TitleIII Technology Literacy Challenge Grant

Learning Unit

Overview | Content Knowledge | Essential Questions | Connection To Standards | Initiating Activity | Learning Experiences | Culminating Performance | Pre-Requisite Skills | Modifications | Schedule/Time Plan | Technology Use

OVERVIEW

This is an integrated unit of Science and Language Arts. Its emphasis is equally weighted between science content and reading and writing skills. While students learn about hurricanes and tornadoes through nonfiction reading, videos, WEB sites, and experiments, they will read the novel Night of the Twisters and complete numerous language arts activities associated with the book. Students will make journal entries, write a research report, and a comparative essay.

CONTENT KNOWLEDGE

ESSENTIAL QUESTIONS

CONNECTIONS TO NYS LEARNING STANDARDS
List Standard # and Key Idea #: Write out related Performance Indicator(s) or Benchmark(s)

 Mathematics, Science, and Technology Standard 2: Information Systems

Mathematics, Science, and Technology Standard 4: Science/physical setting

English Language Arts Standard 1: Language for Information and Understanding, key idea 1 & 2:

English Language Arts Standard 2: Language for Literary Response and Expression, Key idea 2:

INITIATING ACTIVITY

 Students will be asked to brainstorm what they know about storms. Their responses will be written on the board and later written on a chart. After responses have been given, students will be asked what they would like to know about storms, especially hurricanes and tornadoes. Their questions will be placed on a classroom chart. Questions will become part of learning guide for the students to use throughout the unit. The teacher will then show a video, Nature's Fury, for exciting footage of severe storms.

LEARNING EXPERIENCES
In chronological order including acquisition experiences and extending/refining
experiences for all stated declarative and procedural knowledge.

WEATHER CONCEPTS AND INSTRUMENTS

This experience involves a weather station made up of a thermometer, anemometer, barometer, and psychrometer. These can be either actual or homemade.( Spotlight on Science: Wild Weather kit, by Learning Resources Inc, has directions on making a weather station.)

Concepts: Atmospheric conditions that affect weather and the instruments used to measure them. Temperature, air pressure, humidity/relative humidity, precipitation, wind.

Each day review concept and instrument taught the previous day, then introduce a new concept/instrument. Worksheets with example readings of weather instruments can be used for practice before students begin daily weather station readings.

Post a large chart that has columns for each condition/instrument as well as a space for physical observations.[sun, clouds, fog, haze, type of precipitation, etc] Through the course of the unit students will rotate in pairs taking daily instrument readings from the weather station. Pairs will compare their readings, reread any conflicting measurements, and complete the weather chart for that day.

Extending and Refining: After two or three weeks of data collection, students will work in groups to look for patterns in the collected data and the daily weather conditions observed. They will put forth a hypothesis relating measured atmospheric conditions to types of weather. The data collected during the remaining time of the unit will be evaluated for support of the hypothesis.

Concepts: Prevailing winds, jet stream, pressure systems, fronts.

Through the use of texts, discussion and graphic organizers, students will understand the role of these ever present but constantly changing conditions in determining weather patterns around the world. The idea of pressure systems that are constantly moving and flowing into each other and the type of weather that occurs where these pressure systems meet will be emphasized. These concepts will be reinforced when later working with weather maps.  

HURRICANE TRACKING

This experience will be referred back to on a regular basis while learning about hurricanes to help reinforce concepts.

Students will be given individual copies of the NOAA hurricane-tracking chart to use for daily hurricane tracking. Charts can be downloaded at www.NOAA.gov . Information on current hurricanes will be accessed through a bookmarked WEB site, http://hurricane.weathercenter.com Students will share the responsibility on a rotating basis of downloading current conditions and posting them on the board. All students will enter daily information into their individual data charts, then plot that day’s location(s) using the longitude and latitude data. For the first week downloading, plotting, and filling in the chart will be done as a group with teacher modeling. Using that day’s information on the storm’s size, speed, and wind direction, students will individually predict the next day’s location. [Hurricanes done in colored pencil, prediction in regular lead]

As the unit progresses, students should begin to synthesize information learned from previous predictions and knowledge gathered, to make more accurate predictions.

