Teaching Weather 

& Climate

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Composition of Air

Click here for a good introduction worksheet reviewing the main concepts on the composition of the air on our planet. Based on Heath Earth Science

Composition of Air Team Game Enlarge the pie chart from the above worksheet. Print out the pie chart without words, in color. Print out the words separately. Cut out. Give to teams. Say, "On your mark! Get set! Go!" Each team assembles the pie chart correctly and raises hand when finished. 
Composition of Air Team Skit Make quick calculations before assigning this skit. Calculate 78% of class and assign them to Nitrogen; 21% to oxygen; 1% to argon. Assign the 1% to one student even if less than 1% of your class. A catch-their-attention way to illustrate the trace gases, is to ask the 1% student to take off a shoe and throw it to the side to represent carbon dioxide and the rest of the trace gases. You can add more impact to this skit by asking the entire class to assemble themselves into a giant pie graph in the middle of the floor. Have a pile of labels and percents on cards that each section has to grab to label themselves.
Properties of the Air Activity

A good lab which review basic properties of air. Click here.

Layers of the Atmosphere Foldable
I use this right after I've taught the composition of the air objective. I have them pick up the blue paper and the cut-out page while entering the classroom and after Bellwork, we fold, cut out and paste on the front diagram, add blue and red lines to show the changes in temperature, cut the flaps, paste the descriptions inside, and then one at a time, cut out and paste the little objects on the front. See images below. Fun to watch kids realize they can do hard things! Play a White Board Game with them using their Foldable.  Click here for Foldable and Questions.
                             
Layers of the Atmosphere

Click here for a worksheet that introduces the parts and characteristics of the atmosphere. Has the students add small sketches to an atmosphere profile. 

UPDATE: I have replaced this worksheet with the Atmosphere Foldable (above). The Foldable is MUCH MORE fun and a more active approach!

Layers of the Atmosphere Game

Enlarge a chart showing the layers (unlabeled) of the atmosphere. I copied a student's sketches from the above assignment and enlarged and cut them out. Each team must place the sketches in the correct layers of the atmosphere, such as: meteors in mesosphere, person in troposphere, geese in the tropopause. Great fun!

Atmosphere Mania Team Game

Similar to Metric Mania. Good review of all the different facts you'd like your students to remember about the Layers of the Atmosphere! Click here.

Layers of the Atmosphere Speed Game This is where I let them bring along their Atmosphere Foldables to the Team gathering place: Give each team a colorful page with all the layers and pauses listed. (From Atmosphere Foldable.) I set the timer for 5 minutes and the teams must list as many characteristics as they can for each layer right on that paper in the proper area. Have the team choose the Recorder to write it all down. The rest of the team looks up as many different things as they can from their Foldable and dictate to Recorder. The Recorder just writes. You can make it trickier by giving points for correct characteristics, but subtracting for any wrong facts. Keeps them on their toes!
Layers of the Atmosphere Flashcards Run off simple cards with layer names on one side. Have the students write important information on the other side, even add small sketches. Or use index cards and have students write layer names on the one side. This helps prevent them from seeing the answers through the paper. You can do all sorts of quick review using these cards. Put them in order from the ground up. Put your finger on the layer you live in, the layer where meteors are found, the layer that contains ozone, etc. Students turn the card over to check their answer. Click here.
Layers of the Atmosphere CrissCross Puzzle I lay puzzles like this out on the Pick-Up Table so they can be picked up as students enter the room. I write "BONUS" at the top with a marker before I run it off. They know if it says "BONUS" they can do it anytime in class when there is a lull in the action. This works great for the faster students. They have something to do and get Bonus Points for being efficient workers! Click here.
CONVECTION CURRENTS 


The most basic concept of all: convection currents! I've seen many ways to introduce this concept. One uses Baby Food Jars. Fill one baby food jar to the brim with very hot, red-dyed water. Fill another baby food jar with very cold, blue-dyed water. Cover the red jar with an index card, turn it over and place over the blue jar. Slowly remove the index card. The colors don't mix, because cold air (water) sinks and warm air (water) rises. Holding the two jars firmly, flip them over. The warm water will begin to rise into the blue, turning the color to purple. Very dramatic. They'll want to see it again and again. Indulge them. They learn it forever! Even better if they do this themselves. Set up blue ice water station and  hot red water station (coffee put.)
Movement of Air and Water Demonstration

Another version sets a Beaker of Clear Hot Water on your overhead. Add one Blue-dyed Ice Cube to the beaker. Observe the blue water sink to the bottom. If you're lucky, the blue will warm up and rise before it disperses! Click here for a labsheet. Also good for teaching convection currents in the asthenosphere.

