Download 7-E Lesson Plan Template Your Name: Christopher Mosley Your E

7-E Lesson Plan Template
Your Name: Christopher Mosley
Grade Level: 6th
Lesson Title: What did that
meteorologist say??
Your E-mail Address:
[email protected]
Subject Area: Earth Science
Lesson Length: 90 minutes
Lesson Overview
This lesson is designed to help students comprehend what they see every day on newscasts and
weather reports
Learning Objectives:
Students will understand how to read weather maps
Students will interpret the information presented by a meteorologist in everyday life.
Students will explain the role of the sun as the major source of energy and its relationship to
wind and water energy.
Standards addressed (standard number and description)
S6E4. Students will understand how the distribution of land and oceans affects
climate and weather.
b. Relate unequal heating of land and water surfaces to form large global wind systems and
weather events such as tornados and thunderstorms.
c. Relate how moisture evaporating from the oceans affects the weather patterns and weather
events such as hurricanes.
S6CS8. Students will investigate the characteristics of scientific knowledge and how it
is achieved. Students will apply the following to scientific concepts:
a. When similar investigations give different results, the scientific challenge is to judge whether the
differences are trivial or significant, which often requires further study. Even with similar results,
scientists may wait until an investigation has been repeated many times before accepting the results
as meaningful.
b. When new experimental results are inconsistent with an existing, well-established theory,
scientists may require further experimentation to decide whether the results are flawed or the
theory requires modification.
c. As prevailing theories are challenged by new information, scientific knowledge may change and
grow.
List of Materials
Computer, access to internet, textbooks, writing utensils
INSTRUCTIONAL SEQUENCE
Phase One/ Two: Elicit Prior Knowledge/Engage (7-10 minutes):
Ask how many of the students actually watch the news to figure out what to wear for the day or the
week? Ask how many of them understand the other aspects of the report besides the temperature.
Discuss.
Phase Three: Explore the Concept (30 minutes)
Activity:
Students will break into groups of about 4-5. They will be given 2 computers per group, an area of
the world to explore, and 3- 4 aspects of meteorology to describe (humidity, dew point, low/high
pressure systems, wind, temperature, etc). They are to find a newscast (www.weather.com) and
watch the weather report for the day in that area. They will then discuss their perspective aspects
and come up with explanations of what it means and how it affects the weather using the internet
or their textbook. They will be told to break down each concept and be able to explain it in laymen’s
terms.
What’s the teacher doing?
Walking around and monitoring students as
they work through the activity. Making sure that
all members of the group are participating, and
that no unruly behavior is taking place
What are the student’s doing?
Talking with their groups members about their
group members and researching information.
Coming up with real life explanations of what’s
going on in the air
Phase Four: Explain the Concept and Define the Terms (30 minutes)
Presentations:
Each group will then get up in front of the class and present their findings. They will show a portion
of their newscast then explain their findings and what each concept means in terms of the weather
for that day in their area. Some key terms would be:
Humidity: The amount of water vapor in the atmosphere, usually expressed as either absolute
humidity or relative humidity
Temperature: the amount of heat in a given area
Dew point: the temperature at which a condensable component of a gas (as, esp., water vapor in
the air) starts to condense into liquid
Wind speed: A current of air, especially a natural one that moves along or parallel to the ground,
moving from an area of high pressure to an area of low pressure.
Low pressure system: An area of a relative pressure minimum that has converging winds and
rotates in the same direction as the earth. This is counterclockwise in
the Northern Hemisphere and clockwise in the Southern Hemisphere.
High pressure system: region where the atmospheric pressure at the surface of the planet is
greater than its surrounding environment. Winds within high-pressure areas flow outward due to
the higher density air near their center and friction with land. Due to the Coriolis effect, winds
flow clockwise around a high-pressure area located in the northern hemisphere and counterclockwise (BE: anticlockwise) around one in the southern hemisphere
What’s the teacher doing?
Asking questions and listening to student’s
responses to assess their understanding of the
newscast.
What are the students doing?
Sharing their results and explaining the
concepts presented in the newscast.
Phase Five: Elaborate on the Concept
Activity:
Students will be asked to think weather events and where those weather events might occur in
relation to their newscasts and why. Some questions to consider would be:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
What happens around low pressure systems?
What happens around high pressure systems?
What happens when the humidity is extremely high?
What are some issues with low humidity?
What could happen if a low pressure system and a high pressure system conjoin?
The class will then come back together to have a whole group discussion
What’s the teacher doing?
Walking around listening to discussions and
guiding groups are offering clarifications.
Making sure the students are staying on task.
What are the students doing?
Sharing ideas with the small group, then large
group.
Phase Six: Evaluate students' Understanding of the Concept
Students will answer the following questions on their exit ticket sheet
1.
What points did you learn today? How is this the same/different from what you already
knew about the subject
2. How can you use what you learned today to conduct an experiment/ or scientific field
observation
3. How is what you learned relevant to the real world
What’s the teacher doing?
Leading the class in discussion about what
they did and how it relates to them.
What are the students doing?
Sharing their work with the class and making
connections about what they learned to what they
already knew.
Phase Seven: Extend Students' Understanding of the Concept
For homework students will be asked to analyze a news report for our area and return to class with
an explanation of our possible weather for the next 5 days and why they think this will occur.
7-E Lesson Plan Template
Your Name: Christopher Mosley
Grade Level: 6th
Lesson Title: Convection Currents and
Storm/Tornado Production
Your E-mail Address:
[email protected]
Subject Area: Earth Science
Lesson Length: 90 minutes
Lesson Overview
This lesson is designed to explain the process of heat convection and how it can produce
thunderstorms and tornados.
Learning Objectives:




