Middle School Meteorology Unit

[Karen Burdick]

Hello everyone,
In a few months here, I will be teaching a Meteorology Technology unit to my 8th grade students. I am thinking of having them create their own forecasts using some of the models, but I will be needing some examples of various radar and velocity maps, as well as other forms of technology examples. If anyone can provide such, I would certainly appreciate it. I would also appreciate it if anyone has any suggestions for this unit. This is specifically a technology class, and the students are learning about technology as it pertains not only to computers in general, but how it plays a part in every area of life. As a result, we are combining the class with the science class for a few weeks.

Once again any suggestions would certainly be appreciated!

Thanks!

 

[Rachel Chambers]

Would this link help?
http://www.rap.ucar.edu/weather/model/index.php?model=eta

It has some of the forecast models on it.

 

[Mike Ridgeway]

Not sure if you have heard of DataStreme or not. It's a fantastic weather course for teachers, you get a wealth of resources and you pay nothing thanks to support by NOAA. Here are two sites to look at.:

1. DataStreme's main page with data:

http://www.ametsoc.org/amsedu/dstreme/

2. This page explains what it is and how you can participate:

http://www.ametsoc.org/amsedu/DataStremeMiddle.html

 

[Greg Blumberg]

I have a couple of ideas.

- brainstorm the connections weather and technology has. Whenever I give a presentation to middle schoolers I challenge them to find a job that weather is not affected by.

- demonstrate the doppler effect before discussing radar. It doesn't take much, just a really loud and fast kid (think troublemaker and giving his talents something for.) Then I'd show them the velocity data, explain how to read it, then ask them questions about it. They might need to know a bit about the situation first.

- viewing satellite data, what the IR and WV data do mean? What types of satellites are there? Determining cloud height based on temperature readings from the tops of clouds.

There are a lot of things you can do with this. I can come up with some other ideas, if you'd like. PM me if you would like to discuss more of this.

 

[Damon Poole]

Try NWS Jetstream

http://www.srh.noaa.gov/srh/jetstream/

 

[Charley Kelly]

Karen,
It is great that you are teaching meteorology technology to 8th graders. I would in my opinion use the NWS jetstream, along with teaching simplified versions of how temperature is calculated? what is temperature? How about teaching the water cycle? Humidity? Dewpoint?, etc. It is great you would want to teach models to the 8th graders, but without conceptual or even simplied explanation of parameters, the concept of how to use models will be far fetched. Just a few suggestions, best of luck in teaching the meteorology technology unit to your class.

 

[Karen Burdick]

Thanks everyone! These ideas certainly help. Any others would certainly be appreciated as well. I hadn't heard of DataStream. I will have to look into that.

Probably the biggest challenge with this is the fact that I will only have probably two class periods (43 minutes a piece) to teach this particular area. These will most likely be about a week apart. Fortunately, they will have an introduction to it through their science class - the technology class is integrated with the other subjects at the school. I was debating introducing several different models, charts, etc. and challenging them to come up with their own forecast and then comparing it with others in the class as well as the models and what actually happens. I am more concerned with introducing the technology, but I am thinking that they would enjoy this challenge. Any ideas or suggestions regarding this? Again, any other suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

 

[Greg Blumberg]

I agree with Charley. It's much more difficult to teach the models without understanding the concepts first and how to put each individual model output map together. The hard part of forecasting with the models (GFS, NAM, RUC, etc.) is that you just have to understand what it's saying and how each scenario is setup. In order to do that you would have to teach that part, and I don't think you want to do that. It's just way too much.

I think if you really wanted to do the forecasting you ought to start with the Area Forecast Matrices: http://hoot.metr.ou.edu/text/?t=afm That takes a little bit of cool interpretation, which the key could be easily found online.

I'm willing to guess that the introduction in science will teach them basic weather concepts: high /low pressure, cold/warm fronts, etc. Using that they could work on the forecasts using the "Quick Look Forecasts" on the right side of this page: http://www.rap.ucar.edu/weather/model/

SPC will help with their analysis. They make daily outlooks up to 8 days in advance. The outlooks would be good for figuring out where potential severe weather would be. They're not too hard to read. http://www.spc.noaa.gov/

Definitely introduce satellite and radar. Types of satellite data are important: visible, IR, water vapor should be key data. They are very good for figuring out the location of fronts, cyclones, etc. Might be good to try to get the kids to match up the current surface analysis with the satellite and radar. Here are some links:

Radar: http://radar.weather.gov/ridge/Conus/full.php
Satellite: http://www.ssec.wisc.edu/data/geo.html
Current Surface Analysis: http://www.hpc.ncep.noaa.gov/sfc/namfntsfcwbg.gif