Big Idea 7: Earth Systems and Patterns

Students will participate in a cooperative learning activity to understand the importance of preparing for severe weather. Then, students will discuss that people form governments for many reasons and will understand that one of those reasons is to help keep us safe. They will work with their teacher to explore resources published by their state and federal government to help them prepare for and keep them safe during and after severe weather.

Type: Lesson Plan

Students will utilize temperature and precipitation data to rank locations best suited to host an outdoor celebration honoring Rosa Parks. They will interpret data using tables and graphs and apply knowledge of weather patterns while addressing state and national symbols in this integrated model eliciting activity.

Type: Lesson Plan

In this lesson students will be exploring the force of wind and its affect on objects. Students will use the engineering design process to sketch, build, and assess how their structure withstands different forces of wind. 

Type: Lesson Plan

In this MEA, students are being asked to rank which severe weather survival kit would be best to use for people preparing for severe weather conditions.

Model Eliciting Activities, MEAs, are open-ended, interdisciplinary problem-solving activities that are meant to reveal students’ thinking about the concepts embedded in realistic situations. Click here to learn more about MEAs and how they can transform your classroom.

Type: Lesson Plan

This Model Eliciting Activity (MEA) requires students to develop a procedure to determine which month to hold an outdoor party for a celebrity pop star. Students will need to apply their knowledge of weather patterns and severe weather effects to determine which month would most likely have the best weather for the event.

Model Eliciting Activities, MEAs, are open-ended, interdisciplinary problem-solving activities that are meant to reveal students’ thinking about the concepts embedded in realistic situations. Click here to learn more about MEAs and how they can transform your classroom.

Type: Lesson Plan

This is a continuation of It's Raining Research (Lesson # 36797) and It's Raining Research Part 2 (Lesson #38864). This lesson demonstrates how students can use nonfiction text features to locate information relating to the different types of precipitation. The students will use nonfiction text features to gather information to describe when rain, snow, hail, and sleet occur. Students will share the information they have learned by creating a poster.

Type: Lesson Plan

This is a continuation of "It's Raining Research." Part 2 of this lesson demonstrates how students can use nonfiction text features to locate information relating to the different types of precipitation. The students will use nonfiction text features to gather information to describe the events that cause rain, snow, hail, and sleet to occur and then tell how they are similar and different.

Type: Lesson Plan

In this lesson, students will define wind as they read informational text about the wind. They will learn new vocabulary and identify the main idea, key details, and main topic of a text. Students will write an informational paragraph in which they define wind using details from the texts they have read.

Type: Lesson Plan

Children are challenged to create hurricane kits from a list of $5 supplies and a fixed budget. In a twist, students are asked to revise their kits to account for diverse families including families with young children, families with elderly adults, and families with pets. They are given an increased budget and a checklist for each type of kit.  The expectation is that students can determine which supplies would be useful in an emergency hurricane kit and that they can skip-count by 5’s to make sure they stay within their budgets.

Model Eliciting Activities, MEAs, are open-ended, interdisciplinary problem-solving activities that are meant to reveal students’ thinking about the concepts embedded in realistic situations. Click here to learn more about MEAs and how they can transform your classroom.

Type: Lesson Plan

Big Beach Travels has selected the students to help them choose the best month for their client to visit Daytona Beach. Students will use rainfall and temperature information to inform their decisions and to rank the other months from best time to visit to worst time to visit. In a twist, they will be told that the clients changed their minds and, instead, would like to travel to Ft. Lauderdale and see a concert on the beach while they are there. Students must use the same data for Ft. Lauderdale as well as event information to determine the best month to visit and rank the other months in order from best time to visit to worst.

Model Eliciting Activities, MEAs, are open-ended, interdisciplinary problem-solving activities that are meant to reveal students’ thinking about the concepts embedded in realistic situations. Click here to learn more about MEAs and how they can transform your classroom.