  Satellite images of the current storms will be downloaded and a visual timeline created. Images will also be placed on the classroom TV using a scanner. Relate the daily data to the satellite imaging, note changes in size, shape, intensity.

Both the tracking information and the visual timelines should be used to help reinforce concepts about hurricanes as they are taught. ( See hurricanes experience)

LITERATURE EXPERIENCE WITH JOURNAL/LOG

Students will be reading the novel, Night of the Twisters, by Ivy Ruckman, in conjunction with the science portion of this unit. If the unit is being taught within a narrow daily time block, such as Resource time or science, then the book should be started within the first few days of the unit and the reading activities alternated with the science/research experiences. If an extended time is available then begin the book around the time that the students will begin to study tornadoes.

The reading of this book will be done in a combination of oral group reading, buddy reading and independent reading. Because the book has a somewhat slow start, the first few chapters should be done as group oral reading. Once the storm comes in the story and students are hooked, buddy reading and independent reading will be used.

Students will have a variety of writing activities associated with the book that will be kept in a literature log. Log entries will be used to assess students understanding of the book as well as writing skills. Entries will include chapter summaries, answers to comprehension questions, 3-2-1 responses, character analysis/comparison, prediction, chapter intensity graphs, and reflective writing. When completed, students will write a book review to be posted in the library.

READING WEATHER MAPS

The night before, assign students to watch the weather on the evening news, paying special attention to the conditions included in the forecast as well as the map that the meteorologist uses.

Open with a discussion question. "If I missed the news last night, where else can I find the weather forecast?" Record responses on board. Point out that while there are many ways to find out, today we’ll focus on the newspaper weather map.

Before giving out copies of weather maps from the newspaper, have students generate a list of information that might be included in a forecast. [ High/low temp, barometric pressure, wind speed and direction, precipitation, pressure systems, fronts] Write them on the board. Later, as you walk them through their first map, check off items that are shown and draw the symbol used next to it.

Hand out the weather maps and go through the symbols within the key and guide them through locating and reading the map. Pose questions that require them to locate different pieces of information and interpret the data. Point out pitfalls. Then have students break into groups and work with a new map (make it from the same source) to answer a series of questions using the map. Assess groups based on cooperation, participation of all members, ability to reach consensus or seeking help, and accuracy of answers.

Over the next several days provide opportunity for practice using a variety of maps. Allow opportunity for paired work as well as individual practice. Provide feedback on errors. Final assessment will be a weather map quiz.

SCIENTIFIC METHOD

Introduce Scientific Method by demonstrating a need for procedure. Discussion and examples should center around the question, "How do we prove something?" Give story problems that have faulty conclusions (i.e. superstitions, or silly beliefs such as "if I put my right shoe on first in the morning I have a good day, if I put the left on first, it will be bad" ) . Through discussion guide students to the idea of a need for a procedure to prove or disprove an idea. Then present the Scientific Method. Explain each step and the vocabulary associated with it. Present an expanded version of a previous faulty conclusion, this time include actions that model the Scientific Method. As a class, identify each action to the corresponding step. Have students complete a graphic organizer for the steps.

Over the next several days, provide practice in naming and identifying the steps through several activities. Using their graphic organizers, have student pairs work on story problems to identify the steps of the Scientific Method. Include stories that may have steps missing. Also provide time for verbal rehearsal of the steps in order. Assess students understanding through a brief quiz.

Students will later use the Scientific Method while conducting brief experiments related to hurricanes and tornadoes.(See hurricane and tornado experiences) They will be given a lab worksheet with a Problem Statement and instructions for completing the experiment. The lab write-up will include information for all steps of the method.

HURRICANES: WHAT THEY ARE, HOW THEY FORM

 Concepts: what it is, how it forms, location, naming, season, intensity and rating, dangers, predictability, precautions. The concepts associated with hurricanes will be taught through a series of activities. Start by giving each student a copy of guide questions for hurricanes that include both the student generated questions from the initial activity and teacher generated questions to cover topics to be taught.

Activity 1: Begin by watching the hurricane portion of the Weather Fundamentals video. Before starting the video, hand out a worksheet containing guided notes relating to the video. Go over the questions and let students know that all questions will be answered in the video. They may request a video pause by raising their hand. {Sometimes a rewind may be necessary} Assessment: check notes at the end for accuracy.

