share data collected by students for different regions.

·  http://www.wunderground.com/ or http://www.wunderground.com/wundermap/ for their Interactive Weather Map and Radar to create an animation showing the change of weather systems over a period of days.

Lesson Activities

Teacher’s Notes:

1.  Prior to the teaching of the lesson, using weather information from http://www.wunderground.com/, the teacher should a select a period of time (approx. 7 days) of “interesting weather.” It would be great to have a variety of weather systems including a cold front. For example, this lesson featured the weather from January 26- February 1, 2014.

2.  The teacher should also select 8-10 cities that were affected (or not) by the weather. For example, this lesson featured a variety of cities like Chicago, Fargo, Kansas City, Nashville, New York City, Oklahoma City, Seattle, Atlanta, Austin, and North Platte. These were chosen because the cities were affected by cold fronts, warm fronts, and high and low pressure systems.

3.  The teacher should create a survey using Google Forms asking for the following information: names of students, name of city, date of observation, mean temperature (actual), average humidity, sea level pressure, wind speed, precipitation, events/sky condition. At the bottom of the survey, you will see a section called Confirmation page. Select the box, “Show link to submit another response.” To share this form with your students, you will use the blue button to “send form.” Copy the link and paste onto your website for students to access it.

4.  The students may now begin to collect data from http://www.wunderground.com/, the Weather Underground site. To do so, the students enter a location (the name of their selected city.) They will go to a page with weather data for that city. As they scroll down, they will find and click on View Calendar Forecast. Here they will find decades of archived weather data. (Note: the weather icon (sun, thunderstorm, snow) depicts the sky condition and some events. As they click on the date (hyper-linked numeral), this will lead them to the weather data for that day. Warning: Students might confuse the Actual Mean Temperature with the Average Mean Temperature. They want to get the actual temperatures, in the first column under Actual. Data collection may take an hour to complete.

5.  Google Docs will create a spreadsheet for the teacher to share the data with the students. In the sharing settings, “Anyone with the link” should be selected under Visibility options. Under Access, it should be Anyone (no sign in required) Can view. (You don’t want your students to be able to edit the data!)

6.  The teacher should organize/edit the data to group it by city and put it in chronological order. It is now ready to be shared with the students by copying and pasting the link.

7.  The teacher should make the animation of the weather map. To do this, go to http://www.wunderground.com/. Under the Maps & Radar tab, select WunderMap. Under Layers, select only Radar and U.S. Fronts. Click on the triangle to hide the Layers. (Note: Near Layers there is also a Legend with the different kinds of fronts and explanation of Radar colors.) Zoom out by clicking on continent or by using the zoom in/out tool. Next, click on the calendar icon in the lower left hand corner of the page. This will allow you to choose the dates of your animation. For example, select January 26, 2014 by clicking on the calendar or the drop-down options. Under Animation Duration, select the number (7) and change the increments to days. (Note: Increments can be hours, days, weeks, and even years!) To start the weather animation, press play (white triangle in blue box.)

8.  To share this animation with your students, click on Link & Share. Copy the link and paste it on a website for the students to access it.

9.  This lesson is designed to take place over a period of a few days. The data collection by students should be modeled by the teacher and should occur prior to the lesson below. Students should have some basic knowledge of what a cold or warm fronts are. Due to time, it is suggested to focus on temperature change in this lesson, specifically the effect of cold or warm fronts. The effects of high and low pressure systems or the cause of rain and thunderstorms can be explored using the lesson idea or explored by groups of students in expert groups as described in the extension lessons. Additionally, this lesson gives students opportunity to practice making claims and citing evidence to support their claims. If the students are proficient at this, the explore process can be streamlined with the teacher expecting the students to write claims and evidence based on the patterns they observe in their charts.

10.  This lesson opens the door for many possible extension activities. It is very important to keep the lesson as inquiry based as possible, so that the work is being done and the connections are being made by the students with the teacher facilitating. The primary website has dozens of possible uses and tons of material to use for similar activities.

ENGAGE
Teacher Does / Student Does
DAY 2--Teacher shows weather report/broadcast.
(This can be played from the beginning or could be cued up around 1:00 minute play to about 2:03.): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=05_qs_6JWg0
Note: Showing this video to the entire group rather than allowing the students to view at their own computers is much more efficient and causes less confusion. Students may want to see the video more than once.
Have you seen weather reports like this before?
Teacher shows weather map with symbols.
What are these symbols and what kind of weather systems to do they represent?
After students pair/share, teacher charts their responses on the board, eliciting cold/warm front and what those mean. Teacher also lists questions for future research. / Students talk with partners or table group about the symbols for cold and warm fronts used on a weather map.
Students share responses with class and also present questions for the class to consider while continuing with the next steps of the lesson, the concepts and topics that they want to explore.
EXPLORE
Teacher Does / Student Does
DAY 1—Data Collection--First part of lesson (prior to the Engage):
1. Teacher introduces students to the Weather Underground website for data collection: http://www.wunderground.com/
Teacher models the data collection process. (5 minutes)
Warning - Some students may confuse average mean temperature in an area over time with the actual mean temperature for each day. / 1. Students log onto computers and choose a location (from a teacher directed list). They log onto http://www.wunderground.com/ to view their location’s data on given dates - temperature, pressure, humidity, and precipitation, wind speed, and events/sky condition (snow, rain, fog, thunderstorm, etc.) (5 minutes)
2. Teacher provides a link to the Google form for data entry and group collection. Students should double check each other to ensure accuracy before entering data onto the form. (15 minutes) / 2. Students enter their city’s data collected from Weather Underground website onto the Google form. (This activity will take the students about one hour to complete, and for some groups, up to one hour and 30 minutes SPED and slower groups.)
DAY 2--Next part of lesson (after the Engage):
1. Teacher asks: What causes the changes in the weather? What patterns do you see in the data? (Teacher models this process, looking at data displayed for the whole class to see. 5 minutes) / 1. Students log onto computers accessing compiled data and animated weather map. They should also have their materials including chart, construction paper map, and colored pencils. (3 minutes)
2. Let’s examine some data together. Let’s look at North Platte, Nebraska. What do you notice in the data? (They will see either snow or temp drop.) Let’s be systematic and put this information in a chart. The chart will not only record our information, but it will help to reveal patterns. (Teacher displays chart for all to see and records a change in the weather. For example, the temperature dropped from ___ degrees to ___ degrees.) / 2. Students look at data to find changes in weather.
3. What kind of weather system might’ve caused this? Write your prediction in your chart. (Ask students to share predictions. Teacher accepts all answers.) / 3. Students write in their chart, following the teacher’s model. They write and share their prediction of the cause of the weather change.
4. Now, let’s look at the video of the weather map showing North Platte. What caused the lower temperatures? (Cold front came in.) I wonder if that will always happen with a cold front. Let’s see if we can find it happening again. When looking for patterns, I always make a chart. That way I can gather my evidence and it makes looking for patterns easier. Based on my patterns, I can make a claim about what cold fronts do, or in another case, what causes temperatures to go up. / 4. Students watch animation video on their laptops and discuss reason for the change in their groups before sharing with the class. Then, they fill out their chart with the actual reason and cite evidence.