Work by yourself to answer the following questions. Record your answers in your technology notebook.
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Describe at least one other possible solution to the problem. What are the advantages and the limitations of this strategy?
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When you read about each town, you found out the probability of different events. Did knowing the probabilities help you reach decisions? Are there situations when it is more important to prevent something that has a low chance of occurring compared with something that has a higher chance of occurring?
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In this module, you have seen how people use different technologies to study weather-related events. Can you explain how studying different weather-related events adds to people’s understanding of the probability that they will occur again?
Answers to Reflect and Connect
Allow students time to answer these questions. Once they have had time to complete their responses, you may want to hold a class discussion on some or all of them.
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Describe at least one other possible solution to the problem. What are the advantages and limitations of this strategy?
Students may suggest a number of different solutions to the town’s problem. For example, they may suggest that conservation of water is important and that the town should help people make better use of the water that they already have available.
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When you read about each town, you found out the probability of different events. Did knowing the probabilities help you reach decisions? Are there situations when it is more important to prevent something that has a low chance of occurring compared with something that has a higher chance of occurring?
You may want to remind students about the Engage and Explore activities in this chapter. In those activities, words such as likely or possible were used to discuss the chance that something would happen in the future. After working through the Explain and Elaborate activities, students will probably respond that knowing the probabilities was helpful in reaching decisions. Students are also likely to respond that even if the probability is low, it is important to prevent things that have a serious or long-term consequence. If the consequences or outcomes of an event with a higher probability are less severe, it may be more important to focus on the low probability but more serious event.
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In this module, you have seen how people use different technologies to study weather-related events. Can you explain how studying different weather-related events adds to people’s understanding of the probability that they will occur again?
Several of the technologies that students learned about, especially in Chapter 2, are possible because scientists recognized patterns. Scientists may recognize that when a specific pattern of conditions occurs, there is a higher probability of a specific type of weather event to occur. By continuing to study patterns, scientists can be more confident that a weather event is more or less likely in response to a specific set of environmental conditions.