Do you know if you travel 500 miles straight up, you would
not be in outer space, but still within the earth’s atmosphere?
Conditions in this atmosphere are called weather and they influence us in
very dramatic ways. Your mood, your travel plans, your ability to grow your own
food, hear sounds sent by radio waves, often your very survival is influenced by
the weather. We are going to
explore this atmosphere and how the energy that the sun generates, changes it.
You will familiarize yourself with various aspects of
weather and climate, starting with early human perceptions and ending with the
latest scientific methods of measuring and forecasting.
As a final project you will act as a travel agent and will make a
brochure for a trip to a climate, which has entirely different weather from the
one you live in. In order to
accomplish this task you must find out what the day-to-day weather conditions
would be for that area. You may use
Microsoft Publisher software to design your brochure.
You must focus on the safety of the traveler so include information on
the dangers of storms, food supply available etc.
Print materials will provide information as well as online resources.
The interview will become a valuable tool in the process of gathering
information for this unit.
Activity #1- Weather Lore
Goal-examine
people’s misconceptions about the weather.
Task- contact a
senior citizen, i.e. a grandparent, and interview them on old weather sayings.
Ask them about their opinion on whether they believe these to be true and
why. Write up a summary of the interview and try to document
several of the sayings online as to whether they are backed up by scientific
evidence.
Use the following
web resources:
Activity #2-Structure of
the atmosphere
-
Make a scale drawing of layers of the atmosphere.
-
Name the layers in order from the surface of the earth to
outer space.
-
Look up the thickness of the layers in miles.
-
Get a piece of graph paper.
-
Establish a starting point of zero for the surface of the
earth.
-
Now mark off the depth of the atmosphere in units of 10.
-
Plot out points indicating the depths of the layers.
-
Prepare a curved template and draw lines through these
points.
-
Now label the layers.
Web Resource:
http://www.learner.org/exhibits/weather/atmosphere.html
Activity #3- Sun, the driving force for all life on
earth as well as the changes in the atmosphere called weather.
Prepare a concept map with the sun at the center of the
drawing. Now link facts about the
sun as an energy source. Take each
link and couple it with another fact or concept with which it can be connected.
Students may find the program Inspiration a useful piece of software for
this activity.
Web Resources:
http://www.energy.ca.gov/education/story/story-html/chapter09.html
Activity #4- Storms and
their Causes
The students will (in cooperative learning groups) pick a
topic and become “Expert” on their subject.
They will prepare a mini presentation to the class with the understanding
that they are responsible for this segment of the information.
Encourage the student to generate their own questions on these storms and
pursue the research from that point of view.
For example: Would you (the student) build your house in low-lying areas
along the ocean where you know hurricanes are probable?
Sample topics: hurricane,
tornado, monsoon, thunderstorm, cyclone, dust storm, sleet storm, typhoons,
snowstorm (blizzard).
Activity #5- Effects of weather on the growing of
plants and the production of food.
You must choose a crop and investigate what the optimum
growing conditions for that crop would be.
This information will be included in an advice to farmers article for a
newspaper. Include information on
soil, temperature, rainfall, and climate, which supports best growth.
Include in your report what yields a farmer might expect when conditions
are best. Agricultural extension
agents for your area of the country make excellent resources for this type of
information.
Activity #6- Effects of weather on human
activities.
Final Project: You
will act as a travel agent and will make a brochure for a trip to a climate,
which has, entirely different weather conditions from the one you live in.
You could use Microsoft Publisher software to create this document.
Include information a tourist would need to know including what to pack,
what to eat, dangers due to floods, storms, landslides, earthquakes, insect
hazards, diseases, areas to avoid etc. What
other aspects of your visit might be affected by the weather?
Choose from the following destinations:
While weather is a series of phenomena we deal with on a
daily basis, there are profound effects on each of us that we may not be
consciously aware of. That weather
can make or break a farmer’s crop may not be a concern for the average
student. However the implications
of changing weather patterns may well determine survival or famine in many
cultures. Hopefully students are
asking themselves the hard questions about our role in this process.
Following this study students could focus on the following
questions:
What are greenhouse gases?
How is our atmosphere changing? What
is global warming and is it really happening?
What causes phenomena like El Nino and El Nina?
By destroying our ozone layer are we doing irreparable damage to our
planet?
Are our world deserts spreading and how will this impact
the people that live there? Are we
poised for worldwide famine? An
interview of an agricultural agent, a meteorologist, a local orchard grower, or
a farmer might be a meaningful activity to further understand the impact of
weather on us.
Additional areas of study might
appeal to various learning styles. A
study of the sounds of storms might prove an interesting next step for some
students. Journal articles about a
student’s personal experience with weather phenomena might give the unit an
intrapersonal dimension. Music
covers many aspects of human experience; it might be interesting to look into
weather-associated lyrics and/or poetry.
Prepare a complete
bibliography listing all resources used. Refer
to the following website if you do not have a format from your teacher.
http://www.columbia.edu/cu/cup/cgos/idx_basic.html
Activity #1- Interview summary 50 pts.
- Must
include documentation of interview and at least one weather saying must be
confirmed or refuted by scientific evidence.
Activity #2- Graph/Drawing of the
Atmosphere 50 pts.
- Layers
should be correctly labeled
- Statistics
on depth of each layer must be correct
- Drawing
should be made to scale
- Drawing
should be labeled; units should be at a constant interval.
Activity #3- Concept Map-25 pts.
- Concept
map has several layers of factual information, which form a logical
connection to the sun.
- Map
is neatly drawn
- Map
is correctly labeled
Activity #4-Mini-presentation-50 pts.
- Group
will be graded on their ability to educate the class on the nature of the
storm.
- Items
to focus on: knowledge acquired, clear presentation of facts, creative
approach to relating these facts to the class, ability to answer student’s
questions.
Activity #5- Newspaper Article- 25
pts.
Article should cover the following required elements:
- Should
be written in newspaper style with what, who, when and why
- choice
of a crop stated
- the
optimum growing conditions for that crop stated
- information
on soil, temperature, rainfall, and climate which supports best growth
stated
- yields
a farmer might expect when conditions are best estimated.
Activity #6-Final Project – 200 pts.
- Brochure
should be neat, colorful and creative
- Information
should be included about food, dress and weather hazards
- Information
should be accurate and specific for a particular climate
- Student
should demonstrate a good understanding of that climate and the weather
conditions associated with it.
