In this chapter, you have learned how water and air move in cycles. Can you think of how this knowledge might help us understand our world? In this Evaluate activity, Patterns Help Us Understand Weather, you will use what you have learned to explain a weather phenomenon.
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Read the following paragraphs.
Meteorologists are scientists who study the atmosphere, weather, and climate. Meteorologists use data to develop weather forecasts. They may use fairly simple tools such as thermometers (to measure temperature) or barometers (to measure air pressure). They may also use technologies such as computer models to observe patterns. One of the weather phenomena that meteorologists observe is the movements of air masses. Air masses can differ from each other in temperature, moisture, and pressure. The movements of air masses are driven by global winds. A front is simply an area where two different air masses come together. If warm air comes in to replace cool air, it is called a warm front. If cool air comes in to replace warm air, it is called a cold front. -
Draw pictures to reflect what happens to the air masses in each of the following situations.
- A warm air mass moves into an area where cold air is.
- A cold air mass moves into an area where warm air is.
Make sure you label the different air masses. Use what you have learned about temperature, pressure, and density to predict what will happen when the different air masses come together. Which mass will move above the other? Which mass will move below the other? -
Meteorologists use their knowledge about air pressure, wind movements, air density, and temperature to make predictions about the weather. How does this understanding of patterns for each of these weather phenomena help them predict how the weather will change in the next few days? Explain your answer.
Activity Overview
In the Evaluate activity, Patterns Help Us Understand Weather, students will use what they have learned about air movements to explain a weather phenomenon, weather fronts.
As You Teach
Outcomes and Indicators of Success
By the end of this activity, students will
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demonstrate their understanding of basic science principles that cause weather phenomena.
They will show their understanding by explaining, using words and drawings, the movements of air in weather fronts.
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demonstrate their understanding of fundamental science principles used to predict weather events.
They will show their understanding by writing a paragraph to explain how meteorologists use the fact that specific conditions always result in specific patterns of air or water movements to predict future weather events.
Strategies
Getting Started
It may be helpful to briefly recap the previous activities in the chapter so students remember how far they have come. It also may be helpful for students to take a few minutes to look through their technology notebooks for a quick refresher on what they have experienced to this point in the chapter.
Process and Procedure
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Students read about meteorologists and the occurrence of warm fronts and cold fronts.
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Students will use what they have learned about air movements to explain air movements when warm air moves into an area and then to explain what happens when cold air moves into an area. They should draw pictures and write descriptions in their technology notebooks to explain what happens to the different air masses in each situation.
This is an opportunity for students to apply what they have learned. For the scenario in Step 2a in which a mass of warm air moves into an area where cold air is, they should explain that the cold air is more dense and will stay lower in the atmosphere whereas the warm air is less dense and will rise above the cold air. In contrast, in the scenario in Step 2b in which a mass of cold air moves into an area of warm air, the cold air will move in and push the warm air mass upward.
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Students will think about why scientists need to understand the factors underlying air movements—air temperature, air pressure, air density—when they predict the weather. The goal of this question is for students to recognize that the movements of air or water are predictable. By understanding how each factor affects air movements, scientists can rely on similar outcomes in the future if similar conditions occur again.