Type: Lesson Plan

In this 2nd grade MEA, students will analyze weather conditions in a team to determine which time of the year and which city would be the best to visit based on weather patterns from season to season and day to day in Florida.

Model Eliciting Activities, MEAs, are open-ended, interdisciplinary problem-solving activities that are meant to reveal students’ thinking about the concepts embedded in realistic situations. Click here to learn more about MEAs and how they can transform your classroom.

Type: Lesson Plan

This Engineering Design Challenge is intended to help students apply the concepts of force from SC.2.P.13.1 (investigate the effect of applying various pushes and pulls on different objects) and the concept of wind from SC.2.E.7.4 (investigate that air is all around us and that moving air is wind) as they build structures to withstand the force of high-speed winds. It is not intended as an initial introduction to these concepts.

Type: Lesson Plan

This lesson teaches children about different weather patterns using nonfiction text with supporting pictures. After reading the text, children will play a Jeopardy style game and then create a foldable as a formative assessment.

Type: Lesson Plan

This lesson demonstrates how students can use nonfiction text features to locate information relating to the different types of precipitation. The students will use nonfiction text features to gather information to describe rain, snow, hail, and sleet. Students will use this information to describe the similarities and differences in the various types of precipitation.

Type: Lesson Plan

This Engineering Design Challenge is intended to help students apply the concepts of force from SC.2.P.13.1 (investigate the effect of applying various pushes and pulls on different objects), the concept of wind from SC.2.E.7.4 (investigate that air is all around us and that moving air is wind), and practice working with money (MAFS.2.MD.3.8 solve word problems involving dollar bills, quarters, dimes, nickels, and pennies, using $ and ¢ symbols appropriately) as they build structures to withstand the force of high-speed winds. The first day's lesson also provides practice in recognizing and drawing shapes (MAFS.2.G.1.1). It is not intended as an initial introduction to these concepts.

Type: Lesson Plan

In this lesson, students will gain practice on reading informational material and using text features to comprehend text on the water cycle.

Type: Lesson Plan

In this activity, students will make observations that things in direct sunlight are warmer than things that are not in as much sunlight. Also, they may notice that there may be more heat near asphalt, brick, or cement because heat can be stored and radiated from these materials.

Type: Lesson Plan

This is an introductory lesson to teaching the students how to ask questions about the key details of a story.

Type: Lesson Plan

In this lesson, students use daily observations, videos, and activities to learn about meteorology and the changing nature of weather. Students also identify weather events that are commonly reported in the news and discuss how weather affects lives.

Type: Lesson Plan

Investigate what happens to water left in an open container or a closed container in this interactive science tutorial.

Type: Original Student Tutorial

Discover the importance of preparing for severe weather like strong wind in this interactive science tutorial.

Type: Original Student Tutorial

Discover the importance of preparing for a severe weather related event such as a flood in this interactive science tutorial.

Type: Original Student Tutorial

Investigate the movement of the air that is all around us, the effects of wind on our environment, and how people use wind as a source of energy in this interactive science tutorial.

Type: Original Student Tutorial

Enjoy a visit to the beach and explore how the Sun's energy directly and indirectly warms Earth in this interactive science tutorial.

Type: Original Student Tutorial

Compare seasonal precipitation patterns in Miami and Tallahassee, Florida by interpreting data on bar graphs in this interactive tutorial.

This is part 2 of a 2-part series, click HERE to view part 1, Patterns in Temperature.

Type: Original Student Tutorial

Compare daily and seasonal temperature patterns in Miami and Tallahassee, Florida in this interactive science tutorial.

This is part 1 of 2-part series, click HERE to view part 2, Patterns in Precipitation. 

Type: Original Student Tutorial

Discover the importance of preparing for severe weather like lightning in this interactive science tutorial.

Type: Original Student Tutorial

What’s your vector, Victor? Understanding math and wind helps get you where you want to go.

Related Resources:
KROS Pacific Ocean Kayak Journey: GPS Data Set[.XLSX]
KROS Pacific Ocean Kayak Journey: Path Visualization for Google Earth[.KML]

Download the CPALMS Perspectives video student note taking guide.

