Big Idea 7: Earth Systems and Patterns

This interactive game uses the traditional hangman premise with all questions and answers involving science vocabulary. There are general sets of science vocabulary to choose from, as well as specific topics. You can even choose vocabulary pertaining to 5th or 8th grade FCAT Science Tests!

Type: Educational Game

This PDF included at this site has information about family preparedness plans and safety rules, and information about thunderstorms, tornadoes, and lightning such as facts, when and where they occur, and how they form.

Type: Image/Photograph

Students will work in small groups to prepare a visual presentation to engage the public with natural disaster preparedness.  They will communicate the importance of preparing, ways to prepare, and the idea that preparation is part of our civic responsibility in this integrated lesson plan.

Type: Lesson Plan

Students will read about dangers associated with different types of natural disasters in Florida and will explore how to prepare for them. The class will discuss natural disaster preparedness as a form of civic responsibility.

Type: Lesson Plan

Students will be introduced to Natural Disasters by using a KWL Chart. They will list and be able to explain some Natural Disasters that take place in Florida. Students will write to learn using an interactive presentation with facts and pictures to complete a graphic organizer. In this integrated lesson plan, students will explore how developing a preparedness plan is an important part of being a responsible citizen.

Type: Lesson Plan

Students work collaboratively as they develop a procedure to determine the types of items they may need in case of a natural disaster, calculate costs to stay within a budget, identify civic responsibility, and understand how state and federal governments work together to protect U.S. citizens in this model eliciting activity.

Model Eliciting Activities, MEAs, are open-ended, interdisciplinary problem-solving activities that are meant to reveal students’ thinking about the concepts embedded in realistic situations.  Click here to learn more about MEAs and how they can transform your classroom.

Type: Lesson Plan

During the activity, student’s will organize, analyze, and draw conclusions about the weather in a particular place and time to assist 4cast Engineering and Development to choose a seminar location. Students will use their understanding of how air temperature, air pressure, humidity, wind speed and direction, and precipitation to determine a location for the seminar. They will also create a blueprint of an object appropriate to the climate which they will submit to be manufactured and sold at the seminar locations. Students will accurately label the length, width, height and angles of the object as to have an accurate blueprint.

Type: Lesson Plan

What is air pressure? This set of experiments will explore the properties of air to determine how its behavior affects the weather. 

Students will make conclusions about the properties of air based on the data they've recorded from their experiments.

This is lesson 1 for the air pressure component of a 5th grade unit on weather. The lesson uses weather sensors and connects computer science concepts within the lesson.

Type: Lesson Plan

In this lesson students will perform experiments and collect data to gather empirical evidence about how air molecules behave when heated and cooled. This is the 4th lesson in the 5th grade unit and  uses sensors and computer science skills to learn about weather.

Type: Lesson Plan

This experiment will model how sunlight striking the Earth’s surface warms the air around us. Students will investigate how surfaces of differing reflectivity determine how much sunlight is absorbed and converted to heat which in turn serves to warm the adjacent air.

This is lesson 3 in the fifth grade unit on weather. The lesson uses weather sensors and connects computer science concepts within the lesson.

Type: Lesson Plan

Learn about relative humidity: how to measure it, what causes it to change, and why it is an important component of our weather. This is lesson 2 in a fifth grade unit on weather and has two inquiry based experiments for students. The lesson uses weather sensors and connects computer science concepts within the lesson

Type: Lesson Plan

In this lesson, 5th grade students work in small groups on a STEM challenge that involves science and math standards related to the water cycle, as well as learning the engineering design process.

Type: Lesson Plan

This is a design challenge lesson allowing students to utilize their understanding of climate zones to design a tropical roof that would withstand the wind and water generated by a hurricane. This lesson also allows you to assess students understanding of operations with decimals to create their design under a given budget.

Type: Lesson Plan

Students are presented with this scenario: A horrible forest fire has come through an ecosystem near you! Students will need to provide a detailed news article explaining the effect that this fire had on the food chain and how local citizens can help to restore the ecosystem. In addition to providing steps to rebuild, they must also convince readers that steps need to be taken in advance to prepare ecosystems for similar disasters.

