2003: Clouds Education

Prepare an education module for integration on the ICP web. The module will be offered as an electronic classroom where students and teachers can access the following:

Introduction to Research

Introduction to research that the Clouds team has been involved in, including a guiding science questions, their significance to science and society, summary and discussion of important results.

This section concludes with a problem for students to investigate via the lessons included on the web site. Have students use various data from stations, satellites and weather maps (cloud, wind, temperature, pressure, precip etc) to investigate what happens before, during and after a storm. The goal is for them to gain a basic understanding of the physical characteristics and processes that contribute to storms during different stages.

One idea is for the students to write a short biography of a storm (playing on the theme of last summer's book e=mc2) after they conclude the lessons, describing its physical characteristics, interactions, causes, effects throughout a storm's lifetime, technology used to acquire data, as well as the role of storms in the climate and weather system. You could even include an historical exploration of 2-3 scientists who advanced the study of storms

Lessons

Lessons related to NYS Science Standards and relevant to ICP Clouds research that develop fundamental research skills and knowledge for students to engage in clouds research projects provided on the web site

Have a series of questions drive each lesson (investigation), beginning with the most basic question and progressing to more difficult ones. Each question/lesson develops the skills and/or knowledge needed to address the guiding problem and the student research projects on the web site. A great deal of material (if not all) from the Introduction to Clouds currently on the ICP web should be easily incorporated. There are also some past ICP lessons on Energy, air mass, cloud formation, phase change, etc that may be relevant and just need some revising. For example:

Question (standard) --> Lesson (Topic) --> Applied Problem (assessment) (demo skill/concept learned)

• Question: What kinds of clouds are produced in storms?
• Related standard: air temperature, dew point, cloud formation, precipitation are affected by the expansion and contraction of air due to vertical atmospheric movement
• Lessons: Use ICP Intro of Clouds Investigations, Sam's air mass/cloud formation plus additional activities
• Applied Problem (assessment): Provide students with cloud types, jet stream and other weather variables to predict whether we can expect a storm

Some options within the NYS standards we can discuss as potential topic areas to develop lessons around as they relate to the study clouds and storms

Weather variables are interrelated - Earth Science

• Atmospheric moisture, temp and pressure distributions, jet stream, air mass and frontal boundaries occur in observable patterns
• Weather patterns become evident when variables are observed, measured, and recorded
• Seasonal changes can be explained using concepts of density and heat energy (planetary wind and ocean currents, global temp zones, occurrence of severe weather)

Cloud Measurement and Observation - Earth Science/Physics

• Weather variables are measured with instruments
• Weather variables are represented in a variety of formats- weather maps, satellites, models
• Remote sensing: electromagnetic spectrum

Solar radiation, ocean currents, land masses affect weather/climate - Earth Science/Physics

• Transfer of heat energy within the atmosphere, hydrosphere and Earth's surface occurs as a result of radiation, convection and conduction
• Insolation heats Earth's surface and atmosphere unequally
• Physics (energy, waves) conservation of energy, fundamental source of energy is conversion of mass to energy, reflection, absorption, motion of object moving

Library

Library with web links organized by topic area relevant to lessons and research projects, for example: Clouds, Climate, Energy, Jet Stream, Storms, Weather, etc.

Student Research Projects

Ideas that interested students and teachers can get involved in on a short-term basis during the school year, including an introduction to the research project, science questions, a plan and data to guide the investigation

As Chris suggested - we can have students analyze individual storms to build a database of storm studies concerning such past research questions as:

• What are the characteristics of mid latitude storms over different stages?
• What will the storms look like in a future warmer climate?

Student analysis and papers can be submitted to the Storm Center.

Sequencing of Lessons (Biography of a Storm) to begin discussion

1. Birth: understanding the factors or ingredients and their relationships that produce a storm and can be used later to describe it
   • Pressure, temperature, humidity, clouds, energy, jet stream, geographic location
   • Build an understanding of a storm system and the processes that give rise to it
2. Stages in the storm lifecycle: storm analysis
   • How do we observe storms and obtain storm data? (weather maps, remote sensing)
   • Developing a story: intensity, frequency, severity, track, clouds, temperature
3. Impacts of the Storm's Life
   • Local and regional impact
   • Relationship to regional seasonal and annual climate
   • Impacts of climate change