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Weather Patterns

Lesson 1.4: Reading “What Are Clouds?”

Lesson purpose: to build upon students’ understanding about water, clouds, condensation, evaporation, and energy�

Please refer to this lesson’s Materials & Preparation section in the digital Teacher’s Guide or the print Teacher’s Guide for information about preparing to teach this lesson, including any applicable safety notes. Below are links to resources used in this lesson.

“What Are Clouds?”

Printable Article: “What Are Clouds?”

“Why Don’t All Clouds Produce Rain?”

Printable Article: “Why Don’t All Clouds Produce Rain?”

Modeling Tool: Condensation copymaster

Active Reading Guidelines

Annotation Tracker Instructions

Annotation Tracker

Annotation Summary Sheet

Example Annotation Trackers

Weather Patterns Investigation Notebook, pages 18–22

Weather Patterns Glossary

Weather Patterns Multi-Language Glossary

Note: These materials are made available exclusively for use by students and teachers for whom the corresponding materials have been purchased or licensed from Amplify. Any alterations you make should only be shared within your own school or district. Any other distribution or reproduction of these materials is forbidden without written permission from Amplify.

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What is the Before image showing?

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What is the After image showing?

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What does the yellow arrow show?

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Activity 2

Weather Patterns: Lesson 1.4

We learned that if an air parcel is warmer than the air surrounding it, the air parcel transfers energy out to the surrounding air, and this causes the air parcel to cool.

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Activity 2

Weather Patterns: Lesson 1.4

What happens to the water vapor in the air parcel when this cooling takes place?

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Activity 2

Weather Patterns: Lesson 1.4

Today, we are going to begin our investigation of this question:

Investigation Question:�What causes an air parcel to cool?

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Activity 2

Weather Patterns: Lesson 1.4

Understanding more about clouds might help us answer our question.

What are clouds?

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Activity 2

Weather Patterns: Lesson 1.4

You will read an article with lots of information about clouds. It’s also a chance to learn about Joanne Simpson, who was a pioneering meteorologist.

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“What Are Clouds?”

Open the Article:

25 MIN

Weather Patterns: Lesson 1.4

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Activity 3 - Screen 1

Weather Patterns: Lesson 1.4

Next, you will look over your annotations and choose some to discuss.

Let’s talk about the different hashtags you’ll use to select your annotations.

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Discussing Annotations

Weather Patterns: Lesson 1.4

Activity 3 - Screen 1

Step 3: Prepare to Present

Choose an interesting or unanswered question to present to the class.

Tag it with #present.

Step 1: Prepare to Share

Step 2: Discuss

Choose an interesting question or connection to share with a partner.

Tag it with #share.

Talk about your chosen annotation with a partner.

Tag it with #discussed if you were able to resolve your questions.

#share

#discussed

#present

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Weather Patterns: Lesson 1.4

Activity 3 - Screen 1

Let’s discuss your questions and connections as a class.

What unanswered questions or interesting connections do you want to share with the class?

🍐 This is a Pear Deck Text Slide
🍐 To edit the type of question, go back to the "Ask Students a Question" in the Pear Deck sidebar.
👉Teacher action:
Facilitate a brief class discussion about annotations. Encourage students to respond to one another and to look back at the article to answer their peers’ questions.
👉Teacher action (to focus on the strategy of making deeper connections):�If you noticed a good example of a deeper connection that was made by a student, ask for him or her to share this example. Help the class reflect on how identifying these deeper connections supports them in a deeper understanding of the science text. If you didn’t choose a connection ahead of time, ask for student volunteers to share their connections and follow the same procedure.�
👉Teacher action (to highlight exemplary or noteworthy annotations):
Refer to your Annotation Tracker and invite students with annotations that you noted to share them with the class.
Provide specific, positive feedback as students share, noting when annotations show evidence of Active Reading.
Examples might include annotations that make a connection to science ideas, annotations that use vocabulary from the unit, or instances in which students were able to answer their own questions.

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Investigation Notebook pg 21

Weather Patterns: Lesson 1.4

Activity 3

For homework, you’ll create a model of condensation.