Type: Lesson Plan

In the first lesson, students will determine latitude, longitude, continents, and ocean on a world map and label them correctly. In the second lesson, the students will be "dropped" off at an unknown location and they will have to figure out where in the world they are based on the plants, animals, and climate of that location so that they can be rescued by Professor Sohn.

Type: Lesson Plan

In this MEA, students will use their knowledge of weather to select a location for a camera crew to visit in order to get high quality video footage of severe weather such as thunderstorms, blizzards, tornadoes, or hurricanes. The decision will be made using data about important weather factors such as air pressure, humidity, temperature, wind direction, and wind speed.

Model Eliciting Activities, MEAs, are open-ended, interdisciplinary problem-solving activities that are meant to reveal students’ thinking about the concepts embedded in realistic situations. MEAs resemble engineering problems and encourage students to create solutions in the form of mathematical and scientific models. Students work in teams to apply their knowledge of science and mathematics to solve an open-ended problem, while considering constraints and tradeoffs. Students integrate their ELA skills into MEAs as they are asked to clearly document their thought process. MEAs follow a problem-based, student centered approach to learning, where students are encouraged to grapple with the problem while the teacher acts as a facilitator. To learn more about MEA’s visit: https://www.cpalms.org/cpalms/mea.aspx

Type: Lesson Plan

The water cycle is the system by which Earth's fixed amount of water is collected, purified, and distributed from the environment to living things and back to the environment. Through a game and an experiment, this activity will introduce students to the various steps of the water cycle and will help them make connections between the water cycle and all living things.

Type: Lesson Plan

In this open inquiry lesson, student groups will try to identify an unknown location by incorporating data analysis and environmental weather patterns such as precipitation and temperature. Students will have to determine if the mystery location is a swamp, a desert, or a mountain by reviewing the given weather data. Students will have to justify their reasoning in writing to their peers.

Type: Lesson Plan

This informational text resource is intended to support reading in the content area. In this lesson, students will analyze an informational text that addresses how different types of precipitation are formed. The lesson plan includes a note-taking guide, text-dependent questions, a writing prompt, answer keys, and a writing rubric. Options to extend the lesson are also included.

Type: Lesson Plan

Approaching weather systems are generally associated with atmospheric pressure. This 45 minute lesson is designed to help your students understand what type of weather is associated with low-pressure systems and high-pressure systems.

Type: Lesson Plan

Students will study how water cycles through the atmosphere. Students will create a graphic organizer labeling all the parts of the water cycle including evaporation, condensation, precipitation, transpiration & runoff. Then students will work with a lab partner (team) to create their own model of the water cycle using a plastic container to show all parts of the cycle.

Type: Lesson Plan

This lesson teaches the water cycle through class experiments/ displays, videos and diagrams.

Type: Lesson Plan

In this Model-Eliciting Activity (MEA), the students have been hired as consultants to analyze data and recommend a new farm location for a fruit company. The students will learn about climate, weather changes, and develop a proposal for the Organic Inc. company.

Model Eliciting Activities, MEAs, are open-ended, interdisciplinary problem-solving activities that are meant to reveal students’ thinking about the concepts embedded in realistic situations. MEAs resemble engineering problems and encourage students to create solutions in the form of mathematical and scientific models. Students work in teams to apply their knowledge of science and mathematics to solve an open-ended problem while considering constraints and tradeoffs. Students integrate their ELA skills into MEAs as they are asked to clearly document their thought processes. MEAs follow a problem-based, student-centered approach to learning, where students are encouraged to grapple with the problem while the teacher acts as a facilitator. To learn more about MEAs visit: https://www.cpalms.org/cpalms/mea.aspx

Type: Lesson Plan

In this activity students will analyze data about the conditions in a hermit crab habitat to determine which one will be best to meet the animal’s needs.