Teaching Tip for Convection Currents
Have your students draw one small, colored convection current in the Troposphere on the front of their Atmosphere Foldable. Use red for rising and blue for falling. Or have them add to bottom diagram of their Labsheet.

You want to teach a very complicated concept here: The movement of the rising hot air as it reaches the tropopause is what causes the Jet Stream, to which Lows are attached, which is why weather moves from west to east across the United States! This is also why the cumulonimbus cloud has an anvil top--it is captured and moved eastward by the jet stream, which is why we can tell where the troposphere ends and the stratosphere begins if we see an anvil top! Difficult but important concept!  
What Happens? Lab

(Otherwise known as the Crushing Can Lab but don't give it away!) This lab gets the essential concept of cold air=high pressure and hot air = low pressure better than any other lab I've used. I refer to this constantly. It even helps my students remember sea breeze and land breeze! Click here.

Heat Transfer

Teach heat transfer as a means of introducing Breezes and Global Wind Patterns. Click here for a quick worksheet that covers radiation, conduction, and convection.

Heat Transfer Team Review Game

Click here for a quick team game that gets their heads together with some peer teaching thrown in for good measure. Quick but potent learning!

Heat Transfer Team Game

Click here an example of a cut-apart game. (You'll need more pictures.) Give a packet of these sketches and have them separate into three piles with sticky note labels: radiation, conduction, or convection. Great fun to listen to them debate the game pieces and teach each other!

Weather Instruments Worksheet I show the PowerPoint below and they fill out quickly as they watch. Most middle-school aged students know most of these and it's a review for them. You're just getting them all on the same page, as some won't know all of them. If you have time, you can do great labs for each instrument. Otherwise this can be it. Click here.
Weather Instruments PowerPoint Good review PowerPoint to show to students along with above worksheet. Click here.
Air Pressure & Wind Worksheet

Click here for a good way to link heat transfer, convection and winds. I refer back to the What Happens? -Crushing Can Lab as they work through the questions. This is based on our textbook, but you could come up with a similar one for yours.

Angle of Sunlight Activity

This is affectionately known in my building as the "Skittles Lab," although this version uses beans. This lesson is floating around the Internet in many versions. A good way to teach why right angle sunlight will heat an area more than a narrower angle. Works! Click here.

Solar Radiation Lab

A good lab for teaching how water and soil absorb heat differently. Good way to really teach Land and Sea Breezes so they understand. Can be done inside or outside. Click here.

Global Winds Notes

Works best if they copy from the overhead, instead of using the book. You get more uniform answers for them to refer to when you move into Climate. Click here for the page. 

Movement of Air Worksheets

Works great as a review after Global Winds Notes and Air Pressure and Winds Worksheet. From Glencoe. Click here for 1st. Click here for 2nd.

Fronts Foldable
(See photos below)
Run the front Venn Diagram page off on colored paper, the other two pages on white. They can put them together several different ways. Have them fold hamburger bun-style. No flaps. Paste closely cropped symbols on the front. Paste all other diagrams and info squares inside, then use what's inside to fill out the front with pen or pencil. They have to come up with how they are alike by themselves! Good Thinking skills here! You can give hints or ask them what does the diagram with the cold and warm fronts attached to the Low tell them? Then they answer the questions in pairs or small groups or alone. See photos below. Click here.
   
Weather Prediction Exercises Here are some worksheets that have students attempt to use what they have learned about High and Low Pressure, Warm and Cold Fronts to predict the weather for specific cities. Copying the national weather on the second page below teaches that weather systems move across our country from West to East and also teaches that Lows rotate counterclockwise with the Warm and Cold Fronts attached. If you use that as the basis for simple prediction, they can begin to learn how to predict weather! More difficult for some students then others, that's for sure, but give it a try! We've added this because it is a new requirement in Missouri. Click here for first worksheet. Click here for second worksheet.
Observing Weather Chart Begin this on the day you begin your Weather Unit. Record for at least one week, more if possible. Then have them answer analysis questions in small groups or pairs. Click here for Chart. Click here for QuestionSheet that also has them copy the national weather map each day. You could skip the Observing Weather Chart and just go with the second option if pressed for time.
Changes in the Spheres

