Weather Fronts (student-led lesson)

Subject: Earth and Space Sciences 6^th grade

State standard: Standard 6.ESS2.6 “Explain how relationships between the movement and interactions of air masses, high and low pressure systems, and frontal boundaries result in weather conditions and severe storms” (Tennessee Department of Education, 2016).

Learning Objectives:

•          Analyze different types of weather fronts and explain what type of weather is typically associated with each front.
•          Evaluate current weather fronts and air masses and predict local weather conditions.

Essential Questions:

•           Why would it be important to be able to predict weather patterns and conditions?
•           Where do air masses form and how does that impact weather?
•           How do large air masses and weather fronts affect weather?

Materials:

•           Computers with internet access
•          Materials for experiment: 10-gallon aquarium, appropriately sized piece of cardboard, spoon, cold water with blue food coloring, hot water with red food coloring
•         Weather maps and symbols explained
•         Graphic organizer worksheet for the explore activity
•         Guided questions worksheet for the elaborate activity

Essential vocabulary: weather, weather fronts, air pressure, pressure systems, air masses

Previous knowledge:

•           Students will have previous knowledge of basic weather map symbols
•          Students will have a general understanding of the basic factors that affect weather

Learning Experience:

-          Engage

o   In order to engage the students, the teacher will perform an experiment simulating weather fronts.

§  Base the experiment off of: when air masses collide

§  Before the experiment, have students hypothesize about what they expect would happen to the warm front and the cold front.

§  After the experiment, have students discuss their observations about what happened when the two “air masses” came together.

§  The teacher will pose the first essential question and elicit feedback.

§  The teacher will then pose the other two essential questions to lead into the explore activity.

-          Explore

o   The students will individually explore a weather front animation and collect information about different weather fronts.

§  weather fronts

§  weather forecasting

o   They will fill out a graphic organizer with the front name, its corresponding symbol, observation of what the two air masses do, and weather associated with the front (Chapel Hill Carrboro City School, 2019).

-          Explain

o   Once students have completed the explore activity, the teacher will ask the students to share their understanding of the different types of fronts and corresponding weather patterns.

o   The teacher will clarify any misunderstandings and introduce additional information by showing several short video clips on air masses and weather fronts to help students visualize the terms being discussed and the interactions that happen between air masses and fronts.

§  Air masses (4:49 minutes)

§  Air masses and fronts (2:22minutes)

§  Meteorologist Ryan Davidson explains weather maps: (3:49 minutes)

-          Elaborate

o   The teacher will then provide regional weather maps, forecast maps, and radar maps for assigned groups of students to analyze. The students will look for patterns and discuss their observations with each other. 

§  Daily weather maps

§  NOAA weather forecast maps

§  NOAA radar maps

o   The teacher will provide guiding questions in a worksheet format to help students analyze and compare the forecast and radar maps. (Students can use their graphic organizer to help them understand the maps).

§  Locate a warm front. In which direction is the warm front moving?

§  Locate a cold front. In which direction is the cold front moving?

§  Locate one area that may be experiencing severe storms. What type of front do you notice there? What pressure system is present?

§  Locate one area that is experiencing rain. What type of front do you notice there? What pressure system is present?

§  Locate one area that will likely experience rain for several days. How can you tell?

§  Locate one state that is experiencing clear weather. What type of pressure system is present? Are there any weather fronts in that area?

§  Find your location on the map. What type of front is moving in that direction? What type of weather could you expect when that front moves in? (Boyden, n.d.).

-          Evaluate

o   Students will perform self-evaluations by going to the NOAA weather service page at weather.gov to check the accuracy of their forecasts. They will do this by typing in their chosen city in the “local forecast” box at the top left of the page. 

o   The teacher will evaluate student understanding throughout the lesson by listening to student responses and providing feedback.

Differentiation strategies:

-          English Language Learners

o   The teacher will provide a sheet/website with simple definitions of each weather symbol.

o   For the explore project, the teacher will provide links with text that is matched to the reading level of the student

-          Advanced students

o   The teacher will encourage advanced students to make a 3-day prediction of future weather for a city of their choice based on their analysis of the weather maps.