Model Eliciting Activities, MEAs, are open-ended, interdisciplinary problem-solving activities that are meant to reveal students’ thinking about the concepts embedded in realistic situations. MEAs resemble engineering problems and encourage students to create solutions in the form of mathematical and scientific models. Students work in teams to apply their knowledge of science and mathematics to solve an open-ended problem, while considering constraints and tradeoffs. Students integrate their ELA skills into MEAs as they are asked to clearly document their thought process. MEAs follow a problem-based, student centered approach to learning, where students are encouraged to grapple with the problem while the teacher acts as a facilitator. To learn more about MEA’s visit: https://www.cpalms.org/cpalms/mea.aspx

Type: Lesson Plan

In this Model-Eliciting Activity (MEA), students will review data and rank travel dates from best to worst in terms of weather conditions, to help the Neely Family decide what the best dates would be to go camping in Madison Fl. Students will consider wind speed, air pressure, humidity, air temperature by analyzing the given charts which include these data week by week. Students will work as a groups and create a model for ranking these dates. Students have fun, use problem solving and collaborative strategies while learning about the properties of weather.

Model Eliciting Activities, MEAs, are open-ended, interdisciplinary problem-solving activities that are meant to reveal students’ thinking about the concepts embedded in realistic situations. MEAs resemble engineering problems and encourage students to create solutions in the form of mathematical and scientific models. Students work in teams to apply their knowledge of science and mathematics to solve an open-ended problem while considering constraints and tradeoffs. Students integrate their ELA skills into MEAs as they are asked to clearly document their thought processes. MEAs follow a problem-based, student-centered approach to learning, where students are encouraged to grapple with the problem while the teacher acts as a facilitator. To learn more about MEAs visit: https://www.cpalms.org/cpalms/mea.aspx

Type: Lesson Plan

In this Model-Eliciting Activity (MEA), teams will be given the task of ranking weather tools for a weather station kit. Students will read an informative supplemental reading about the factors that influence weather so students can determine the relation to the tools that measure these factors. Once teams have ranked the tools, they will respond to the client in a letter with their choices. The client will respond by asking that ease of use be considered as a factor and will request that students respond with a second letter with a revised ranking.

Model Eliciting Activities, MEAs, are open-ended, interdisciplinary problem-solving activities that are meant to reveal students’ thinking about the concepts embedded in realistic situations. MEAs resemble engineering problems and encourage students to create solutions in the form of mathematical and scientific models. Students work in teams to apply their knowledge of science and mathematics to solve an open-ended problem while considering constraints and tradeoffs. Students integrate their ELA skills into MEAs as they are asked to clearly document their thought processes. MEAs follow a problem-based, student-centered approach to learning, where students are encouraged to grapple with the problem while the teacher acts as a facilitator. To learn more about MEAs visit: https://www.cpalms.org/cpalms/mea.aspx

Type: Lesson Plan

Students analyze a weekly weather forecast to rank and determine which day would be best for flying a kite.

Model Eliciting Activities, MEAs, are open-ended, interdisciplinary problem-solving activities that are meant to reveal students’ thinking about the concepts embedded in realistic situations. MEAs resemble engineering problems and encourage students to create solutions in the form of mathematical and scientific models. Students work in teams to apply their knowledge of science and mathematics to solve an open-ended problem while considering constraints and tradeoffs. Students integrate their ELA skills into MEAs as they are asked to clearly document their thought processes. MEAs follow a problem-based, student-centered approach to learning, where students are encouraged to grapple with the problem while the teacher acts as a facilitator. To learn more about MEAs visit: https://www.cpalms.org/cpalms/mea.aspx

Type: Lesson Plan

In this lesson, students will investigate the steps of the water cycle. They will describe each step of the water cycle and the state of matter that the water is in during each step. Students will recognize that the sun is a crucial part of the water cycle and that the water's state of matter can go back and forth. Students will demonstrate their understanding of the water cycle by designing and building their own water cycle model.

Type: Lesson Plan

In this lesson, students will research various natural disasters. They will then create a family preparedness plan and identify key items to include in a survival kit in the event of a natural disaster. Students will specifically study tornadoes, hurricanes, floods, wildfires and severe thunderstorms in this lesson.

