COLD RAIN AND SNOW: TEACHING EXTREME WEATHER PHENOMENA BY USING GROUP LEARNING ROUTINES AND PHYSICAL AND COMPUTER MODELS

In order to understand how and why the climate has changed through time and make informed predictions for what will happen in the future, students must know the function of variables and conditions in the atmosphere that create weather. In our high school Earth Science classes in New York City, we teach the weather and climate unit centered around a driving question: Will there be more frequent and more intense blizzards and hurricanes in the future? We immediately engage students, by talking about extreme weather phenomena, through videos and analyzing maps of past major snow storms and hurricanes. We use group learning routines (GLR) as students share what they know about weather phenomena, then develop their own questions about weather. This creates a driving question board (DQB) where student-driven questions about weather-related phenomena are surfaced. We revisit the DQB throughout the unit and students articulate answers through hands-on activities. Using physical and computer models, students investigate the cause and effect relationships among weather variables to develop a deeper understanding of weather and its extremes.

Throughout the unit, we create an environment for students to explain their thinking through a variety of GLRs. GLRs, if implemented early in the course, support students of all levels. In this presentation we will demonstrate a hands-on activity and GLR in the context of the weather and climate unit, using the topics of pressure, temperature, and density. Students responded favorably to the unit and assessment scores will be shared.

All learning materials presented are part of research project looking at how high school Earth Science teachers implement and make sense of new curricula by New Visions for Public Schools in NYC developed to meet the new New York State Science Learning Standards, but aligned to Next Generation Science Standards.