We have a state-required objective that asks us to introduce our students to the concept that changes in the "spheres" occur both naturally and by human design. We've come up with a "Changes in the Spheres" Project that takes a total of about one 90-minute class period. We give each small group a folder with information from the Internet. They are asked to use the information to fill out a worksheet and prepare a short presentation to the class. Topics such as these can be covered: Acid Rain, Chernobyl, The Great Flood of '93, The 9/11 Contrail Discovery, The Exxon Valdez, Meteorite Collisions, Volcanic Eruptions, etc. Students take notes during the speeches using a Listening Guide.

What is Climate? A good way to introduce the concept of Climate. Small groups or pairs come up with a definition on newsprint. Post where all can see. Or have each group write on chalkboard in different colors. They arrive at a group definition by consensus. Post this for all to see. Main rule: can't use the book's definition! Then discuss the definition of climate from the book.

"This meteorology book focuses on explanation about the processes that produce Earth's weather and climate. It emphasizes a non-mathematical understanding of physical principles as a vehicle for learning about atmospheric processes.

Additionally, difficult-to-visualize topics are reinforced with a series of software tutorials presented on a CD-ROM packaged with the book.

Accompanying CD-ROM features Tutorials, Interactive Exercises, and illustrative movie loops all keyed to the book.

Also, this book includes up-to-date coverage of severe weather events."
Factors That Influence Climate Climate controls should be covered: altitude, latitude, nearness to center of continent or large body of water, prevailing winds, ocean currents. This is a difficult for young minds to grasp, since most are not firmly in the conceptual stage. A chart form of the climate controls, with two columns, temperature and precipitation, is an organized, more concrete way for students to learn the material. I use a copyrighted handout that lists the controls for both temperature and precipitation, then asks questions that review the concept, then applies it to an imaginary continent.
Imaginary Continent

A traditional and effective way to involve students with the climate controls. Usually uses the main areas of continental vs. marine, windward and leeward, top of a mountain vs. foothills, equator vs. more northern latitudes. Click here for a nice imaginary continent by Paula Messina, a geology professor at San José State University who has also taught high school Earth Science. This works well for my ninth graders!

Design Your Own
Imaginary Continent

After working with a couple of prepared imaginary continents, have your students design their own! Click here for a copy of my lesson.

Climate Controls Review Cut out pictures from magazines or go high-tech and capture images of various climate controls, such as: very snowy scene (latitude), mountain scene (altitude), harbor with ocean view scene (nearness to large body of water), island surrounded by water scene (ocean currents), desert scene (center of large landmass), jungle scene (latitude), etc. Make up a worksheet or a transparency and ask students to identify which Climate Control is most at work in each scene. Good team game if you give each team smaller copies of each scene and have them label each with sticky notes.
Worldwide Climate Zones Introduce at least the three main climates: tropical, temperate, and polar. Later you can discuss other zones, such as: steppe, continental moist, continental dry, oceanic moist, highlands, etc. I use copyrighted worksheets. You could make your own using a world map, on which students color the three main zones. This makes it easier for students to identify the main temperatures on their own continents, using the climate control of latitude. I teach my students to say hot for tropical, warm or cool for temperate, and cold for polar regions. Many students are capable of moving to more sophisticated judgments, such as this is a tropical latitude but the city is atop a mountain, so maybe it's cool or warm instead of hot. Many can't make that distinction at this age.

Worldwide Climate Zones Activity

Not satisfied with the above worksheet, I decided to do something different this semester. So I made 3 different color sets of laminated cards: 1 set of cards with the 11 climate names, 1 set of cards in a different color with descriptions of the 11 climates, and a third set of cards with the parts of the North American Continent areas that match the 11 climate zones. I gave the students copies of the Koppen Climate Classification System to match Climate Names with Descriptions and, also using their World Climate Zone Map, try to match the climate types with different areas of the North American Continent. I did this activity BEFORE I taught the Factors that Influence Climate. I heard wonderful discussions between students as to what area of the country matched what climate and why!