Type: Lesson Plan

In this Model-Eliciting Activity (MEA), students will look over data and rank locations from the most attractive state to the least attractive state and help their friend's grandparents decide what locations would be the best states to move to, based on their needs and wants. Students will consider the following factors: natural disasters, seasons, landforms, bodies of water, climate zones and yearly precipitation.

Model Eliciting Activities, MEAs, are open-ended, interdisciplinary problem-solving activities that are meant to reveal students’ thinking about the concepts embedded in realistic situations. MEAs resemble engineering problems and encourage students to create solutions in the form of mathematical and scientific models. Students work in teams to apply their knowledge of science and mathematics to solve an open-ended problem while considering constraints and tradeoffs. Students integrate their ELA skills into MEAs as they are asked to clearly document their thought processes. MEAs follow a problem-based, student-centered approach to learning, where students are encouraged to grapple with the problem while the teacher acts as a facilitator. To learn more about MEAs visit: https://www.cpalms.org/cpalms/mea.aspx

Type: Lesson Plan

This activity allows students to determine the types of items that should be in a hurricane survival kit, use a budget and calculations to determine the items to include in the kit and gain an understanding of hurricanes and the need to prepare for them.

Model Eliciting Activities, MEAs, are open-ended, interdisciplinary problem-solving activities that are meant to reveal students’ thinking about the concepts embedded in realistic situations. Click here to learn more about MEAs and how they can transform your classroom.

Type: Lesson Plan

In this Model-Eliciting Activity (MEA), students are asked to design a system to water plants using rain water. Students apply their knowledge of the water cycle and grade specific content vocabulary to label and justify their design. Students also use context clues and dictionary skills to define the term permeability.

Model Eliciting Activities, MEAs, are open-ended, interdisciplinary problem-solving activities that are meant to reveal students’ thinking about the concepts embedded in realistic situations. MEAs resemble engineering problems and encourage students to create solutions in the form of mathematical and scientific models. Students work in teams to apply their knowledge of science and mathematics to solve an open-ended problem while considering constraints and tradeoffs. Students integrate their ELA skills into MEAs as they are asked to clearly document their thought processes. MEAs follow a problem-based, student-centered approach to learning, where students are encouraged to grapple with the problem while the teacher acts as a facilitator. To learn more about MEAs visit: https://www.cpalms.org/cpalms/mea.aspx

Type: Lesson Plan

In this lesson students will construct models of the water cycle, draw a diagram, and write a summary on the stages of the water cycle and the states of water throughout the different stages of the cycle.

Type: Lesson Plan

This Model Eliciting Activity (MEA) is written at a 5th grade level. In this open-ended problem, students are presented with a variety of vacation choices, the predicted weather conditions at each location, prices, and previous guest comments. Students must rank the hot vacation spots and describe their procedures for ranking.

Model Eliciting Activities, MEAs, are open-ended, interdisciplinary problem-solving activities that are meant to reveal students’ thinking about the concepts embedded in realistic situations. MEAs resemble engineering problems and encourage students to create solutions in the form of mathematical and scientific models. Students work in teams to apply their knowledge of science and mathematics to solve an open-ended problem, while considering constraints and tradeoffs. Students integrate their ELA skills into MEAs as they are asked to clearly document their thought process. MEAs follow a problem-based, student centered approach to learning, where students are encouraged to grapple with the problem while the teacher acts as a facilitator. To learn more about MEA’s visit: https://www.cpalms.org/cpalms/mea.aspx

Type: Lesson Plan

Ever wonder why rain falls to the Earth's surface? Where does it go after it falls? Will we ever run out of water? Students encounter these questions and more everyday as they observe natural occurrences happening in their back yard. This lesson will help you to create a simulation of the water cycle with a few simple tools and a probing conversation between two friends.

Type: Lesson Plan

Water plays a major role in the planet's weather and climate, as well as nourishes people, plants, and animals; it is a crucial ingredient for life on Earth. Earth's natural mechanism for transporting, cleansing, and recycling water between the surface and the atmosphere is referred to as the water cycle. This lesson has students recognize water's different forms and where it exists in the environment. The class will discuss and perform experiments, modeling the water cycle and exploring how salt water can be distilled into fresh water.

