Week 11: Weather and Climate

  1. What did you do in lab today?

  • Water Cycle
    • Evaporation, condensation, precipitation
      • Transpiration
    • Sublimation and De-sublimation
  • Weather occurs in the Troposphere
  • Weather is short term, climate is long-term
  • How did we forecast weather before modern technology?
    • old wives tales
      • Joints hurt
      • biting flies
      • smell the rain
  • Why does weather typically come from the west?
    • direction of rotation of Earth
  • Less dense = warm
  • more dense = cold
  • As the sun comes up, air "warms" up and moves creating a convection cell. Yes, that same convection cell that makes plates move
  • it is windiest when the sun is at it's peak so early afternoon 
  • Air pressure: how much weight the air is pressing down on earth
  • Which brings the moisture? High Pressure vs Low Pressure
    • Low pressure system is when storms are happening or anything other than sunny, pressure is leaving
    • High pressure system is when the warm air is coming down, pressure increases
  • heat rises, cool sinks 
  • Warm Front: 
    • where a warmer air mass is replacing a colder air mass
    • leaves warm air
    • often brings stormy weather
  • Cold Front: 
    • cold air pushes the warm air up 
  • Stationary Front:
    • warm air and cold air halt 
    • at a standstill
  • Occluded Front:
    • cold air gets smushed in between warm air
    • gets trapped, brings in clouds
    • snow or rain

2. What was the big question? How does the weather and climate shape how we navigate life? 

3. What did you learn in Thursday's discussion? 

Notes
  • Nothing, we had our Earth Science Test

4. Read online textbook, chapter 11:
- What did you learn? 

  • Fronts:

    • Warm fronts bring warmer air into cooler regions, often leading to gradual weather changes.

    • Cold fronts push cooler air into warmer regions, usually causing more abrupt shifts.

    • Stationary fronts occur when neither air mass advances, leading to prolonged weather conditions.

  • Pressure Systems:

    • Low pressure --> rising air, cloud formation, precipitation, and unstable weather.

    • High pressure --> sinking air, fewer clouds, clear skies, and calmer conditions.

  • Weather Maps:

    • Red lines with circles = warm fronts.

    • Blue lines with triangles = cold fronts.

    • Alternating red/blue = stationary front.

    • Blue “H” = high pressure, Red “L” = low pressure.

  • Folk Wisdom Meets Science:

    • The saying “Red sky at night, sailor’s delight; red sky in morning, sailors take warning” is scientifically accurate because of how dust and aerosols scatter light in high vs. low pressure systems.

  • Water Cycle:

    • Evaporation --> condensation --> precipitation --> runoff/infiltration --> repeat.

    • Special processes: sublimation (solid --> gas), desublimation (gas --> solid), and evapotranspiration (plants releasing water vapor).

  • Wind:

    • Caused by uneven heating of Earth’s surface. Warm air rises, cool air sinks, and air moves from high to low pressure, creating wind.

- What was most helpful? 
  • The weather map symbols and explanations were the most practical. They provide a direct way to help students interpret real-world data and connect classroom learning to daily life.
  • The integration of NGSS standards (K–3) was also valuable, showing how to align lessons with grade-level expectations. 
    • This makes it easier to design lessons that are both engaging and standards-based.
- What do you need more information on?

  • Scaffolding abstract concepts: How to make processes like sublimation, desublimation, and pressure systems concrete for elementary students.

  • Hands-on classroom strategies: Beyond observation and graphing, what inquiry-based experiments or simulations can help students experience these ideas?

  • Equity and accessibility: How to adapt weather lessons for multilingual learners or students with limited background knowledge in science.

5. What questions, concerns, and/or comments do you have? How can I connect local weather patterns to global climate systems in a way that is appropriate for my students?

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Week 12: Before the Flood

Image
  1. What did you do in lab today? Climate Change  1. What are the primary points in the video? Climate change is not a future problem, it's happening now and affecting millions of people. the documentary showed how burning fossil fuels, deforestation, and industrial farming are major contributors to global warming. Political and economic systems often slow down action, even when solutions already exist. 2. What are the major issues? Not enough people or leaders are taking this issue seriously. Developing countries will suffer the most, even though they contribute the least to the problem. We might reach a point where the damage can't be reversed. 3. What questions do you want us to teach you? What I can personally do to make a difference. Is the world on track to meet the goals from climate agreements?  How can countries switch to renewable energy sources effectively? AI affecting Climate Change Comparisons of Climate Trends  Data collection for Climate Change Corpo...
Read more

Week 6: Geologic Time

   1. What did you do in lab today?   Quiz Review Topics  Shadows If the sun is ______ and I'm at ______ where is my shadow pointing? Moon Phases new moon = no moon  full moon = all moon waxing quarter waning quarter Solstice, equinox  Equinox = equator  Solstice = winter vs summer  summer solstice = sun at cancer winter solstice = sun at capricorn Tropic Lines: Cancer (N), Equator, Capricorn (S) Lifecycle of Stars, Galaxies, Meteor "lifecycle" 3 types of galaxies: Spiral, irregular, elliptical (milky way is spiral)  Andromeda is the galaxy we might collide with stars start as a nebula, then explodes to star, can turn into a nebula or a black hole when a meteor enters earth's atmosphere it becomes a meteorite  Earth Science  Big Bang: 13.7 b.y.a Earth: 4.65 b.y.a EarthView BioInteractive 2. What was the big question?  What is the history of the Earth and how does that affect us today? 3. What did you learn in Thursday's discuss...
Read more

Week 10: Convection, Plate Boundaries, and Layers of Earth

Image
  1. What did you do in lab today? Why do we have earthquakes & volcanoes not on boundaries? Ancient fault lines At one point Iowa was at the edge of the continent, could've been a fault line Fracking drilling of natural gas and oil  this could have an effect of an earthquake due to stress Convection Currents  Surface currents carry warmer, less dense water from the equator to the poles water from deep currents rise to replace water, leaving in surface currents warm water from surface currents replaces colder, denser water that sinks to the ocean floor coldest water: the poles Warmest water: equator arctic waters come down to equator, heat up, then goes back up Alfred Wegener Because the earth was spinning the continents were moving --> this is what he based it on  not strong enough to bring continents together or apart (was laughed at) Layers of the Earth Crust: outer layer of earth Mantle: convection is happening Core: inner most part of Earth --> very ho...
Read more