Type: Perspectives Video: Professional/Enthusiast

This is an accessible, easy-to-read book about the four seasons in the Western hemisphere. It can be downloaded in Power Point, Impress, and Flash formats. For struggling or non-readers, the book can be speech enabled in a variety of voices. All of the books on the Tar Heel Reader site can be used with the Intellikeys keyboard and a custom overlay, a touch screen, and/or 1-3 switches. The text and background colors can be modified for readers with visual impairments.

Type: Presentation/Slideshow

This is a PDF file from the NASA site featuring an online book all about air. This resource can be used as an engage to an activity, to supplement an activity, or as a great review for the completion of an activity. It covers great facts about the Earth's atmosphere and how people, plants, and animals are all dependent on oxygen. The dialogue also rhymes, which provides a great tie into Language Arts.

Type: Teaching Idea

This activity will have students predict, measure and record temperatures and provide evidence showing that the sun is the source of heat and light for Earth.

Type: Teaching Idea

Students will explore and measure shadows and their relationships to time of day. Students will measure the lengths of a meter stick's shadow at different times of the day (or seasons) to determine when a shadow casts its longest and shortest shadows.

Type: Teaching Idea

In this water cycle activity, students investigate the evaporation process by participating in an outdoor evaporation experiment held on the school grounds. Students will determine where evaporation takes place the fastest and how nature and humans can affect the process. Observations will be done and data is recorded in each student's science notebook so that the process can be discussed and analyzed.

Type: Teaching Idea

In this activity, students will investigate how water absorbs and holds heat (energy) longer than sand does.

Type: Teaching Idea

In this activity, students will test whether the color of a material affects how much heat it absorbs.

Type: Teaching Idea

This unit builds on concepts learned in the "Weather Measure" resource for Grade 2. Students are introduced to evaporation and wind. "Windmills" synthesizes information about how wind can move objects by engaging students in the engineering design process in a project that calls for the design and construction of a functioning windmill that can lift a weighted cup.

Type: Unit/Lesson Sequence

In this unit, students learn about meteorology and act as meteorologists, predict and take temperature measurements, and create a severe weather preparedness plan.

Type: Unit/Lesson Sequence

This series of activities was developed by the Florida Solar Energy Center, a research institute of the University of Central Florida. The purpose of this unit is to create an awareness of the power of solar energy, the importance of it in our lives, and its impact on the future of energy development.

Type: Unit/Lesson Sequence

This video clip explores what happens to water in the same location over the course of different seasons. On Earth, water can be found regularly in its three distinct phases; liquid, solid, and gas. Each phase has noticeably different properties that need to be considered in certain circumstances. The phase of water is influenced by atmospheric conditions, specifically seasonal temperatures. An example, is that a boat can float and glide on water in the summer, but it cannot pass through solid ice in the winter.

Type: Video/Audio/Animation

Upon observing clouds in a section of the sky, one notices that they are not static. Being composed of tiny particles of water means they are constantly changing and moving. This video clip explores clouds forming, moving, and changing shape.

Type: Video/Audio/Animation

To an outsider, chasing storms probably seems like a lot of boring periods of waiting for conditions to become evident, followed by a few moments of sheer excitement or terror. On the other hand, tornado researchers find that the effort and expenses they put into chasing down a single tornado-producing storm reflect the importance of such events, especially in terms of impact on lives and property. These NOVA-adapted video clips include footage of scientists who study supercells and the tornadoes they spawn, highlighting what they already know about these storms, and what they still want to know about how they form.

Type: Video/Audio/Animation

The process that moves water around Earth is known as the water cycle. I this ZOOM-adapted video clip, the cast uses a homemade solar still to separate pure water from a saltwater mixture, mimicing this natural process.

Type: Video/Audio/Animation

Through this website, students learn about different weather disasters and what to do before, during, and after an emergency.

Type: Virtual Manipulative