Type: Lesson Plan

Anita Balance is a tightrope walker who is deciding to determine the location of her first big tightrope walk. Students must use their knowledge about climate to determine where the best/safest location (climate) will be to do her walk. This lesson provides opportunities for students to discuss how factors such as: precipitation, elevation and distance from the ocean affect climate.

Model Eliciting Activities, MEAs, are open-ended, interdisciplinary problem-solving activities that are meant to reveal students’ thinking about the concepts embedded in realistic situations. MEAs resemble engineering problems and encourage students to create solutions in the form of mathematical and scientific models. Students work in teams to apply their knowledge of science and mathematics to solve an open-ended problem while considering constraints and tradeoffs. Students integrate their ELA skills into MEAs as they are asked to clearly document their thought processes. MEAs follow a problem-based, student-centered approach to learning, where students are encouraged to grapple with the problem while the teacher acts as a facilitator. To learn more about MEAs visit: https://www.cpalms.org/cpalms/mea.aspx

Type: Lesson Plan

This Engineering Design Challenge is intended to help students apply the concepts of air pressure as they improve upon a common home-made barometer design to create one that is more accurate. It is not intended as an all-encompassing lesson for this concept.

Type: Lesson Plan

This Model Eliciting Activity (MEA) asks students to develop a procedure to select a hurricane shutter company based on several data points.

Model Eliciting Activities, MEAs, are open-ended, interdisciplinary problem-solving activities that are meant to reveal students’ thinking about the concepts embedded in realistic situations. MEAs resemble engineering problems and encourage students to create solutions in the form of mathematical and scientific models. Students work in teams to apply their knowledge of science and mathematics to solve an open-ended problem, while considering constraints and tradeoffs. Students integrate their ELA skills into MEAs as they are asked to clearly document their thought process. MEAs follow a problem-based, student centered approach to learning, where students are encouraged to grapple with the problem while the teacher acts as a facilitator. To learn more about MEA’s visit: https://www.cpalms.org/cpalms/mea.aspx

Type: Lesson Plan

In this lesson, students create a model (drawing) after learning the parts of the water cycle. The drawing will be in their science notebooks and will be something they will build on in future lessons. This lesson is intended to be the beginning of a unit on the water cycle for students to have a basic understanding of the stages within it and the vocabulary associated with it. Vocabulary words will be examined and connected to a model of melting ice in a water bottle.

Type: Lesson Plan

Water, Water Everywhere! Research the Water Cycle asks students to conduct their own research on the water cycle. Working collaboratively in small groups, students will research and write about the relationships between stages in the water cycle and the three states of matter relating to water. After completing this lesson, students will be prepared to create a model of the water cycle.

Type: Lesson Plan

Students will learn the difference between global, prevailing and local winds. In this activity, students will make a wind vane out of paper, a straw and a soda bottle and use it to measure wind direction over time. Finally, they will analyze their data to draw conclusions about the prevailing winds in their area.

Type: Lesson Plan

Explore the major climate zones on Earth and learn about the related weather patterns with this interactive research page.

Type: Original Student Tutorial

Learn about the water cycle's major stages and the importance of the ocean in the water cycle with this Interactive Science Research Page.

Type: Original Student Tutorial

Explore the integral role Earth's oceans play in the water cycle in this interactive tutorial.

Type: Original Student Tutorial

Learn how water moves into the atmosphere as it moves through the water cycle. This is part 2 of a three-part interactive tutorial series. 

Click to open part 1

Click HERE to open part 3 (Coming Soon)

Type: Original Student Tutorial

Explore different sources of water as it travels through Earth's water cycle.  Discover the importance of the oceans and other water sources as you follow water's journey in this interactive tutorial.

Type: Original Student Tutorial

Explore the basics of air pressure in this interactive tutorial.

Type: Original Student Tutorial

Explore how temperature and humidity affects biomes like the tundra and desert, and learn how computers use NAND and NOR logic gates to make decisions.

This is part 4 of 4 in a series about biomes and logic gates. Click below to open parts 1-3.