North American
Climate Zones
It's a good idea to have your students identify the climate zones of the United States. This is a good way to introduce all the other climate zones. Use a United States map and ask students to come up and label each zone with sticky notes. You can also have students color and label a U.S. map with the main climate zones.
Teaching Climographs

Our state (Missouri) mentions climographs (or: climograms, climagraphs, climagrams) in the state frameworks. A good way to teach that temperature and precipitation are the two main elements used to describe different climate zones. Fun to relate these odd looking structures to the actual climates. Click here for a blank climagraph. Have the students graph two different climates (precip. and temp.) on separate climagraphs and write compare/contrast paragraphs about the two areas. Click here for a good on-line climogram activity which compares Moscow and Houston.

Comparing Climagraphs

A good worksheet that has the student graphing on a climagraph the West Palm Beach and Kathmandu climate information. Click here.

Climagraph Game

Print out several climographs of the United States. Have student teams match them to short climate descriptions. Good thinking exercise. Students really have to think how yearly temperature & precipitation trends would look on a graph. Click here for a climograph of Nashville. Print out climographs such as this one, minus the name of the city and the latitude/longitude information. Have them match to the correct climate name/descriptions. The correct one for Nashville is: Subtropical Moist: warm to hot summer, cool winter, precipitation all winter. You could also have the students separate the climographs into marine (low yearly temperature range) and continental (high yearly temperature range) by looking at the temperature line graphs.

Climate Change A climate unit isn't complete nowadays without touching on the concept of climate change, man-made or natural causes. Your textbook probably has a section on this topic. Work up a good study guide/worksheet. Discuss the concepts. Then do the aerosol science activity mentioned next. 
Aerosol Science Activity

Our state requires we have our students look at the impact of volcanic eruptions on climate change.  Click here for an excellent lab on the topic from the Atmospheric Science Data Center: What effect do volcanic eruptions have on the Earth's climate? This is no longer available online so this is a copy of what I have. Really great lesson. It's a shame they took it down. Work it through for yourself several times till you are sure you "get" it. Really tough but worth it. I don't make my kids do the math, just walk them through it. Some still do, if they have a calculator with them, I encourage that. But not really the point of the lesson. Click here for the answers.


Teaching Clouds
I've added this section for those of you with extra time to teach the "fun" stuff. Please consider moving beyond how to identify clouds. Try also teaching your students to connect each cloud type with a specific type of weather. This is learning for life, which truly engages your students!
Clouds Pre-Quiz

Try giving a PRE-QUIZ with no strings attached. Return at the end and give bonus points for each error fixed.

Cloud-in-a-Bottle Lab

Do CLOUD IN A BOTTLE to teach the concept of the condensation nuclei. This lab can be done with saved-up water bottles. It's a coool lab! Very dramatic!

Cloud Flashcards

Hand out CLOUD FLASHCARDS as a means to make sure your students learn all the clouds. I made sets of Cloud Flashcards once and had them for years! Provide time in class for pairs to drill each other. Here are two Cloud Bells for you to use at the beginning of the class period:     
Cloud Bell #1     Cloud Bell #2

Identify the Clouds

I have several IDENTIFY THE CLOUDS worksheets. Here's one for your use.

Cloud Worksheet

The main instrument is the CLOUD WORKSHEET where the students makes sketches, identify high, low, or middle altitude, add the Symbols and Abbreviations, but most importantly, the Associated Weather. I laminate the answers, one per small group, for the students to use.

Observing Weather Chart

Of course, take your students outside every day to fill in the OBSERVING WEATHER CHART, paying special attention to the clouds and the type of weather present. This is great fun! Fun spring event! Students will look forward to your class because they get to go outside and look at clouds. and I bet they'll learn something, too!

Cloud Cover Simulation

This is the best lesson I know for teaching students how to judge the amount of cloud cover in the sky. Do the CLOUD COVER SIMULATION in the classroom before you go outside to observe weather and clouds. Give them a copy of the actual CLOUD COVER SYMBOLS at the end of the lab. They will understand cloud cover percents!!

Cloud Booklet Project

I love to do the CLOUD BOOKLET PROJECT during "Cloud Week." If you can give them time in a computer lab one day, they can surf for cloud images, print in grayscale, and touch up with colored pencils. Many will print at night using color printers. This assignment reinforces types of clouds, the altitude they occupy, and associated weather. Nice to pass the booklets around on hand-in day to admire! Here's the Rubric.

 © Copyright 2008.  M. J. Krech. All rights reserved. 

Created by MJKrech
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Date Last Modified: 03/03/2008