Students will create and environment and observe the presence of heat convection.
Students will predict the direction of wind based on the presence of high and low pressure
systems.
Students will explain how thunderstorms are produced.
Students will explain the process of tornado formation.
S6CS5. Students will use the ideas of system, model, change, and scale in exploring
scientific and technological matters.
a. Observe and explain how parts are related to other parts in systems such as weather systems,
solar systems, and ocean systems including how the output from one part of a system (in the form
of material, energy, or information) can become the input to other parts. (For example: El Nino’s
effect on weather)
b. Identify several different models (such as physical replicas, pictures, and analogies) that could be
used to represent the same thing, and evaluate their usefulness, taking into account such things as
the model’s purpose and complexity.
List of Materials
Disposable aluminum baking pans, tea light candles, Scissors, Paper cups, Bamboo skewers, ball
point pens, lighter/matches, large plastic bowls.
INSTRUCTIONAL SEQUENCE
Phase One/ Two: Elicit Prior Knowledge/ Engage (10 minutes)
Have you ever heard of the phrase “heat rises”? What do you think this means? Can you think of a
way to scientifically explain this process?
Do you think that if something is heated (such as air) it will expand or contract?
We will have a short discussion on how they think hot air balloons work and how long it takes to go
up and return to the Earth.
What’s the teacher doing?
What are the students doing?
Listening to the students responses to see where
they already are. Sparking interest in the
students for the forthcoming activity.
Paying attention to their peers actively engaging
in the discussion.
Phase Three: Explore the Concept (25 minutes)
Activity:
*** Before activity, reiterate proper lab procedures***
Students will be placed in groups of 4-5. Group member will retrieve the materials from the back of
the classroom. They are to read the directions and construct the apparatus as described. Once they
have an idea of the functionality of the activity they are to predict what will happen to the blades
and why.
Using scissors cut a 5 inch diameter circle out of the aluminum baking pan.
Now cut four to six symmetrical slits in the foil, from the edge to the center leaving a one inch
diameter space in the central region.
Twist each foil arm to create fan blades.
Insert the bamboo skewer through the bottom of the paper cup and place the paper cup upside
down on a flat surface. The sharp end of the skewer should be facing up.
Using the ball point pen make a divot in the center of the aluminum fan.
Now balance the fan on the sharp end of the skewer.
Place 3 lit tea lights under the fan blades and watch the fan spin
After the experiment they are to record their observations and if their prediction was correct or not.
They are to then draw what they think is going on with the apparatus.
What’s the teacher doing?
Walking around and monitoring students as
they navigate to the different websites. Ensuring
that proper protocol is followed and everyone is
being safe.
What are the student’s doing?
Building apparatus and conduction experiment.
Discussing what is going on with their peers.
Making observations and recording data.
Phase Four: Explain the Concept and Define the Terms (20 minutes)
Discussion:
Students will join together to explain the phenomena they just witnessed and explain what they
thought would happen and what did actually happen.
Convection: is heat transfer by mass motion of a fluid such as air or water when the heated fluid is
caused to move away from the source of heat, carrying energy with it.
Wind: the horizontal differences in air pressure. Air moves from areas of high pressure to low
pressure
 Differences in air pressure are caused by uneven heating of the Earth's surface. The Sun is
the major source of energy for heating, and so is the cause of wind.
What causes Thunderstorms
 The Sun warms the Earth, and the Earth warms the air above it by reflecting the Sun’s
radiation and by emitting radiation at longer wavelengths that our eyes cannot see
(infrared radiation), or by conduction in the several millimeters of air closest to the Earth’s
surface.

