Weather is a topic for which students show interest. With this unit, middle school students will encounter the fundamental principles that cause the complex interplay of energy, water vapor, and pressure that results in our weather.
The goal in creating this unit is to help students engage with the physics of weather by participating in several classroom activities, making direct observations of the local weather and to connect with web-based observations of national and international weather.
In our six day "Sun and Weather" Yale New Haven Teachers Institute Curriculum Unit, the focus is on content standards8 which address:
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- Energy
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- Temperature
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- The uneven heating of the Earth's surface
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- Pressure
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- Atmospheric water vapor
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- Geographic location
The "Unit and Background" section will detail the necessary content for these six topics. Please refer to the "Lessons and Activities" for classroom applications.
