| WEATHER
AND WATER COURSE MATRIX |
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SYNOPSIS |
SCIENCE
CONCEPTS |
PROCESSES |
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6. |
Water
in the Air (8 sessions)
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|
Students
explore the forms that water takes in the atmosphere. They investigate
how water gets in the air and how it condenses out of air. |
•
Water changes from gas to liquid by condensation.
• Water changes from liquid to gas by evaporation of water;
requires heat from the surroundings.
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•
Infer that water vapor is part of the air by observing condensation
on surfaces.
• Determine dew point by observing at what temperature
condensation occurs.
• Predict cloud formation from dew point and temperature
data. |
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7. |
The
Water Planet (4 sessions) |
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Students
identify the elements of the water cycle and the distribution
of water over Earth. Through a game and a multimedia simulation,
they follow the path a water molecule might take as it travels
in the water cycle. |
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Most of Earth’s water is in the oceans as salt water.
• Earth’s fresh water is found in many locations,
including in the atmosphere, lakes, rivers, groundwater, and
glaciers.
• A water molecule might follow many different paths as
it travels in the water cycle. |
•
Engage in simulations to follow the movement of a molecule of
water through the water cycle.
• Explain with words and drawings how evaporation, condensation,
precipitation, and other processes produce many variations of
the water cycle. |
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8. |
Air
Pressure and Wind (8 sessions) |
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Students
investigate the relationship between changing air pressure and
wind. They assemble and explore a pressure indicator and learn
about barometers. Using knowledge developed in previous investigations,
they come up with models of wind. They build an anemometer to
measure local wind and use pressure maps to make weather predictions. |
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Pressure exerted on a gas reduces its volume and increases its
density.
• Differential heating of Earth’s surface by the
Sun can create high- and low- pressure areas.
• Wind is a movement of air from an area of high pressure
to an area of low pressure.
• Local winds, called sea breezes, land breezes, mountain
breezes, and valley breezes, blow in predictable ways determined
by local differential heating.
• Wind speed is measured with an instrument called an
anemometer.
• Air pressure is represented on a map by contour lines
called isobars. |
•
Apply pressure to a system and observe the compression of gas.
• Build an anemometer and use it to gather data.
• Interpret a pressure map.
• Describe the relationship between changing air pressure
and wind.
• Explain how differential heating of Earth by the Sun
creates local winds. |
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9. |
Weather
and Climate (6 sessions) |
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Students
revisit severe weather and consider it in relation to air masses
and fronts. Climate is introduced and climate regions are discussed.
Students revisit the water-cycle multimedia simulation with
the global-warming variation, in which Earth’s average
temperature has increased 2–5°C. They analyze the
results. |
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Air masses are large bodies of air that are uniform in temperature
and humidity.
• A front is a boundary that separates two air masses.
• Weather conditions usually change as a front passes
by.
• Climate is the average weather over a long period of
time in a region. |
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Model and explain what happens when two air masses of different
densities meet.
• Explain how a global temperature increase could affect
the water cycle and Earth’s climate.
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page 6
of 8 |