Warm air rises by convection. Warm air rising through cooler air is called unstable air. The
warm air rises, and at some point, condensation occurs high in the cloud. Precipitation
occurs (rain and sometimes hail), and a cold downdraft forms as the rain falls.
Thunderstorm formation requires three things:
• Moisture - to form clouds and rain.
• Unstable Air - relatively warm air that can rise rapidly.
• Lift - things like fronts, sea breezes and mountains can lift air to help form
thunderstorms.
**Tornadoes develop after extremely powerful thunderstorms, with winds up to 300
mph.**


Unequal heating of the Earth causes air to move from areas of high pressure (cold air, high
density) to areas of low pressure (warm air, low density) to create wind.
Tornadoes are funnels of high speed winds associated with thunderstorms.
What’s the teacher doing?
What are the students doing?
Asking questions and listening to student’s
responses to assess their understanding of the
conditions behind convection, wind formation,
and tornadoes.
Sharing their results and observations from the
experiment and how they think it parallels
weather
Phase Five: Elaborate on the Concept (20 minutes)
Activity:
The students will return to their stations and continue the activity again using the bowl over top of
the system. They will first predict what they expect to happen:



Will the blades spin faster?
Will they stop?
Will the slow down?
After they complete the extension they will discuss what they think happened to make the blades
stop and we will come back together to hear the ideas.
What’s the teacher doing?
What are the students doing?
Facilitating the class discussion. Walking
around and listening to discussion. Making
sure students remain on task.
Sharing ideas with the small group, then large
group
Phase Six: Evaluate students' Understanding of the Concept (10
minutes)
As a ticket out the door students will explain what happens to air as it heats up giving an
illustration from their experiment to support their thoughts. They will then explain how that
directly affects the production of thunderstorms and possibly tornadoes.
Phase Seven: Extend Students' Understanding of the Concept
For homework students will be asked to look into the phenomena of ceiling fans and how they
distribute air differently depending on their rotation. Students will research which way (clockwise
vs. counter-clockwise) corresponds to what circulating (hot air vs. cool air) and how they think
these rotational patterns with fans can be generalized to weather on a large scale. They are to bring
it in on the following class.
7-E Lesson Plan Template
Your Name: Christopher Mosley
Grade Level: 6th
Lesson Title: Hurricanes
Your E-mail Address:
[email protected]
Subject Area: Earth Science
Lesson Length: 90 minutes
Lesson Overview
This lesson is designed to guide students through the process of understanding the formation and
prediction of hurricanes as well as locate major global wind belts.
Learning Objectives:

Students will locate the major global wind belts on a map and indicate the direction of
the winds in each belt.