Activity 2:Read and discuss together Wild Weather: Hurricane! (Jean Hopping, Scholastic, 1995) Chapter breaks will be used for checking understanding. This is a level 4 reader(3^rd grade) and should be manageable for all students. Use the tracking data and satellite images collected to help demonstrate and reinforce concepts. (Can use other books, many are available) After reading, have students answer all the questions from the guide sheet that they can into their notebooks. [Have them leave extra space for each question for additional notes] Check notebooks.

Activity 3:Use the following activities to reinforce concepts to date. These can be done in one activity period either as centers or a series of activities.

1.) Using inductive reasoning, students will discover that large tropical storms have different names depending on the ocean in which they occur. Students will have a world map with different (named) hurricanes located in different oceans. They are given a fact sheet that tells them "---------was a hurricane", "----------was a typhoon" etc. They are asked to decide "Why are some tropical storms called hurricanes, some typhoons, some cyclones?" Students will write a response giving their answer and an explanation of how they reached their conclusion.

2.) As a visual demonstration of the Coriolis effect, students will complete an activity involving creating a whirlpool in a tub of water and dropping in a Ping-Pong ball at different locations in the whirlpool and observing/recording the results. Students will use the experimental inquiry method to write up the experiment, results and conclusion. They will be given a lab worksheet with the Problem Statement, " Why are the strongest winds found near the eye of a hurricane?", and instructions on how to conduct the experiment.

3.) Students will use the Saffir Simpson scale to categorize the daily hurricane data found in their logs.

4.) Have the process( both drawings and matching descriptions) and vocabulary of how a hurricane forms placed on index cards. Students are to organize the data, have it checked for accuracy, and then write a descriptive paragraph in their notebooks of how hurricanes form.

Activity 4: Divide students into pairs or groups of three to do research on the remaining guide questions and those questions needing further information. Provide an assortment of resource books and bookmarked WEB sites for this purpose. All information placed in notebooks will be used to write a multi-paragraph report on hurricanes. (www.usatoday.com/weather/uhursci , www.noaa.gov

Writing a Research Report

Before students begin researching hurricanes, provide them with examples of how the different types of bibliographies are to be written. Also provide them with "fill-in" bibliography data sheets to use while conducting their research.

Discuss what is expected in the report and provide example works. Not all examples should be of the highest level. Provide students with a written format of how the multi-paragraph report should be laid out and also a copy of the rubric that will be used to score it.

Model writing an outline, and provide at least one practice, with data provided to the students. Provide feedback on errors. A simple pre-designed outline form can be given to the students to use for their hurricane data. (Just structurally outlined, not what data is to go where.)

Students will conference with the teacher to review notes, bibliography entries and their outline. Once the students have completed this stage, they will follow the "writing process" for writing their reports.

Before the rough drafts a written, model writing topic sentences. Discuss the various types of topic sentences and provide them with several examples. Have the students practice writing topic sentences for different sets of information given to them.

Editing and revising will be done with the teacher. Conferencing can occur paragraph by paragraph or once the entire first draft is written. For students with writing difficulties, it may be better to edit by paragraph.

RESEARCH REPORT RUBRIC

TORNADOES

Introduce tornadoes with an experiment. Students will be given a lab worksheet with the problem statement: "How does a difference in air temperature cause a tornado?"

Using the Scientific Method they will complete the experiment and write up. The teacher for safety purposes will conduct the actual experiment. The experiment involves placing smoke in a hot jar that has a cold jar placed on top. (This experiment is in the Spotlight on Science kit mentioned earlier, also in Weather reproducible book by Miliken Publishing) Be sure to conduct it twice, reversing the jar positions the second time.

After completing the lab, discuss their observations and conclusions. Then show the Tornadoes section of the "Weather Fundamentals" video with guided note taking sheets.

Demonstrate the Bernoulli effect by having students suspend ping-pong balls from a pencil and blowing between the balls. They will observe that the balls move together and not apart. They can vary this by also using a straw to blow. This should create a greater movement. Through discussion, help them to recall that air moves from high to low pressure areas and that moving air has lower pressure. The faster the moving air, the lower the pressure. Discuss this implication to tornadoes.

