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Air Masses
Students examine the physical characteristics of several types of air masses to discover how air masses can be identified and defined by their temperature and moisture content.
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Interdisciplinary Global Warming
Ninth graders are given a wide variety of earth science topics to choose from to write a report on. This lesson also has a scoring rubric imbedded in the plan. They utilize the internet and other sources to complete their research.
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Watch the Sky
Students describe the atmosphere, weather conditions, and climates. They describe seasonal changes in weather, the composition and characteristics of the atmosphere. Students describe patterns of changing weather and how they are...
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Dimming the Sun
Young scholars collect, interpret and analyze weather variable data. They describe atmospheric variables that affect evaporation. Students create graphs and analyze the information collected.
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Fahrenheit vs Celsius
Students make a thermometer and write a paragraph about how they did it.
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Air Pressure is Powerful
Students construct a barometer and collect data on the changes in air pressure. They work is small groups using plastic tubing, corks, and green food coloring. They then use a formula to convert inches of mercury to barometric pressure...
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Graphing Data - Temperature
Seventh graders measure and record temperature over a given time period. They compare the recorded temperatures to the 40-year recorded normal average temperatures for the same area. Students display and interpret their findings in a graph.
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Analyzing Meteorological Data From Mars
Students compare real-time Earth and Mars measurements for temperature, wind speed, humidity and atmospheric pressure by accessing Internet-data resources from NASA. They access real-time weather data and maps for their school location.
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Does Cloud Type Affect Rainfall?
Student uses MY NASA DATA to obtain precipitation and cloud type data. They create graphs of data within MY NASA DATA. They compare different cloud types as well as precipitation types. They describe graphs of the precipitation and cloud...
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Seasonal Cloud Cover Variations
Students, in groups, access data from the NASA website Live Access Server regarding seasonal cloud coverage and the type of clouds that make up the coverage. They graph the data and make correlations between types, seasons and percentages.
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Water Cycle
Students identify the different stages in the water cycle. In this earth science lesson, students calculate the residence time of water in oceans using a mathematical formula. They explain how this cycle regulates the Earth's climate.
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Scientist Tracking Network
Students correlate surface radiation with mean surface temperature of several geographic regions. They observe how these parameters change with latitude and construct an understanding of the relationship of solar radiation to seasonal...
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Using A Sling Psychrometer to Determine Relative Humidity
Young scholars create their own sling psychrometer to measure relative humidity. They work together in groups to make and use the psychrometer. They are asked questions about their experiment to complete the instructional activity.
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Science: Hurricanes As Heat Engines
Students conduct Internet research to track the path of Hurricane Rita. They record the sea surface temperature of the Gulf of Mexico during and after the hurricane and draw conclusions about how hurricanes extract heat energy from the...
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Cold Fronts
Students determine its' direction of movement, and list at least five weather conditions associated with the specific front, given animations of several atmospheric variables during a cold front passage. They list at least three weather...
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Global Winds
Students extend their understanding of convection to consider global winds and the effect of the earth's rotation on the creation of patterns of prevailing wind direction.
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What is Drought?
Learners explore and conduct an experiment on the effects of drought on the environment. They define what drought is and the impact that a shortage of rainfall can have on agriculture, municipal water supplies, tourism, recreation, etc.
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Classification of Clouds
Students view progressive slides of cloud formations and identify which type of cloud is shown as it forms. They estimate the cloud's height while viewing each image.
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Ocean Currents
Students examine ocean currents. In this investigative lesson plan, students examine ocean currents and the relationship between the ocean, our atmosphere, and the weather. They will create a model of an ocean current.
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Classification of Clouds
High schoolers view a cloud slide show presentation and identify types of clouds. They estimate height based on cloud's appearance. They discuss the vague nature of cloud nomenclature and compare it to the English standard measurement...
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World Wide Winds
Students recognize that global winds move in specific directions in specific latitudes and describe that in a written form. They relate the motion of the wind belts to historical navigation.
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Create a Cloud in a Bottle
Students investigate the conditions needed for cloud formation and explore how pressure and temperature effect cloud formation. In this atmospheric pressure lesson students complete a lab on cloud formation.
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Trouble in the Troposphere
Middle schoolers Use data sets from MY NASA DATA to produce graphs comparing monthly and yearly ozone averages of several U.S. cities. They analyze and evaluate the data and predict trends based on the data. In addition, they discuss and...
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Formation of Rain
Students sequence the steps leading to the formation of rain, and design a model to represent these steps. This task assesses students' abilities to classify, generalize, infer, interpret and communicate data, and construct a pictorial...