Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Weather:
Thunderstorms
Curriculum
Alignment
Learning
Outcomes
Time
Required
and
Location
Content
Area
Science
Grade
Level
7th
NC Essential Standards
Objective 7.E.1.4
MS-ESS2-5:
Collect data to provide
Predict weather
conditions and patterns evidence for how the
motions and complex
based on information
interactions of air masses
obtained from:
Weather data collected results in changes in weather
conditions.
from direct
observations and
measurements (wind
speed and direction, air
temperature, humidity
and air pressure),
Weather maps,
satellites and radar,
cloud shapes and types
and associated
elevation.
Students will be able to:
1. Identify the types of weather coverage from high and low-pressure
environments.
2. Manually graph on a piece of paper two different graphs that look at
humidity and barometric pressure data from five days.
3. Explain which type of graph is the best to use for the data points collected.
4. Conduct a lab investigation for five days on predicting a thunderstorm using
the Engineering Design Process.
This lesson can be done in multiple ways depending on how the school is set
up. If the school is on a schedule where the teacher sees all of the students every
day, then the students would have the overview and initial part on Monday and
would record the data Tuesday-Friday and then finish up on that following
Monday.
If the school is on a block-schedule where the teacher would only see his/her
students three days a week, then the first day would be the entire lab (100
minutes approximately including indoor and outdoor part) and the recording
data would continue to be done on the next four days that the teacher sees them
in class.
Time
Required
and
Location
This lesson can be done in multiple ways depending on how the school is set
up. If the school is on a schedule where the teacher sees all of the students every
day, then the students would have the overview and initial part on Monday and
would record the data Tuesday-Friday and then finish up on that following
Monday.
If the school is on a block-schedule where the teacher would only see his/her
students three days a week, then the first day would be the entire lab (100
minutes approximately including indoor and outdoor part) and the recording
data would continue to be done on the next four days that the teacher sees them
in class.
Timing:
1. 50 minute class period will consist of staying in the classroom to discuss
background information on careers, sensors, how the TI sensor works, and then
introducing the Engineering Design Process.
2. 50 minute class period will consist of going outside to collect the data and
then coming back into the classroom to make a graph and talk about results.
3. 50 minute class period on the fifth day of recording the data will consist of
the groups choosing a type of graph for their data points and then individually
making two graphs and answering reflections in their notebooks. The
information on the graphing and reflection questions will be included in the
Power Point handout. Estimation would be about 30 minutes of class time to
finish.
Materials
Needed
Teacher list:
Power point Presentation (to introduce information)
Ben-Q
Teacher laptopClass set of power point handoutsClass set of TI
Sensors (How many per student)
Class set of Student worksheets Graphing Paper
Student List
Safety
Student
Prior
Knowledge
Activities
Students will enter classroom and get out their interactive notebooks.
10 minutes
Engage:
Students will watch a short clip on the importance of weather forecasting. (link:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dbzdHz1Xj48) Upon completion of the
video, each student will write in their own notebooks about a time when they
thought the weather was going to be a certain way but it actually ended up
being the exact opposite. It needs to be five sentences long and it must be
thorough. They need to include the situation that occurred and also how it made
them feel when they could not accurately predict what the weather was doing.
The teacher will choose a few students to share their experiences with the
classroom.
5 minutes
20 minutes
Explore:
After discussion is over, students will briefly learn about Meteorologists and the
different job functions that they can have. The information below will be in a
Power Point provided as well.
Operational Forecaster analyzes weather conditions and issues
forecasts or alerts.
Research Meteorologist studies more specific areas of weather like
severe weather or climate change.
Military Meteorologists makes weather observations and forecasts
for missions around the world.
Other job functions that they have:
Help airlines know weather conditions
Help electric companies know if a heat wave is coming
Help road crews with snow/hail predictions
Help fruit/vegetable farmers to know when to turn their
sprinklers on when a cold snap might be occurring.