Students will explain why the winds within the major wind belts curve.
S6E4. Students will understand how the distribution of land and oceans affects
climate and weather.
c. Relate how moisture evaporating from the oceans affects the weather patterns and weather
events such as hurricanes.
S6CS5. Students will use the ideas of system, model, change, and scale in exploring
scientific and technological matters.
a. Observe and explain how parts are related to other parts in systems such as weather systems,
solar systems, and ocean systems including how the output from one part of a system (in the form
of material, energy, or information) can become the input to other parts. (For example: El Nino vs.
El Nina)
b. Identify several different models (such as physical replicas, pictures, and analogies) that could be
used to represent the same thing, and evaluate their usefulness, taking into account such things as
the model’s purpose and complexity.
List of Materials
Computers, powerpoint presentation, microwave plate, paper, markers
INSTRUCTIONAL SEQUENCE
Phase One/ Phase Two: Elicit Prior Knowledge/ Engage (25 minutes)
Students will complete the “K” of a KWL chart about hurricanes. We will then have a discussion
about what they already know about hurricanes (creating a classwide KWL) and some famous ones
they actually remember. A powerpoint will be utilized with photos and clips of hurricane activity to
spark their interest. They will then read the story of Terrance and his family and answer the
questions associated with that activity. Afterwards they will complete the “W” portion of that KWL.
What’s the teacher doing?
What are the students doing?
Facilitating the discussion and walking around
to ensure students are on task.
Actively participating in the discussion.
Thinking about hurricanes and what they
actually know. Reading and evaluating pertinent
information
Phase Three: Explore the Concept (20 minutes)
Activity:
Students will complete the following demonstration in groups of maybe 6-7:
Put a piece of paper on a microwave turn plate. Without spinning the plate, draw a straight line
from the middle of the plate to the edge. Now, spin the plate in a counterclockwise direction and
draw a straight line. The line will end up curved.
Students will predict what they think will happen before they spin the plate and record what they
observed afterwards. They will record these results in their lab notebooks.
What’s the teacher doing?
What are the student’s doing?
Walking around and monitoring students as
they navigate to the different websites. Ensuring
that proper internet protocol is followed
Observing what is happening to the line on the
paper and trying to rationalize why. Recording
results and predictions in notebooks. Discussing
with other group members.
Phase Four: Explain the Concept and Define the Terms (30 minutes)
Discussion and define together as a class :
After the demonstrations, the students will explain what happened when rotation was added to the
system. This is called the Coriolis effect and should be paralleled with wind. Making sure the
students understand that wind travels in a straight line from areas of high pressure to areas of low
pressure (wind belts) and the rotation of the Earth causes the curve to occur. On Earth, objects
curve in one direction in the northern hemisphere and the opposite direction in the southern
hemisphere.
Teacher will ensure that the following GPS enduring understandings are clear :
 Hurricanes form as a result of major global wind patterns and the Coriolis Effect, but their
paths are determined by local weather systems.
 Hurricanes form as a result of evaporation in warm oceans and seas in tropical regions of
the northern and southern hemispheres.
What’s the teacher doing?
What are the students doing?
Asking questions and listening to student’s
responses to assess their understanding of
hurricanes, the coriolis effect and wind belts
Adding to their notes and participating in the
class discussion about these key terms.
Phase Five: Elaborate on the Concept (10 minutes)
Discuss and answer the following questions with your small group, then we will rejoin for a larger
group discussion.
The teacher will bring the class together for a moment to make sure the students can answer the
following GPS essential questions :

Where are hurricanes most likely to occur?

Are natural disasters randomly or evenly disbursed?
What’s the teacher doing?
What are the students doing?
Facilitating the class discussion. Asking
guided questions for student understanding.
Sharing ideas with the small group, then large
group
Phase Six: Evaluate students' Understanding of the Concept (10
minutes)
Students will complete the “L” portion of that KWL and turn in their completed KWL for a class
participation grade and assessment of how much they actually learned.
Phase Seven: Extend Students' Understanding of the Concept
Students will look into why California never has hurricanes. Where do they usually start and in
which direction they move. Why is it that they only move in a certain pattern and how do weather
patterns affect their movement? They are to complete for homework and bring back to next class.