Severe Weather Protection

Created Feb. 7, 2024 by Katie Rozanski, Lindsay McElhattan

McElhattan and Rozanski

Unit: Severe Weather Protection

Persistent Issue: Weather safety in the Bloomington Community

Central Question: What do people in our area need to know about severe weather to stay safe?

Lesson 1: Grabber and Introduction

One 90-minute class period

Introductory Grabber: The instructor will tell all students to individually search the following website: http://nationalgeographic.org/activity/extreme-weather-on-our-planet/. Students will read the article and answer any questions presented in the National Geographic article on a separate sheet of paper in their notebooks. Once they have completed this section of the grabber, students will go to Google Images and search the keywords, “Severe Weather Safety” and find three images that they feel represent severe weather and precautions that are necessary to keep themselves safe. They will write their thoughts on the images in their notebooks and present them to the class. Students’ explanations should include why they picked the three images, why they feel the images are important, and how they pertain to severe weather safety.

Service, N. W. (n.d.). Severe Weather Climatology. Retrieved October 10, 2016, from http://www.weather.gov/iwx/climatology_severe

The instructor introduces this scenario: Severe weather is a worldwide issue since humans, in order for survival, must adapt to their surroundings. Suppose it began to thunderstorm. The storm rages on for multiple days. People begin to observe that water levels in the lakes and streams are rising. Homes are beginning to flood. Houses are being destroyed. What is the correct action to take? Weather is a part of life, but it is extremely important to know how to remain safe during these potentially life threatening times. Material objects will not always be able to be saved but that is far less important than saving human lives. In this project, students will learn how to ensure their safety as well as the safety of others around them. When the storm hits, what is the correct action to take?

Introduce the Central Question: What do people in our area need to know about severe weather to stay safe? This is the essential driving question. This is what students will strive to answer. Safety is extremely important and severe weather is a part of human life. Mother Nature never takes a break. Neither will the community after the class research and articles will be shared in the local newspaper. Tornadoes destroy homes, especially in flat areas like Indiana. Floods affect areas like Pittsburgh because when the rain hits hard, hills can trap in the water in certain areas and cause them to overflow into neighborhoods and homes. These are just two examples of the many different types of severe weather that students will have to research in order to answer the main driving question.

Lecture: Instructor will present a powerpoint about severe weather and safety precautions from around the world. There will be videos shown to the class about different severe weather around the world and how it is dealt with. Both good and bad examples will be given as examples of reactions to the weather. Proper safety precautions will be taught for local weather but not for global weather since students will need to research that part of the information later.

Culminating Activity

Press Conference Activity
Five 90-minute class periods. Activity is meant for Second Grade Level Students.

Introduction: Give the following instructions: What do people need in our area to know about severe weather to stay safe? Kids will work in groups to study and research safety precautions around severe weather that affects their community. They then create a newsletter and send it into the local newspaper. The groups will be of 3-5 students. They will present their articles to the class and to me before they are submitted to the local newspaper. This will teach them not only about teamwork, proper article format, and presentation skills, but also will teach them about severe weather safety.
(After students complete their research, they will write an article answering the driving question in their own words and using their own findings. They will then present their article to the class, then the articles will be sent to the local newspaper.)

Lecture: Instructor will discuss proper citation format and newspaper article format with students. This will be followed by examples. Students will be required to take notes since they will be graded on having proper format. There will be a brief lesson on how to write a newsletter article and proper citation formats.

Activity Overview: Students will create a newsletter based on research on severe weather in the local area. They will work in groups of 3-5 and send it into the local newspaper. They will present their articles to the class and to me before they are submitted to the local newspaper. This will teach them not only about teamwork, proper article format, and presentation skills, but also will teach them about severe weather safety. Their writing will be done using Google Docs so I will know who contributed and who did not.

Students will use Purdue Owl for help on writing and citing articles online to ensure that the format they use is correct. Their instructor should also always be ready to answer any and all questions students may have.

Preparation for Conference: The instructor begins by reviewing procedures and expectations for the Severe Weather activity. Students are to take notes in their notebook and transfer those notes to a Google Doc shared with their peers. The Google Doc can begin in bullet form but must end in article form. Royalty free images and properly cited images are encouraged to be used. Groups will meet with me one at a time to make sure students are on the right track.

Summary on Types of Severe Weather

**Listen below are the different types of severe weather that can happen with a brief description of each of them. This will be a helpful tool for you to look at while you are working on this project.

Thunderstorm: a loud, windy storm with lightning, thunder and rain that happens when warm, wet air meets colder, drier air

Tornado: a powerful swirling windstorm with a black funnel -shaped cloud; very damaging and dangerous

Hurricane: a large wind and rain storm that forms over oceans; as it hit land, it begins to become weaker; also very dangerous and damaging

Blizzard: a heavy snowstorm with strong winds and freezing temperatures; also very damaging and dangerous

Flood: a lot of rain falls in a short amount of time that causes lakes, rivers, and streams to overflow

Drought: a long period of time without precipitation (rain)

Monsoons: strong winds that change weather by blowing dry or wet air across China

Sources:

"Types of Severe Weather." Flashcards. N.p., n.d. Web. 10 Oct. 2016.

https://quizlet.com/3027105/types-of-severe-weather-flash-cards/

Background Information on Storm Chasers:

Joseph Cooper has been chasing storms for over 11 years. He studied meteorology at the College of Dupage and is currently at Mississippi State to further his education in meteorology. He is originally from central Indiana and is the founder of the Indiana Storm Chasers Convention. (http://www.indchasercon.com/meet-us)

Beth Carpenter has been chasing storms for over 3 years. She is currently studying Professional Meteorology, Geographic Information Systems, and Climatology at Ball State University. (http://www.indchasercon.com/meet-us)

Reed Timmer first official storm chase was at the age of 13, when he intercepted a severe storm in his front yard and was pelted by golf-ball size hail that destroyed his family's video camera. Ever since that day, he's been obsessed with extreme weather and storm chasing. Reed pursued this passion by studying meteorology at the University of Oklahoma. After documenting a massive F5 tornado that struck Moore, Oklahoma, on May 3, 1999, Reed became even more obsessed with extreme storm chasing. Since then, he has driven over 50,000 miles every year from the Mexican Border to Canada, and has captured over 200 tornadoes on film. In addition to storm chasing year-round, Reed is currently working toward a Ph.D. in meteorology at the University of Oklahoma. In 2003, Reed started TornadoVideos.net, a company devoted to extreme storm chasing footage and research.