Help with radio and television stations
Help in teaching
(http://www.nssl.noaa.gov/people/jobs/careers.php)
Storm Chasers: https://tvnweather.com/live
Explain:
After talking about the different types of careers of Meteorologists, the content
will transition into talking about how Meteorologists use sensors to predict the
weather. However, before explaining the process involved, it is important for
the students to know what sensors are, how they are important, and what is the
current research involving these sensors. Therefore, the students will watch a
short clip on sensors and how the Assist Center at NC State University uses
them to harvest energy and create self-powered wearable devices using
nanotechnology. (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MmiP_voM8UQ)
After the video, the teacher will facilitate a brief Q&A session with the
students that have questions or thoughts about the new technology. After
the discussion, the teacher will tell them that they are going to be using a
sensor today to help predict the weather.
However, before going into detail about the sensor, the teacher will need to
review some vocabulary words and definitions on temperature, humidity, wind
speed and direction, dew point, and atmospheric pressure. Below are the notes
that will be on the Power Point slide.
Temperature
o A measure of the airs hotness or coldness and is the most
measured quantity of the atmosphere.
Humidity
o The amount of water vapor in the air
Wind Speed and Wind Direction
o Moving air caused by differences in air pressure. Air moves
from an area of higher pressure to an area of lower pressure. If
there were no wind, there wouldnt be much day-to-day
difference in our weather.
Dew Point
The temperature at which the air can no longer "hold" all of the water
vapor, which is mixed with it, and some of the water vapor must
condense into liquid water.
Atmospheric Pressure
o Atmospheric pressure is a measure of the weight of air in
atmospheres above us. Air is made up of molecules of elements
in gaseous state and minute dust particles.
After discussing the types of ways to predict the weather, the teacher will tell
the students that they are going to be doing a lab only measuring the humidity
and barometric pressure outside.
* Essential Question: How can I use the TI Sensor to predict the weather?
Briefly talk about how the students are going to be using the TI Sensor Tag to
record their data for the lab today. At this point, the students should have at
least seen the TI Sensor Tag in a previous lesson on One Health, but if not, then
the teacher should take some time to introduce the sensor and explain the
specific functions of it.
15 minutes
Explore:
After completing the introduction to the TI Sensor Tag, the teacher will decide
how to put the students into groups of four. One option is having the students
pick only one partner and then the teacher groups the two students with another
group of two students. Another option could be allowing certain classes to pick
all of their group members and other classes that may be more difficult with
classroom management having the teacher group everyone into certain groups.
Once the students are in their groups, the teacher will talk about how to set up
the TI Sensor Tag with their Smart Phone. There is a slide in the Power Point as
Explore:
It will begin with the teacher reviewing the steps of the Engineering Design
Process and its importance to not forget any steps. The teacher should have
already gone over these steps in a previous lesson before starting this one. The
teacher may write the process on a white board or just say what each step is
briefly. The following information is from the Power Point and the teacher will
need to have the slides up. The importance of these slides is that it is going over
the Engineering Design Process one step at a time.
1. Identifying the Problem Can you predict a thunderstorm using only the
humidity and barometer sensors on the Sensor Tag?
2. Making a Hypothesis If ____________, then ______________.
Examples: If the humidity is 100%, then precipitation will occur.
If the barometric pressure is high, then the sky will be clear.
3. Recording Your Data this portion of the lesson will have the students
figuring out what responsibilities each person will have. After the
responsibilities are figured out then the teacher will take the students outside to
record the data.
*Data Sheet is included at the end of this lesson
The students will be in groups of four with the following Responsibilities:
a. Sensor Tag Holder
b. Smart Phone Holder
c. Data Sheet Reporter
d. Time Keeper
Elaborate:
This final section will be completed once the students have all five days worth
of values for the humidity and barometric pressure recorded from class-time.
Each day they should have decided on whether they believed that a
thunderstorm wouldve occurred or not and why. The students will then work in
their groups to determine if their data points should be plotted as a line, bar, or a
pie graph. If some of the team members disagree that is okay because each
Assessment
10 minutes
student will be plotting their own values as a graph into their interactive
notebook. If the teacher does not want them to record their data into an
interactive notebook, then they need to provide another means of recording the
data. Then, each person should create two different graphs of the data points
collected in their interactive notebooks. One graph will be on humidity and the
other will be barometric pressure. The x-axis should be the # of days and the Yaxis will be % of humidity on one graph and the other will be barometric
pressure levels. For a refresher on graphing, there is a Power Point called
Graphing 101 that is included in this lesson plan as a separate document.
