Working As A Meteorologist
Overview
This lesson will help students understand how to work as a forensic meterologist. Students will watch a short video of an area experiencing increased weather and storms. Through the use of prompts, students will be able to create a model of what they think is happening and then use that pre-model in other lessons to figure out how water and heat from the sun increase stroms.
Notice and Wonder
In this section, you are helping students setup their journals. You will want to prompt students to:
1. Watch with intent
2. Focus on all things, even those things that don't seem important
3. Think about cause and effect. What is happening and what is the cause/effect of it.
4. Think about what must be near the town for this phenomena to occur.
What do you notice?
We are going to watch a video of a new phenomenon. Before we do this, let's setup our journals.
1. In your journal make the title, "Strange Weather"
2. Make a T-chart in your science notebook using the following example.
3. As you observe this new phenomenon, record your noticings and wonderings in the T-chart.
Effects Of Weather
It is important that students rewatch the video. You want your students to dig in and really look for things that they might have missed the first time. You may even want to pause the vidoe or encourage your students to pause the video as they watch it, to record details.
1. Watch this video, nothing else, just watch.
2. Now, watch the video one more time. I know this seems silly, but this time I would like you to pause the video and fill in your t-chart. Looking for details, studying what happens in the background, and listening to any available information will equal better success. Use your senses to make scientific observations and think like a super scientist!
Sharing Observations
As students are sharing:
1. Walk around the room and check for understanding
2. Ask prompting questions like, what did that make you think you of, can this happen here, what "stuff" had to be present for this phenomena to occur, etc...?
3. Get students to really talk to eachother abou they just saw and encourage them to record things that they don''t have in their own journals. At this point, we don't know what is important and what isn't.
Sharing Observations (write subtitle in your journal)
1. You will now share your observations with your partner. It is important to keep your conversation focused on the topic of what's on your t-chart.
2. As you share with a partner, be sure to reference specific moments in the video so everyone understands what you are talking about.
Turn and Talk Interview (take turns asking the following questions)
3. What did you observe in the video?
4. Why do you think those things happened?
5. What was puzzling to you?
6. What questions (wonders) do you have about what you observed?
With Your Class (Science Seminar, I will keep a record of what we discuss)
7. Share your observations and your partner’s observations with the class
Related Model
Students will now look at a similar model. It will be of the water cycle, but you want students to figure that our for themselves. This should come out of students looking at the model and discussing how it is working. This learning will then be applied to what is happening with the town in the video, and increased water cycle that is causing flooding. Agian, for this discovery to work, you do not want to tell students this answer, just yet.
Related Model
You will need:
Large glass bowl filled with water
A beaker filled with sand and placed in the middle of bowl of water
A clothes pin with a cotton ball placed on the sand (sticking out of the beaker)
Plastic wrap over the bowl and sealed (you may have to tape in on so that it stays in place)
Heat lamp pointed at the bowl and fairly close to it so that water heats.
Making Observations of A Related Model (write"Related Model" in your journal)
1. We are now going to take a look at a related scenario in our classroom.
2. Make a T-chart in your science notebook using the following example.
Related Model: How is this model related to the mystery of the storms in our town?
3. As you observe the model, record your noticings and wonderings in the T-chart. Think about the following questions:
What is happening in the model?
What material or things do you notice in the model?
What might these items represent from the "real world"?
How does the model appear to work?
Do any parts of the model affect other parts/how do the parts affect each other?
4. Sketch this related model into your science journal and label the parts/items that you see. Leave space next to your words, you will be adding to this sketch.
5. Working in your group, think about what real world phenomena this model might represent. After checking with your teacher, add new labels to your model.
6. Use your computer to look up a real world model of this phenomena. Use pictures, symbols, and words in your model to help represent and further explain what you think is happening and how the phenomena works.
Note: It is always a good idea to add questions that pop up as we make our models. This is called "good science."
Comparing Initial Models
7. Share your model with a partner, looking for similarities and differences between your models. Keep track of the similarities and differences between your models. Be prepared to share these patterns with the whole group.
Consensus Model in a Science Seminar
5. What do we all seem to agree on?
6. What do we disagree on?
7. What are some new ideas that we may want to consider?
8. Join me in a Science Seminar (Scientists Circle) and we will a class model of the initial thinking
Students should create a model of the town that includes
-The town
-source of water, lake or river
-sun source of energy
- land/plants
-other items as students develop them
You will be using this model to guide students in a talk about what they think is happening. Basically, by the time you are done, you will be overlapping the water cycle over the top of your town's model.
When the model is done and you have the basics of how the water cycle is working, ask students why the floods are getting worse. Help students turn what is happening on their model into a question that they need to answer.
In your journal create the title "Model of Town"
1. Write you claim that explains why you think the weather in the town is getting worse.
2. What reasons can you give for this claim? Look through your journal and review your entries.
3. As a class we will make a model of the items we all need to include, when making a model of the town. This is just a list of what we think need as a whole class, your individual models may look different.
4. In a brief scientists seminar, we will create our model and use it to explain what we think is happening. We will also develop a question that we need to answer to better figure out what is happening.