5/6B 2013 Science and Technology Program

Wondrous Weather
Rationale
Although I can not properly attribute it, having forgotten where, I once heard that curiosity about the world prevents us away from becoming self absorbed. This is something I rmly believe to be true and is my motivation for ensuring the science and technology teaching and learning that takes place in my classroom motivates students to be curious about the world around them, while at the same time providing them with an enquiry framework that allows them to investigate it. This unit focuses on encouraging students to be curious and to investigate the weather that surrounds them and that impacts Australia and the wider global community of which it is a part. In recent years the impact of the weather on natural and built environments and people in countries throughout the world has been highlighted by numerous natural disasters, the Indian Ocean Tsunami in 2005, Hurricane Katrina in 2005, the Tohoku earthquake in 2011 and Typhoon Bopha in 2012 to name but a few. This wider global issue is reected in Australia with oods such as the 2012 Brisbane Flood and bush res such as the 2009 Victorian Bushre Tragedy. This increases the signigance of this topic for the students as they are exposed to these events in the media and may even have family who have been affected by these tragedies. For this reason this unit aims to equip students with the knowledge and skills that will allow them to make sense of these events. The constructivist approach outlined in the primary connections framework is the main pedagogical inuence for this unit.

Outcomes
Information and Communication information can be represented in a number of different forms, including graphics, sounds and texts. Physical Phenomena there are various forms of energy. the sun is the source of most of the energy on the Earth. light can pass through some materials and not others, and when it does not shadows form.

there are many physical phenomena which change the environment there are various parts to the physical environment, eg stars, planets, earth, air and water.
Earth and its Surrounds there are many physical phenomena which change the environment. there are various parts to the physical environment, eg stars, planets, earth, air and water. environments on Earth have been affected by technology.

Learning Processes
Students will develop their knowledge and understanding of the process of investigation that people use to develop reliable insights into the natural and made environments.

 recognise that investigations may be conclusive/inconclusive. describe the process of investigation which can involve exploring and discovering phenomena and events, proposing explanations, initiating investigations, predicting outcomes, testing, modifying and applying understanding. Students will develop their knowledge and understanding of the technologies people select and use; how these technologies affect other people, the environment and the future. explain that particular technologies are signicant causes of change in the way people live.

Skills
Students will be able to investigate natural and made environments. make detailed observations using appropriate technologies. discuss the factors that might affect an investigation. modify and apply their understanding in the light of their investigation. Students will be able to select and use a range of technologies. select appropriate tools, hardware, materials, equipment or software on the basis of their specic function and in order to gather information. use appropriate equipment and tools to carry out a particular task, and understand the technology involved to record and present ideas. use resources with consideration for the environment and adopt procedures which minimise waste. identify and report unsafe conditions. record the economic, moral, social and environmental consequences of advances in technology.

Values and Attitudes

Values and attitudes towards themselves. demonstrate condence in themselves and willingness to make decisions and to take responsible actions. have a positive view of themselves and their capabilities. exhibit self-direction in their own learning. show exibility and responsiveness to ideas and evidence. initiate and persevere with activities to their completion. Values and attitudes towards others. be honest and open in their dealings with others. respect the rights and property of others. work cooperatively in groups. show a commitment to fair treatment for all. respect different viewpoints and ways of living. Values and attitudes towards science and technology. be curious about and appreciate the natural and made environment. develop rational and creative thinking.

 gain satisfaction in their efforts to investigate, to design and make, and to use technology. appreciate education as a continuing process.

Unit Outline
Week One - Engage Eliciting prior knowledge and determining areas of interest and questions Week Two - Explore and Explain The atmosphere and sunlight experiment. Week Three - Explore and Explain Humidity and saturation experiment. Week Four - Explore and Explain Clouds and cloud experiment Week Five - Explore and Explain Air pressure and experiments Week Six - Explore and Explain Synoptic Charts Weeks Seven - Nine Elaborate Group research projects Week Ten Evaluate Emergency planning and evaluation

Week One Engage

Introduce the idea that Science and Technology requires us to think like scientists. Demonstrate this process using a think aloud to model the multitude of questions a scientist may ask and investigate relating to an ordinary classroom item. Introduce the topic of weather and explain its signigance. Provide students with an opportunity to ask questions about the weather that they would like to know the answer to. Record the responses. Provide students with A3 paper, assign a scribe for each group and ask students to discuss and record what they already know about the weather and what questions they have. Facilitate this discussion moving between the groups and extending discussion using questioning.

