Subject:
Earth and Space Sciences 6th 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.
§ 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)
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