Curated OER
Convection and Wind
Learners use water, beakers, hot plates, paper dots, and goggles to participate in a hands on activity where they see how a convection current creates wind. In this convection current lesson plan, students participate in a hands on...
Science Matters
Energy and Winds
In the study of wind energy, scholars build a small windmill and observe how it transfers wind into mechanical energy. Learners will make connections to the previous lesson with concepts such as the creation of wind through convection.
NOAA
A Laboratory Simulation of Ocean Surface Currents
Stimulate interest in ocean currents with a simulation. The first installment of a five-part middle school series teaches future oceanographers about the forces that interact to cause ocean currents. A simulation shows how wind and the...
Bonneville
Let's Build Our Wind and Solar Energy Toy
Who says toys can't be educational? The fourth of five parts in the Solar Updraft Towers unit has scholars create toys that run on solar and wind energy. The devices need to be solar updraft towers that can be placed on a warm surface...
Curated OER
Global Winds
Middle schoolers 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.
Curated OER
Convection
Learners experiment with the cyclic process of convection and apply the principal to everyday events.
Curated OER
Driving Currents
Learners conduct a variety of investigations to see how water, heat, and salinity affect the flow of the world's ocean currents,as well as, explore many factors that affect the flow of the world's ocean currents. They also describe in...
Curated OER
Tides and Currents
Students research and describe how currents are formed. In groups, they relate specific terms to the formation of currents and locate different currents on a world map. They also examine tides, how they are formed and how they are...
Curated OER
Winds Go Spinning Around
Students simulate the Coriolis Effect to comprehend why winds in the Westerlies are prone to cyclonic and anti-cyclonic motion. They arrive at an explanation of processes that drive world wind patterns
Curated OER
World Wide Winds
High schoolers 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.
Rochester Institute of Technology
Heat Transfer
Use an exciting role play activity to teach young chemists about the importance of heat transfer in maintaining homeostasis. They assume the role of a dog sled owner who has been abandoned and must fend for themselves with only a few...
Curated OER
Three Methods of Heat Transfer
Pupils participate in a variety of experiments designed to illustrate types of heat transfer including conduction, convection and radiation. They complete worksheets as an assessment of the experiments.
Curated OER
It's Gettin' Hot In Here, So Transfer Energy
Students study the means by which energy is transferred from the sun through the Earth's atmosphere. They examine radiation, conduction, and convection. They complete a lab to determine how the different transfers affect the atmosphere...
Curated OER
Current Interactions
Students design an experiment to see how wind, temperature, and salinity work together to influence ocean currents and present it in a report format. They explain to their classmates how experiment findings relate to ocean currents.
Curated OER
Local Weather And Location
Students explain how uneven heating of Earth affects wind and water currents. They describe the limits on current technology in predicting weather and how the Water Cycle is related to local weather.
Curated OER
Thunderstorms and Lightning
Middle schoolers, in groups, investigate and demonstrate the science behind the development of lightning and thunderstorms.
Curated OER
Is Air a Fluid?
Students discuss the physical properties of fluids and then demonstrate that air carbon dioxide and oxygen) is a fluid by creating currents.
Curated OER
Rain Shadows and Sea Breezes
Students plot the average rainfall for a variety of cities in the United States. Using the map, they work together to determine patterns on which toxicants are transported through the air. They determine the impacts of various weather...
Curated OER
Air Pollution Over Where?
Students predict the movement of an air borne pollutant using their understanding of air currents. They determine which governments and/or communities should be contacted to be forewarned. They also explore the properties of their...
Curated OER
Fallout!
Students plot the locations of fallout from two disasters that polluted much of the world's air. They plot the ash fallout from the 1980 Mt. St. Helen's eruption to see what the wind patterns in the United States look like overall. Next...
Curated OER
Atmospheric Cells
Students recognize that the sun is the source of energy driving atmosphere cells. They relate the motion of the atmospheric cells to mantle convection cells. Students recognize that the function of atmospheric cells is to move heat from...
Curated OER
Tanker Spills
Young scholars predict the flow of an oil spill and depict it on a map. They explain the predicted route of the oil spill using knowledge of ocean currents in a short presentation to their peers.
Curated OER
A Message in a Bottle
Students investigate the motion of water currents by mapping the possible movement of messages cast into the ocean in bottles.They accurately plot the appearance of bottles on a world map and illustrate the flow of an ocean current...
Curated OER
Heat Absorption and Radiation
Students experiment with the concepts of absorption and reflection of radiant energy.