This is a chance to reflect on what you’ve learned about energy transfer and condensation.

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Weather Patterns: Lesson 1.4

Activity 3

The Before image shows the air parcel before condensation takes place.

The After image shows the air parcel after condensation.

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Weather Patterns: Lesson 1.4

Activity 3

Using the word bank, you’ll add labels to the After image, showing the temperature and the amounts of water vapor and liquid water inside the air parcel after condensation happens.

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Activity 4 - Screen 1

Weather Patterns: Lesson 1.4

For this activity, you will:

make a model of how condensation occurs.
read an article called “Why Don’t All Clouds Produce Rain?”

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“Why Don’t All Clouds Produce Rain?”

Open the Article:

25 MIN

Weather Patterns: Lesson 1.4

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Name three reasons why a cloud might form without rain happening:

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Weather Patterns: Lesson 1.4

End of Lesson

Published and Distributed by Amplify. www.amplify.com

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Weather Patterns

Lesson 1.5: Investigating Why Clouds Produce Rain

Lesson purpose: for students to understand when energy transfers out of an air parcel and how this can affect cloud formation and rainfall�

Please refer to this lesson’s Materials & Preparation section in the digital Teacher’s Guide or the print Teacher’s Guide for information about preparing to teach this lesson, including any applicable safety notes. Below are links to resources used in this lesson.

Weather Patterns Sim

“What Are Clouds?”

Printable Article: “What Are Clouds?”

Weather Patterns Investigation Notebook, pages 23–28

Weather Patterns Glossary

Weather Patterns Multi-Language Glossary

Note: These materials are made available exclusively for use by students and teachers for whom the corresponding materials have been purchased or licensed from Amplify. Any alterations you make should only be shared within your own school or district. Any other distribution or reproduction of these materials is forbidden without written permission from Amplify.

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Vocabulary

Weather Patterns: Lesson 1.5

Activity 2 - Screen 1

liquid water droplets suspended in the air

cloud

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Weather Patterns: Lesson 1.5

Activity 2 - Screen 1

How does a cloud form?

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Weather Patterns: Lesson 1.5

Activity 2 - Screen 2

Let’s discuss what we’ve learned so far about the question we’re investigating:

Investigation Question:�What causes an air parcel to cool?

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Weather Patterns: Lesson 1.5

Activity 3 - Screen 1

Next, you will use the Sim in Lab mode again.

You’ll use this mode to make connections between energy transfer and the size of a rainstorm.

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Weather Patterns: Lesson 1.5

Activity 3 - Screen 1

You will work in pairs to make clouds with:

some rain
no rain
a lot of rain

I’ll show you how to do the first one.

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Investigation Notebook pgs 26–27

Weather Patterns: Lesson 1.5

Activity 3 - Screen 1

I will show you one of the weather events: a cloud with some rain that will create a rainfall level between 1 and 2.

You’ll record the data in this table as a reference.

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Weather Patterns Simulation

Open the

25 MIN

Weather Patterns: Lesson 1.2

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Weather Patterns: Lesson 1.5

Activity 3 - Screen 1

In Build, we’ll use the sliders to set the surrounding air temperature, the air parcel temperature, and the water vapor level.

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Weather Patterns: Lesson 1.5

Activity 3 - Screen 1

Let’s observe what happens to our air parcel in Run.

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Weather Patterns: Lesson 1.5

Activity 3 - Screen 1

In Analyze, we can look at the data and check if we created our weather event successfully.

The rainfall level is 1, so we succeeded! We made a cloud with some rain.

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Weather Patterns: Lesson 1.5

Investigation Notebook pg 26

Activity 3 - Screen 1

Record the data from our first weather event.

-20°C

25°C

-20°C

45°C

99MJ

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Weather Patterns: Lesson 1.5

Activity 3 - Screen 1

When I made a cloud with some rain, 99 MJ of energy transferred out.

When you make a cloud with no rain, do you expect more energy to transfer out, or less?

What about when you make a cloud with a lot of rain?