"Reed Timmer." Discovery. N.p., 18 Sept. 2014. Web. 10 Oct. 2016.

(http://www.discovery.com/tv-shows/storm-chasers/bios/reed-timmer/)

Matt Hughes has had a lifelong fascination with extreme weather. Growing up in the heart of Tornado Alley, he was able to witness severe storms from an early age. This passion has yielded Matt nearly two decades worth of storm chasing expertise. In addition to chasing with the TIV team, Matt chases for a Wichita news affiliate, and regularly contributes to the nationally syndicated radio show The Storm Report . Last year, Matt forecasted for the TIV team in the follow vehicle, Doghouse. This season, Matt is out of the Doghouse and in the navigation seat of the TIV, hoping to guide Sean to a perfect tornado intercept.

"Matt Hughes." Discovery . N.p., 18 Sept. 2014. Web. 10 Oct. 2016.

http://www.discovery.com/tv-shows/storm-chasers/bios/matt-hughes/

Weather Facts:

Lightning causes an average of 55-60 fatalities each year
Costs over 1 billion dollars in insured losses each year
Tornadoes can produce wind speeds in excess of 200 mph
Tornadoes can be 1 mile wide and stay on the ground for over 50 miles
Straight-line winds can go beyond 125 mph
Flash floods are the #1 cause of death associated with thunderstorms
Hail can be larger than a softball
Hail causes more than 1 billion in crop and property damage each year

Source: (http://www.lightningsafety.noaa.gov/resources/ttl6-10.pdf)

Class is shown links of video clips of different severe weather situations and they have to determine what severe weather condition it is and explain why. Do this on a separate sheet of paper. This will be graded for accuracy so try your best!

Application: After watching the clips in class I will assign groups for our next project. The project will be to draw the types of severe weather. Make sure to make your drawings colorful!

Chart for Students to fill out during presentations:

This chart is for students to fill out while presentations are occurring. It is a chance for students to give their feedback to their peers as well as for the teacher. The teacher will give both positive feedback and improvement suggestions on this sheet. Students will do the same. Students are required to give an explanation as well so their answers are supported by more than personal bias. There needs to be some form of constructive criticism as well as congratulations. This chart allows for both.

Debriefing: Once students receive their feedback from peers and instructor, this is their final chance to make changes to their article before submission to the instructor for publication. Once articles have all been sent to the local newspaper, there will be one final reflection group discussion. Students will have a conversation under the surveillance of the instructor. Students will discuss what they liked about the project and what they did not like. The teacher will allow this for about 20 minutes. After that, the teacher will discuss the driving question and everyone’s points and topics will be addressed as to how they are correct when it comes to severe weather safety. Students, by this points, will know how to cite credible sources online, find safe and correct information through research, be able to write an official news article, be able to work in small groups and share the work evenly, and be able to present findings to classmates and teachers.

Grading Rubric for Overall Project

Initial Draft:

PBL Artifact Template

1) Driving Question (12.5 points)

Current issues happening today- history/geography/current events

Second Graders

Does the DQ warrant in-depth study? Yes
Is the DQ an authentic and relevant issue/problem for my students? Yes
Is there more than one plausible solution to the DQ? Yes
Does the DQ provide opportunities for students to evaluate, analyze, present, and defend their solutions? - Provide a brief introduction to your question as well

Yes, What do people need in our area to know about severe weather to stay safe? Kids will work in groups to study and research safety precautions around severe weather that affects their community. They then create a newsletter and send it into the local newspaper. The groups will be of 3-5 students. They will present their articles to the class and to me before they are submitted to the local newspaper. This will teach them not only about teamwork, proper article format, and presentation skills, but also will teach them about severe weather safety.

(After students complete their research, they will write an article answering the driving question in their own words and using their own findings. They will then present their article to the class, then the articles will be sent to the local newspaper.)

2) Grabber (22.5 points)

Does the story, article, video, announcement, or role play other resource hook the learner into asking more questions about the topic? Yes
Does the grabber capitalize on novelty and / or high emotion situations? Yes
Does the grabber establish authenticity & relevance? Yes
Make sure to explain how this grabber would be used.

Students will go to this website and read the article. http://nationalgeographic.org/activity/extreme-weather-on-our-planet/

Then they will complete the activity--

Activity:

Go to Google Images and pick out the best three images you can find related to weather safety. Then explain to me why you think they are the best options and why you picked them.

3) Culminating Activity (65 points)

How is the activity authentic? It is authentic because sever weather is something every student should know about and they should know how to stay safe. This activity allows for students to learn while also being a fun way for them to share their writing with the world.
Does the activity provide students with the opportunity to present and defend problem solution? Yes
Does the activity require student collaboration? Yes
How will I judge what students have learned from the activity?

There will be a key. They will present their research and final article to me and the rest of their classmates. Their writing will be done using Google Docs so I will know who contributed and who did not.

You will likely need to create a rubric for this step and example materials.

40 points- research

30 points- write the article

20 points- present to the class

10 points- participation and collaboration

5 points- submitting article to newspaper