This portion of the lesson plan ties into the elaboration portion that previously
had the students answer questions about what type of graph they would use and
then graphing the data points.
Evaluate:
This last section will have reflection questions that each student must answer on
their own in order for me to see how much they have learned from the lab.
Below are the questions.
1.Which day had the highest humidity during data collection?
2.When humidity is projected to be 100%, what does this mean?
3.Which chart type did you choose to represent your data and why?
4.Would recording your data after one minute yield the same results as five
minutes?
5.Look at your chart. Which days should there be a thunderstorm? How do you
know a thunderstorm will occur on these days?
Extension
Activities
If there were more time and resources available, then there could be stations set
up all across the room with different climate and geographical terrain examples
present in each station. The students could do research on that particular area
and how they could use the TI Sensor tag to measure the humidity and
barometric pressure levels in that climate. They could include information about
the topography, soil levels, and air pollution that would potentially also affect
the environment in that area. Also, they could research the average humidity
and barometric pressure in that area and explain the values generated.
Modificatio
ns
ESL Modifications:
1. Have them only record 3 days of the humidity and barometric pressure.
2. Instead of having them create a graph and answer the reflection questions,
they could draw three pictures one for each day that they recorded. They
would have to draw what the weather looked like outside and would have to
determine if any of the days had a thunderstorm that might occur. If so, then
they would need to draw a thunderstorm onto their picture.
Alternative
Assessments
References
Supplement
al
Information
Since this lesson plan is based off of doing a lab, there is not many additional
resources to offer. The students are not doing a web quest or any other
programs online that they would need to have access to. The only thing that
might be useful is www.weather.com to either look up data for the humidity and
barometric pressure or any current articles that might be useful to implement
into the lesson if need be.
* This lesson plan was developed to last five consecutive days originally.
However, in realizing that not every school would have the same schedule, I
modified it so that any teacher could use it for five class periods. I chose to have
a lot of background information presented first on weather forecasting and
sensors to get them engaged before beginning the lab.
* I chose to not have them set up their sensor tags until it was time to actually
begin the lab because I knew that they would probably start playing with them
instead of paying attention to the rest of the information.
* If a teacher wanted to shorten the lesson plan, they could maybe only record
data for three days instead of five.
* If a teacher wanted to extend the lesson plan, they could have the students
Comments
Comments
* This lesson plan was developed to last five consecutive days originally.
However, in realizing that not every school would have the same schedule, I
modified it so that any teacher could use it for five class periods. I chose to have
a lot of background information presented first on weather forecasting and
sensors to get them engaged before beginning the lab.
* I chose to not have them set up their sensor tags until it was time to actually
begin the lab because I knew that they would probably start playing with them
instead of paying attention to the rest of the information.
* If a teacher wanted to shorten the lesson plan, they could maybe only record
data for three days instead of five.
* If a teacher wanted to extend the lesson plan, they could have the students
give a group presentation at the end about their data and if they could accurately
predict which days might have a thunderstorm occur.
* In working with this sensor, one thing to keep in mind is to make sure any
trouble shooting begins before teaching this lesson. For example, the first time
that I worked with the sensor it took a little while to figure out how to find my
device on it and to rename it.
* I also found that only I-phones not Androids will allow you to rename the file
on the app. For more help go to: http://www.ti.com/tool/cc2541dk-sensor.
* I recommend to set up one device at a time in the groups. That way not every
group is trying to find the files on the app all at one time. If time does not
permit that, then the teacher rename the devices before the lesson begins.
* If there is no weather change after completing this lab for five teaching days,
then one option is to allow a few weeks to go by and then revisit the weather
outside again. Another option instead of going outside is to go to the LIVE
Storm Chasers website: https://tvnweather.com/live. It would help to see in real
time what the weather is doing and then www.weather.com would have the data
for the humidity and barometric pressure of that day.
Author
Information
Name: ______________
Date: _____________
Humidity
Barometric
Chance
of
Thunderstorm
(Yes/No)