WEATHER WATCH As a Student Scientist, here is how you will use the Engineering Design Cycle
Project-Based Inquiry Science WW 2
What s the Big Challenge? Develop a Plan for Responding to a Severe Weather Event Look out the window. What is it like outside? To describe the day, you might use words such as warm or cool, sunny or cloudy, breezy or calm. You are describing weather. Weather refers to everything that is going on in the atmosphere at a particular place and time, including temperature, humidity, precipitation, air pressure, and wind direction and speed. weather: conditions in the atmosphere, including temperature, humidity, precipitation, air pressure, and wind direction and speed. atmosphere: the part of Earth s system made of the mixture of gases that surrounds Earth. severe weather: a set of atmospheric conditions that can injure or kill people or cause major property damage. Weather can have a tremendous impact on people s lives. In a Montana snowstorm, you might suddenly experience whiteout conditions. Traffic comes to a standstill. Drivers pull over because they can see only a few feet ahead. Your school may close because driving is so dangerous or power lines are down. Florida thunderstorms bring heavy rain that can cause flash floods. Homes, businesses, and crops can be destroyed. If the thunderstorms are part of a hurricane, your family may prepare to evacuate to a safer place. These are examples of severe weather. Severe weather is a set of atmospheric conditions that can injure or kill people or cause major property damage. The type of severe weather you might experience depends on the region in which you live. WW 3 WEATHER WATCH
meteorologist: a scientist who observes and forecasts weather. In this Unit, you will explore the work done by meteorologists scientists who observe and forecast the weather. Working like a meteorologist, you will look for changes that indicate severe weather is coming. You will organize information on maps and data tables. You will then use these tools to investigate patterns in weather movement. You will also investigate how meteorologists use observations from places far away to help them predict weather near your home. Weather forecasts are important because they give people time to prepare for severe weather and to take action before it is too late. Look at the Big Challenge for this Unit: Develop a plan for responding to a severe weather event. You will identify and describe a type of severe weather event that can occur in some region of the United States. You will explain why and how that weather happens, describe the dangers associated with it, and propose ways of responding. To do this, you will need to explore what affects climate and weather. You will also need to investigate the causes of severe weather in the region you are assigned. Welcome to Weather Watch. Enjoy your journey as a student scientist. Project-Based Inquiry Science WW 4
Think About the Big Challenge Giant hailstones can smash and dent cars, floods can lift houses off their foundations and sweep them away, droughts can destroy crops and sometimes lead to wildfires. People in every region have felt the effects of severe weather, but severe weather is not the same everywhere. Hurricanes strike the southeastern coast but not the central part of the United States. Blizzards are common in the Northeast but are rare in southern states. Floods and tornadoes can occur almost anywhere, but they are more likely in some places than in others. In all regions, severe weather can cause harm. Get Started You will watch a short video showing several types of severe weather. As you watch the video, pay attention to the conditions that produce severe weather. Notice what is happening in the atmosphere in each scene and what causes damage in each type of severe weather. Is it wind, water, temperature, or a combination of conditions? As you watch the video, record your observations. After watching the video, you will answer the questions below. Read through them now before watching the video so you know what to think about as you watch the video. You may also want to watch the video a second time. Watching the video and answering the questions should help you get started on the Big Challenge for this Unit: Develop a plan for responding to a severe weather event. Stop and Think Record answers to the questions below and be prepared to share them with the class. 1. The video showed several types of severe weather. List at least two. What are some effects of these types of severe weather? 2. Make a list of types of severe weather than can occur in your region. For each type, what do you think you could do to protect yourself, your family, and your property? WW 5 WEATHER WATCH
3. Were there any types of severe weather events in the video that could not happen where you live? Why do you think it could not happen? 4. If you have lived or traveled in a different region, you may have come across different types of severe weather. What types of severe weather have you or other group members experienced that do not occur in your region? What are the effects of these types of severe weather? 5. Why do you think different kinds of severe weather occur in different regions? What factors affect the weather that occurs in different places? 6. Which types of severe weather events do you think are related to a specific season? Which of these events do you think could occur during any season? Communicate Share Your Ideas Share your answers with the rest of your class. Some members of your class may have lived in regions of the United States where you have never been. Others may have lived in different regions of the world. Listen carefully when these class members describe some of the weather events with which they are familiar. Consider how each type of severe weather event is related to the normal weather of each region. As a class, discuss what you think can cause each type of severe weather. Make sure you understand each class member s suggestions about the causes of weather events. You may disagree, but listen carefully to each class member s ideas, and ask questions about what you do not understand. To address the Big Challenge, you will have to find out what causes severe weather and determine which types of severe weather are possible for a given region. Decide as a class what questions are important to investigate to address the challenge. Project-Based Inquiry Science WW 6
Create a Project Board It is useful, when you are working on a challenge, to keep track of your progress. It is also useful to keep track of what you still need to do. Throughout this Unit, you will be using a Project Board to do that. During classroom discussions, your teacher or one of your classmates will record the class s ideas on a class Project Board. At the same time, you should keep track of what has been discussed on your own Project Board page. evidence: the data collected during investigations and trends in that data. Develop a plan for responding to a severe weather event What do we think we know? What do we need to investigate? What are we learning? What is our evidence? What does it mean for the challenge or question? Recall that a Project Board has space for answering five guiding questions: What do we think we know? What do we need to investigate? What are we learning? What is our evidence? What does it mean for the challenge or question? To get started on this Project Board, record the Big Challenge at the top of the board: Develop a plan for responding to a severe weather event. WW 7 WEATHER WATCH
What do we think we know? In this column of the Project Board, record what you and your classmates think you know about weather in general and about severe weather. Have you studied these concepts before? Even if you remember only a small fact or idea, talk about it. Discuss what you think might affect the weather of a region in the United States. Record those ideas and thoughts in this column. What do we need to investigate? In this column, you will record the things you need to investigate to address the challenge. When you were sharing your ideas about what causes severe weather, you and others in your class may have disagreed about some ideas. This column is designed to help you keep track of things that are debatable or unknown, and need to be investigated. Later in this Unit, you and your classmates will return to the Project Board. For now, record your ideas and questions in the first two columns. Project-Based Inquiry Science WW 8