Weather: How Does Temperature Affect Air?

Lesson Content

• Lesson Plan Template:

  General Lesson Plan

• Learning Objectives: What will students know and be able to do as a result of this lesson?

  
  

  Student will learn that when air warms up, it expands. When air cools, it contracts. Specifically:

  • When gasses such as air are warmed the (kinetic) energy of its molecules increase. They move around faster causing the air to expand. 
  • When air is cooled the (kinetic) energy of its molecules decrease. They move around slower causing the air to contract.

  Student will learn that air has the following properties:

  • Air temperature influences air pressure.
  • Air masses of different pressures will seek equilibrium. Air from a high pressure region will move towards an area of lower pressure air to fill it in.
  • The air movement due to pressure difference is what causes wind.
  • Areas of high and low air pressure on Earth are important to meteorologists because their position relative to each other is used to predict wind.

   Students will gather and graph data as evidence to support the above objectives.

• Prior Knowledge: What prior knowledge should students have for this lesson?

  
  

  Investigate and describe that energy has the ability to cause motion or create change.

  Investigate and describe some basic forms of energy, including light, heat, sound, electrical, chemical, and mechanical. 

  Graph points on quadrant 1 of a coordinate plane.

   

• Guiding Questions: What are the guiding questions for this lesson?

  
  

  Air is invisible, but can it have a temperature?

  What are the differences between warm and cold air?

  What components of air react to temperature?

  What causes wind?

• Introduction: How will the teacher inform students of the intent of the lesson? How will students understand or develop an investigable question?

  
  

  We can feel the difference between warm and cold air around us. What is actually happening to air as it warms up?

  How does air change when warmed and cooled?

  What happens when warm air and cold air meet?

  Key talking points about the lesson topic

  Present the lesson material given in How Does Temperature Affect Air.pptx

   

  Vocabulary

  •          Expand
  •          Contract
  •          Kinetic Energy
  •          Air Mass
  •          Meteorologist / Meteorology 

   

• Investigate: What will the teacher do to give students an opportunity to develop, try, revise, and implement their own methods to gather data?

  
  

  Experiment Overview:

  Students will place the Mantis Climate Sensor into a jar and seal the lid with a balloon. They will warm the jar and observe the effect on the temperature and pressure readings while noting the state of fullness of the balloon.

  Detailed instructions can be found in the StudentWorksheet-How Does Temperature Affect Air worksheet. 

  

   

  

  

   

• Analyze: How will the teacher help students determine a way to represent, analyze, and interpret the data they collect?

  
  

  The StudentWorksheet-How Does Temperature Affect Air instructs the students to record the air temperature and pressure at one minute intervals.

   

  How will you check for student understanding?

  At the conclusion of the experiment the students are asked to graph their data in the table provided in the Student Worksheet. This will help students visualize the relationship between temperature, pressure, and the volume of air.

   

  Common errors/misconceptions to anticipate and how to respond

  Concluding questions in the Student Worksheet are designed to assess whether the student understands that the kinetic energy of air molecules due to the amount heat present is the driving factor of the observed behavior, specifically the expansion and contraction of air in warm and cool temperatures respectively.

  Students may mistakenly conclude that temperature directly makes air molecules themselves lighter or heavier (bigger or smaller) when in fact the temperature is making the space between the air molecules (density) lesser or greater depending on the kinetic energy of the molecules. The mass of each individual air molecule does not change.

  Students may mistakenly think the amount of air molecules is increasing. However, the correct assessment of the phenomena is that the same number of molecules are being influenced by temperature to behave differently – to move faster or slower.

  In the worksheet, the students are asked whether the number of molecules in the jar/balloon has changed or remained the same. The instructor can check the answer to this question to determine whether the student is thinking about the behavior of the molecules vs. the number of them.

   

  The student may be confused by the fact that pressure rises in the sealed container when heat is applied, however, in the natural environment the opposite is true: air expands and thus becomes lighter. It must be emphasized that the purpose of the laboratory experiment is to prove that air expands when heated and this evidence is then used to describe how air behaves in the natural environment. The difference in behavior is because the laboratory jar is restricting the volume of the air while there is no such restriction in the natural environment. The student must be made aware that a laboratory result is being applied to a natural phenomenon.

   

• Closure: What will the teacher do to bring the lesson to a close? How will the students make sense of the investigation?

  
  

  Review the experimental results and confirm the conclusion that warming air expands and cooling air contracts. Emphasize that evidence from the laboratory experiments in the sealed container can be used to draw conclusions about how air behaves in the natural environment. An understanding of following properties of air in the natural environment will be used in subsequent lessons about weather:

  • Warmer air rises because it is less dense than cooler air.
  • Air temperature influences air pressure.
  • Air masses of different pressures will seek equilibrium. Air from a high pressure region will move towards an area of lower pressure air to fill it in.
  • The air movement due to pressure difference is what causes wind.

   

• Summative Assessment

  
  

  Students will answer questions in the Student Worksheet to express their conclusion about the effects of temperature difference on air.  

   

• Formative Assessment

  
  

  StudentWorksheet-How Does Temperature Affect Air can be evaluated for understanding of the phenomena throughout each experiment.  The teacher should ask probing question, before, during an after the experiments to asses the students are beginning to grasp the content.

   

• Feedback to Students

  
  

  StudentWorksheet-How Does Temperature Affect Air provides students with a means to demonstrate their understanding and receive feedback from the teacher when necessary.