Students will learn more about tornadoes through a cooperative group research poster. Divide the class into groups of four. Each group will divide into expert pairs that will research specific questions and then share with each other. Once all questions have been answered and students have conferenced with the teacher, they will design a poster that includes information on how tornadoes form, where they occur, destruction capabilities, safety measures, and interesting facts. Sources will include bookmarked WEB sites, http://www.txdirect.net/~msattler/tornado.htm , and http://www.nssl.noaa.gov as well as several reference books.

A rubric will be used to assess the posters.

WRITING A COMPARATIVE ESSAY

[It is expected that students have had some experience with comparisons.]

This experience involves writing a comparison essay for hurricanes and tornadoes and will be completed once all information has been learned about hurricanes and tornadoes.

Introduce comparison through a "think aloud" and questioning approach. Have two objects such as an apple and an orange and take students through the process of finding similarities and differences. Through the "think-aloud" emphasize the use of the 5 senses as a tool to compare. Place words such as size, shape, texture, odor, color, flavor on the board and go through the process of verbally identifying these qualities.

Repeat the procedure with two more objects, such as a lemon and a banana. This time have students generate a list of specific characteristics about each object and place their responses on a venn diagram on the board. You may need to ask prompt questions about certain characteristics. Try to get them to be as detailed as possible. Once a sufficient list is generated, guide them through identifying general qualities/categories based on specific observations. Have them attempt to list some qualities that were not used in the first example. Discuss how we can compare either through starting with categories and going to specifics, or starting with specifics and dividing into categories.

Provide opportunity for students to practice comparison writing using a graphic organizer and provide feedback, prior to hurricane /tornado comparison. During practice comparisons, introduce transition words to use in paragraphs to signal new categories.

Provide a graphic organizer for the hurricane /tornado comparison. Have students choose categories and details from their notes. After conferencing with the teacher, students will word process a four paragraph essay (intro, similarities, differences, conclusion).

 COMPARE AND CONTRAST RUBRIC

CULMINATING PERFORMANCE
Include rubric(s)

There are three major performances for this unit. The first assessment is the research report that each student will write. The second major assessment is the comparison essay of hurricanes and tornadoes. The culminating assessment will be a Power Point presentation about hurricanes and tornadoes created by the class, to be presented to the Kindergarten classes, which will also be learning about weather.

The class will be divided into groups of 3- 4 and each group will be given specific topics for which to create slides for the presentation. Each member of the group will be responsible for 1 slide. Since the intended audiences are non-readers, the slides will include video clips and images as well as basic text. Each group will give an oral presentation on their section and may include demonstrations if appropriate.

This project will be coordinated with the Technology Coordinator who will teach and assist the students in creating their slides. Prior to work in the lab, students will be given a list of materials and facts to collect, and decisions to make concerning their slides.

PRE-REQUISITE SKILLS

 It is expected that students will have had some experience in researching a topic and writing a simple report.

MODIFICATIONS

This unit was designed for and used in an elementary resource room. However, it would work as well or better in a regular classroom setting where more time could be devoted in a day to the activities. It can also be modified to lower grade levels by finding suitable grade level reading resources. The emphasis on improving reading and writing skills through a topic fascinating to all ages is easily maintained at most grade levels. If used in a regular classroom, modifications can be made for special needs students through the use of any and all of the following:

UNIT SCHEDULE/TIME PLAN

 This unit should take between four to six weeks to complete depending on the amount of time available in the daily schedule. If 60 to 80 minutes are available to cover both reading and science then this unit could be completed in about 4 weeks.

TECHNOLOGY USE

Technology used includes Internet sites for tracking storms and research, videos for presentation of information, word processing, Power Point for presentations, use of software, understanding and using Doppler Radar and satellite images.

 SCIENTIFIC METHOD

State the problem:

Hypothesis: (possible explanation)

Observation/Experimentation: (What is done, and the data collected, may include drawings)

Interpreting the data: (what patterns or consistencies were found)

Conclusion: (What did we learn from the experiment)