|
4th Grade - Weather and Climate (4.E.2)
|
Conceptual Understanding
4.E.2A Earth’s atmosphere is a mixture of gases, including water vapor and oxygen. The movement of water, which is found almost everywhere on Earth including the atmosphere, changes form and cycles between Earth’s surface and the air and back again. This cycling of water is driven by energy from the Sun. The movement of water in the water cycle is a major pattern that influences weather conditions. Clouds form during this cycle and various types of precipitation result.
4.E.2A Earth’s atmosphere is a mixture of gases, including water vapor and oxygen. The movement of water, which is found almost everywhere on Earth including the atmosphere, changes form and cycles between Earth’s surface and the air and back again. This cycling of water is driven by energy from the Sun. The movement of water in the water cycle is a major pattern that influences weather conditions. Clouds form during this cycle and various types of precipitation result.
|
|
As you watch the video, copy the questions and answer them in your notebook. 1. What exactly is weather? 2. What factors impact weather? 3. What is climate? 4. Why are terms like raining, sunny, snowing, thunderstorm descriptions of weather and not climate? |
Click the link.
Click the box that resembles the box to the left to watch today's weather forecast.
As you watch, write down the weather terms you hear.
Discuss with your class or teacher:
What's a forecast?
What's a meteorologist? How does
What's a forecast?
What's a meteorologist? How does
Day |
Indicator |
Content |
Activities |
1 |
Intro |
What do we mean when we say weather? What types of events qualify as weather events? (Some students may say that events such an earthquake are weather. This is incorrect. Weather events involve the movement of air and water on earth.) |
Give students a half sheet of typing paper on which to copy the high temperatures on 5-day forecast chart. Hang a thermometer outside the building to check each day for comparison. |
2 |
Intro |
Continue yesterday's discussion. Discuss today's weather. Record the words students use in their description. Does yesterday's 5-day forecast agree with what they are experiencing today? |
|
3 |
4.E.2A.1 |
What is air made of? (Many students will say air is not made of anything or they will say air is made of wind.) Air is a mixture of gases, mostly nitrogen and oxygen. Remind students of their study of solids, liquids and gases from 3rd grade. |
Show the bar graph of the gases that make up air. Have students translate this bar graph into a graph pie graph correctly estimating the divisions. |
4 |
4.E.2A.1 |
On the pie chart your made yesterday, you listed water vapor as one of the trace gases. What is water vapor? (Water vapor is water in is gaseous form. Students will be familiar with seeing steam from a pot or a steam in the bathroom. The reason we see steam is because of condensation, but this will be how students visualize water vapor.) Teach evaporation. (Evaporation occurs when liquid water get heated, even by a small amount, becoming a gas.) |
In the morning set out increasing small amounts of water--a drop, a capful, a teaspoon, a cup, a bottle. By the end of the day the drop, and capful should have evaporated becoming water vapor. Discuss. |
5 |
4.E.2A.1 |
How do we measure water vapor? (We use a hygrometer.) Why do we need water vapor? Why can too much humidity can be bad? What would cause high humidity? (On hot days we get more evaporation from various bodies of water.) |
Have students brainstorm an evaporation experiment they could do with their group. Here are some ideas. |
6 |
4.E.2A.2 |
We have been discussing evaporation. The opposite of evaporation is condensation. If evaporation is when a liquid becomes a gas, what is condensation? (In order for condensation to occur, we need water vapor and a cold surface.) Which cup(s) do you expect to develop condensation, why? Do you think it will be the same amount, why? (The cooler surface should develop more condensation. The cup without ice should not develop any.) |
Take 3 clear cups, fill each with the same amount of water. Add 7-8 ice cubes to one, 2-3 to another and no ice in the last cup. Set each on a sheet of construction paper to observe. Have students sketch this experiment setup and write about why these results occurred. |
7 |
4.E.2A.2 |
What is a cycle? Can anyone think of examples? Give students the text on this page to read and attempt to sketch the water cycle. Discuss the concept of humidity, types of precipitation, runoff, wind--how they play into the water cycle. Take students outside to identify where water would flow after a rain. |
Show students a diagram of the water cycle, have them to compare to what they drew. Show various models of the water cycle, Compare. |
8 |
4.E.2B.1 |
Does wind play a part in the water cycle? (Yes, it affects the rate of evaporation.) In what ways can we measure wind? |
Use the weather kit to make anemometers and a weather vanes. |
9 |
4.E.2B.1 |
Read a children's book that discusses wind. How could the characters have been helped by having an anemometer or weather vane? |
Obtain a fan with Hi, Med, and Low settings. Have students develop a method/scale for measuring wind with the fans different settings. |
10 |
4.E.2B.1 |
4.E.2B Scientists record patterns in weather conditions across time and place to make predictions about what kind of weather might occur next. Climate describes the range of an area’s typical weather conditions and the extent to which those conditions vary over long periods of time. Some weather conditions lead to severe weather phenomena that have different effects and safety concerns. |
|
11 |
|||
12 |
|||
13 |
|||
14 |
|||
15 |
|||
16 |
|||
17 |
|||
18 |
|||
19 |
|||
20 |
|||
21 |