Student Questions What is the difference between a cyclone, tornado and a hurricane? How is lightning created? Where do meteor strikes come from? What is the worst disaster in America? Did they have a cyclone/ood in Bundaberg? (Simeon) What happens to electrical appliances in a Tsunami? (Rahul) How do we get hail? (Simeon) How does water go into the sky? (Simeon) How do cyclones meet each other? (Simeon) How big do the waves get in oods? (Simeon) When an earthquake happens do all the houses go underground and stay there and do people live there too? (Umar) How do people go to space and check the weather? (Umar) How do earthquakes come to earth? (Umar) How many planets are outside of the milky way? (Umar) Is the universe the same as the milky way? (Umar) How is the wind able to blow on earth and how does it come to earth? (Umar) Is Japans weather dangerous? (Qais, Aisea, Adam E, Richard) How many people died because of Tsunamis and oods? (Qais, Aisea, Adam E, Richard) How many volcanoes erupt in Japan? (Qais, Aisea, Adam E, Richard) Can people y away on the day of a tsunami and earthquake starts? (Qais, Aisea, Adam E, Richard) How can clouds make weather like storm, rain, tornado and more? (Esad) Do tornados happen all the time in Queensland? (Esad) When an earthquake happens does the city get destroyed? (Esad) What happens if everyone in the world got killed in a tsunami would it be the end of the world and everything? (Arya) Why are oods really fast? (Rawan, Raj, Armani, Rahul) Is it all linked together for example an earthquake can create a hurricane? (Rawan, Raj, Armani, Rahul) What if scientists can take a piece out of an earthquake and make a ? out of it and put that ? in buildings so it can be like earthquake vs earthquake? (Rawan, Raj, Armani, Rahul)

Week Two Explore and Explain

Watch Weather 101 found on the following link: http://www.epals.com/projects/info.aspx?DivID=Weather_details# Discuss the main idea: Weather is created by air, water and heat from the sun or humidity (water vapour), air movement and pressure (the weight of air above the given point on the earths surface) and heat from the sun. Explain the following about earths atmosphere. The Atmosphere The atmosphere coats the earth like a clear skin about 128km thick It is full of air Air is a mixture of gas molecules A molecule is the smallest part of something that still has the characteristics of a thing A gas is a substance that expands in all directions A solid has a denite or dened shape A liquid ows on a surface Air is made up of different gases - nitrogen, oxygen, carbon dioxide and water vapor (the gas form of water) Large particles are mixed in as well - pollen, soot from res, salt from the sea. Watch the following National Geographic clip on the earths atmosphere on youtube: http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/myshot/weather-innite-photograph Students carry out the following investigation. Teacher explains the science behind the investigation. Note: It needs to be a sunny day to complete this experiment. Learning Intention: To observe that sunlight is made up of all of the colours of the rainbow Sunlight Experiment Method: Use a jar of water and a piece of white paper to observe how water affects the sunlight. Then place a block of wood in front of the jar and observe how the wood affects the sunlight. Equipment: A jar of water, white paper, a piece of wood. Prediction: I predict that

Results: Conclusion: Scientic Explanation Water drops act as tiny prisms that bend (or refract) the light seperating it into its colours. Light can pass through some materials and not others. Extension The blue part of this light strikes the gas molecules in the air, bending them and making them scatter everywhere making the sky blue. Nearer to earth, gravity holds large particles such as dust in the atmosphere these particles scatter (refract) all the colours in sunlight (white light). This white light mixes with the blue light to make a paler shade of blue closer to earth. The more large particles in the air the paler blue. Thats why on days when there is a lot of pollution the sky hardly looks blue at all. After a storm the sky often looks a darker blue because the ran has washed the dust from the air. The higher up in the atmosphere you go the less air there is so its get darker and darker. This is because there are no molecules to bend (refract) the light so no colours are scattered leaving only darkness or the absence of light.

Week Three Explore and Explain

Watch the following youtube clip about the water cycle to review this stage two concept. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F9Yi4dAzHsc Explain the following about humidity: Humidity is the amount of water in the air Liquid water changes into gas water vapour when it evaporates. Water makes the air humid or moist. When the air cant hold any more water we say it is saturated or unable to hold any more water. Warm air holds more water vapour than cold air. Water vapour changes back into liquid when it condenses but it needs a surface to condense onto. Students carry out the following investigation. Teacher explains the science behind the investigation. Learning Intention: to observe that air can be saturated so it can not absorb more water or unsaturated so that it does. Saturation Experiment Method: On a rainy / sunny clear day place a few drops of water in a clear plastic jar and close the jar tightly. If you can still see water drops in the jar after about an hour the air is saturated. Repeat the experiment on a rainy / sunny clear day. Equipment: Clear jar with lid, water. I predict that Results: Conclusion: Scientic Explanation On a rainy day there is is already a large amount of water vapour in the atmosphere so the air is saturated meaning it can not hold any more water. On a warm day the water in the atmosphere is evaporating so it is not saturated meaning it can hold more water.