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Weather Patterns: Lesson 1.5

Activity 3 - Screen 1

Discuss how you will set the starting air parcel temperature and the surrounding air temperature for the other two weather events.

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Investigation Notebook pg 26

Weather Patterns: Lesson 1.5

Activity 3 - Screen 1

Make a cloud with no rain and a cloud with lots of rain.

Record your results in the data table.

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Using the temperature data, describe the direction that energy transfers and when it stops.

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Use evidence from the Sim to answer the Investigation Question: What causes an air parcel to cool?

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Weather Patterns: Lesson 1.5

Activity 3 - Screen 1

What patterns did you notice in the data that can help you explain the direction of energy transfer?

🍐 This is a Pear Deck Text Slide

🍐 To edit the type of question, go back to the "Ask Students a Question" in the Pear Deck sidebar.

🙋Students may respond:

In all tests, energy transferred out of the air parcel, from warm air to cold air.

💬Ask students:

What happens to the temperature of the air parcel when this happens?

When did the air parcel stop losing energy?

🙋Students may respond:

It decreases as it loses energy.

When the temperature was the same as the surrounding air temperature.

On-the-Fly Assessment 3: �Stability and Change�Look for: Although the words stability and change have not yet been introduced in the unit, the brief discussion about energy transfer after the Sim activity provides an opportunity for students to express change and stability as two connected ideas. Students notice that an air parcel’s temperature does not change indefinitely but that it reaches a point where it stops changing. Students notice that the air parcel’s temperature decreases when it is warmer than its surrounding temperature and they notice that it becomes equal to the surrounding air temperature and stops decreasing.�Now what? If students are not recognizing when the air parcel is changing and when it stops changing or becomes stable, have them take a closer look at their data tables. Ask students to look at the columns for Starting Air Parcel Temperature and Final Air Parcel Temperature. Prompt them to describe what happened to the temperature. Guide them to understand that the temperature has decreased. Then, have them compare the columns for Final Air Parcel Temperature and Surrounding Air Temperature. They should point out that they are equal. Explain that at this point, when the parcel’s temperature was equal to the surrounding air temperature, the air parcel stopped changing. In addition, consider projecting the Sim to point out how the air parcel is changing and when it stops changing. Ask students to explain what is happening to the temperature of the air parcel as the Sim is running.

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Key Concept

Weather Patterns: Lesson 1.5

Activity 3 - Screen 1

3.

Energy transfers from warm air to cold air until their temperatures become equal.

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Vocabulary

Activity 3 - Screen 2

Weather Patterns: Lesson 1.5

when something becomes different over time

change

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Vocabulary

Weather Patterns: Lesson 1.5

Activity 3 - Screen 2

when something stays mostly the same over time

stability

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Weather Patterns: Lesson 1.5

Activity 3 - Screen 2

Changes can occur until stability is reached.

The temperature of an air parcel will keep changing until it is equal to the temperature of the surrounding air.

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Investigation Notebook pg 26

Weather Patterns: Lesson 1.5

Activity 3 - Screen 2

Let’s take a look back at the data you recorded.

When an air parcel loses energy, what happens to the air parcel?

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Weather Patterns: Lesson 1.5

Activity 3 - Screen 2

How does the cooling of an air parcel and the amount of energy transfer relate to the rainfall level?

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Key Concept

Weather Patterns: Lesson 1.5

Activity 3 - Screen 2

4.

The more an air parcel loses energy and cools, the more rainfall can happen.

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Weather Patterns: Lesson 1.5

Activity 3 - Screen 2

Let’s use evidence from the article and the Sim activity to answer our question:

Investigation Question:�What causes an air parcel to cool?

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Activity 4

Weather Patterns: Lesson 1.5

For this activity, you will use the Sim to investigate the effect of the amount of water vapor on the amount of rain.

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Weather Patterns Simulation

Open the

25 MIN

Weather Patterns: Lesson 1.2

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Explain how building the lake near Galetown (Claim 1) could affect the amount of water vapor and the amount of rain.

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Weather Patterns: Lesson 1.5

End of Lesson

Published and Distributed by Amplify. www.amplify.com