 (I created this lesson as part of one of my classes)

Plant and Animal Cells (teacher-directed lesson)

Subject: Life Science (7^th grade)

Common Core State Standard: Standard 7.LS1.3 “Evaluate evidence that cells have structural similarities and differences in organisms across kingdoms” (Tennessee Department of Education, 2016).

Objective:

-          Explain the key similarities and differences between plant and animal cells

-          Apply understanding of cell parts to create a model of a plant or animal cell using materials provided

-          Differentiate between pictures of plant and animal cells

Key vocabulary:

-          Cell wall, cell membrane, nucleus, endoplasmic reticulum, vacuole, cytoplasm, chloroplasts, ribosome, organelles, mitochondria, Golgi apparatus, lysosome

Materials:

-          PowerPoint presentation of cell organelles with various pictures of each and different cell types

-          Cell worksheet for taking notes 

-          Materials for cell models (with suggested uses): square or circular cardboard, pipe cleaners (endoplasmic reticulum), kidney beans (mitochondria), green split peas (chloroplast), pearl couscous (ribosomes), small Styrofoam ball (nucleus), bottle cap (vacuole), wide rubber bands (Golgi apparatus), buttons (lysosomes), yarn, glue, toothpicks with labels attached

Presentation:

Teacher will

Student will

-          Open the class by stating the learning objectives for the day -          Review what cells are and their basic function -          Hand out cell parts worksheet/note-taking sheet -          Present new material: discuss the unique structure of plant and animal cells. Show representation of plant and animal cells. Highlight the similarities of plant and animal cells and explain what each organelles’ function is (Padilla, Cyr, Miaoulis, & Padilla, 2008). Provide a variety of pictures of each organelle as it is discussed and compare it’s structure to a familiar object. o   Cell membrane – police officer o   Nucleus – city hall o   Cytoplasm - atmosphere o   Vacuole – warehouse o   Mitochondria – power plant o   Golgi apparatus – post office o   Ribosomes – food-production factories o   Endoplasmic reticulum – road system (Serwatka, n.d.) -          Present the 3 main differences between plant and animal cells o   Cell wall – city wall o   Chloroplast – solar energy plant o   Lysosomes – garbage disposal -          Think-Pair-Share – give an example of how an organelle is similar to a city structure then have student pairs spend 2-4 minutes thinking about an assigned organelle’s functions and how those may be similar to the way a city functions. Call on each group of students for each organelle and write on board the different answers. -          Clarify any misunderstandings about organelle functions

-          On their worksheet, they will label the parts of the animal and plant cells as they are discussed during the presentation (the organelles function will be written below the corresponding box) During Think-Pair-Share -          Think about how an organelle is similar to parts of a city -          Share with a classmate their thoughts on similarities -          2-3 students will share with the class what they came up with

Guided practice:

Teacher will	Students will
-          Separate the students into groups of 2-3 (depending on the size of the class) -          Provide items that can be used to construct a model plant or animal cell (Drayton, n.d.) -          Assign some groups to create animal cells and some groups to create plant cells -          Walk around the room during activity to ensure understanding and give feedback on models	-          Work together in groups of 2-3 to build a model of either a plant or animal cell and label the parts -          Students can use their worksheet to guide them

Independent practice:

-          Homework assignment (which will be discussed at the beginning of next class): Reflect and compose a paragraph on why animal and plant cells are different and how those differences help the cells.

Assessment and Evaluation:

-          Show different types of plant and animal cells on the PowerPoint presentation and have students as a class call out whether it is an animal or plant cell and how they can tell

Monitoring and Feedback:

-          Monitor for understanding and appropriate connections during the Think-Pair-Share activity

-          During the guided practice, check that students are creating a model that closely represents the designated cell and that students are labeling the parts correctly

-          Offer feedback through guided questions

-          Offer positive feedback through genuine praise or acknowledgment of accurate answers

-          During the assessment and evaluation, ensure that students have at least an 80% accurate ability to distinguish between the cell types

-          Positive reinforcement/incentive: If students finish their projects, they have been assessed for accuracy, and there is still time, the teacher will allow the students to play the cell explorer game  

 (I created this lesson as part of one of my classes)