Week Four Explore and Explain

Clouds When saturated air cools some of its water vapour condenses into tiny water droplets onto large particles in the air becoming water droplets. A cloud is a collection of water droplets, ice crystals that form when saturated air cools even more or both. Clouds that form in hot air may produce more rain than clouds that form in cold air because hot saturated air holds more water vapour. As the water droplets move around in the cloud they bump into each other and form bigger droplets. After about a million droplets combine a rain drop forms. When parts of the cloud are cold enough ice crystals form these crystals bump together freezing onto each other forming snowakes. The point at which water vapour condenses in a cloud is called its dewpoint. Water drops and snowakes become too big they are too heavy to be held in the sky by air currents in the cloud so they fall to earth. If the air near earth is cold snowakes will fall. If the air closer to earth is hot the snowakes may melt into rain. Rain clouds are dark because they contain large amounts of water vapour that absorbs sunlight. Rain clouds are called Nimbus clouds. The two most common types of low altitude clouds are stratus clouds and cumulus clouds. Strtatus clouds have at bottoms and can extend from ground up. Cumulus clouds are puffy. Cloud Experiment Method: Pour about 2.5 cm of water into a jar and put the lid on. Wait a minute. Remove the lid and put a strainer lled with ice cubes over the mouth of the jar. TEACHER TO DEMONSTRATE Prediction: I predict that Results: Conclusion: Explanation: When you place the hot water in the jar the hot water evaporates and the air becomes saturated, unable to hold any more water. The ice cubes then cause the temperature in the jar to go down. As the air in the jar becomes cooler the water vapour will condense into water droplets making a cloud. Extension:

During the day heavy cloud blocks sunlight and keeps the temperature down. At night the clouds act like a blanket keeping the heat that the earth absorbed during the day inside the earths atmosphere instead of escaping into space.

Week Five Explore and Explain

Air Pressure Because the earth is tilted the sun heats the air in the earths atmosphere unevenly so the air in the earths atmosphere is always moving. Air masses form that contain more molecules in the centre than at the edges. The centre is heavier and so it sinks exerting more pressure on the earth at that point. As this happens the air gets warmer so there is less clouds so less chance of rain. This is called a low pressure system. The edges of an air mass are lighter as there are fewer molecules. Therefore the edges exert less pressure. This light low pressure air oats up into the sky and as it does it cools. If it cools to its dew point clouds form. These clouds may bring rain or snow. Water Glass Trick. Fill a cup one-third with water. Cover the entire mouth with an index card. Holding the card in place, take the cup to the sink and turn it upside down. Remove your hand from underneath. Voil! Because the water inside the cup is lighter than the air outside, the card is held in place by about 15 pounds of force from the air pushing up, while the force of the water pushing down is only about one pound of force.

Fountain Bottle. Fill a 2-liter soda bottle half full of water. Take a long straw and insert it in the mouth. Wrap a lump of clay around the straw to form a seal. Blow hard into the straw then stand back. Your blowing increases the air pressure inside the sealed bottle. This higher pressure pushes on the water and forces it up and out the straw.

[Adapted from Top Ten Air Pressure Experiments to Mystify Your Kids-Using Stuff From Around the House, by Aurora Lipper, for Mechanical Engineering, January 2008.] retrieved from www.asme.org/kb/news---articles/articles/k-12-grade/5-ways-todemonstrate-air-pressure-to-children.

Week Six Explore and Explain

Synoptic Chart Students label a synoptic chart including: isobar, high, low, rain, strong wind, clear sunny weather, cold front. Synoptic charts show air pressure readings taken at the one time in different parts of a country. They have lines called isobars that connect places of equal pressure. The isobars show the weather now and are used to forecast the weather in the future. Meteorologist use air pressure readings and isobars to predict how the air masses with move thereby predicting how the weather will change. When the isobars are close together it means the pressure is changing rapidly. This rapidly changing air pressure is called wind, so the more isobars and the closer together they are the stronger the wind. In Australia and the rest of the southern hemisphere winds generally blow clockwise around lows and anti clockwise around highs. Places where the pressure decreases towards the centre are called lows and are marked with a L. Closed areas where the pressure increases towards the centre are called high pressure cells or highs and are marked with a H. Sometimes cold air from south Australia pushes north shoving warm air ahead of it. The front edge of this cold air is called a cold front and is marked on a synoptic chart as lines with ns attached to them. Display the current synoptic chart. Students explain the highs. lows and cold fronts and describe the subsequent weather.

Weeks Seven - Nine Elaborate

Students choose a research question and are assisted to formulate a central question and a series of related questions as the basis for their research. Students may chose how to present their information, for example, as an oral presentation, poster or information leaet. Students work in small groups on their topic but present their information individually. Possible research topics (based on the interests demonstrated by students in the engage phase) include: Lightning, Thunder and Hail Tornadoes Clouds Hurricanes Cyclones Earthquakes and Tsunamis Instruments for Measuring the Weather

Week Ten Evaluate

Students present their research to the class.