• Traveling With Boolean Logic Part 2: AND Gates
• Traveling With Boolean Logic Part 3: OR Gates
• Traveling With Boolean Logic Part 4: NAND and NOR Gates

Type: Original Student Tutorial

Explore how temperature, wind speed and other weather data affects a biome like the temperate grasslands. While exploring the different aspects of the biome, learn the OR logic gate that computers use to make decisions.

This is part 3 of 4 in a tutorial series on biomes and logic gates.

• Traveling With Boolean Logic Part 2: AND Gates
• Traveling With Boolean Logic Part 3: OR Gates
• Traveling With Boolean Logic Part 4: NAND and NOR Gates

Type: Original Student Tutorial

Learn how AND Boolean logic can be used to evaluate two different inputs resulting in a true or false output. While exploring the logic of a computer system in this interactive tutorial, you will learn about different biomes and how computers can make decisions based on the attributes of the biomes.

This is part 2 of 4 in a tutorial series about biomes and Boolean logic.

• Traveling With Boolean Logic Part 2: AND Gates
• Traveling With Boolean Logic Part 3: OR Gates
• Traveling With Boolean Logic Part 4: NAND and NOR Gates

Type: Original Student Tutorial

Expand your coding skills with Boolean logic as you use the inverter NOT function to make decisions while learning about different biomes.

This is part 1 of 4 in a tutorial series about Boolean logic and biomes.

• Traveling With Boolean Logic Part 1: NOT Gates
• Traveling With Boolean Logic Part 3: OR Gates
• Traveling With Boolean Logic Part 4: NAND and NOR Gates

Type: Original Student Tutorial

Learn how to prepare a natural disaster plan of your own and identify reasons for having one in this interactive tutorial.

Type: Original Student Tutorial

Discover how air temperature, air pressure, humidity, wind, and precipitation determine the weather in a particular place and time as you complete this interactive tutorial.

Type: Original Student Tutorial

Learn how to identify explicit evidence and understand implicit meaning in a text.

You should be able to distinguish weather conditions among different climates.

Type: Original Student Tutorial

Learn to identify precipitation as rain, snow, sleet and hail in this interactive tutorial.

Type: Original Student Tutorial

Learn to describe the relationship between latitude and annual mean temperatures on Earth with this interactive tutorial.

Type: Original Student Tutorial

<p>Entrepreneur and meteorologist Mark Powell discusses the need for statistics in his mathematical modeling program to help better understand hurricanes.</p>

Type: Perspectives Video: Expert

Meteorologist, Michael Kozar, discusses the limitations to existing hurricane scales and how he is helping to develop an improved scale.

Download the CPALMS Perspectives video student note taking guide.

Type: Perspectives Video: Expert

Dr. Tom Van Lent and Rajendra Paudel describe how hydrologic modeling is used to evaluate environmental conditions in the Everglades.

Download the CPALMS Perspectives video student note taking guide.

Type: Perspectives Video: Professional/Enthusiast

What’s your vector, Victor? Understanding math and wind helps get you where you want to go.

Related Resources:
KROS Pacific Ocean Kayak Journey: GPS Data Set[.XLSX]
KROS Pacific Ocean Kayak Journey: Path Visualization for Google Earth[.KML]

Download the CPALMS Perspectives video student note taking guide.

Type: Perspectives Video: Professional/Enthusiast

Earth Science Teacher, Dave Rodriguez, shows an activity on how to determine the dew point using easy to locate materials.

Download the CPALMS Perspectives video student note taking guide.

Type: Perspectives Video: Teaching Idea

Learn about the exciting work of NOAA's Hurricane Hunters, who fly aircraft through hurricanes to collect weather data that helps us learn about the storms and predict their development to help the public prepare for their impacts in this PowerPoint eReader.

Type: Presentation/Slideshow

This is an accessible, easy-to-read book about the water cycle. It can be downloaded in Power Point, Impress, or Flash formats. For struggling or non-readers the book can be read aloud in a variety of voices. All of the books on the Tar Heel Reader site can be used with the Intellikeys keyboard with a custom overlay, a touch screen, and 1-3 switches. The text and background colors can be modified for students with visual impairments.

Type: Presentation/Slideshow

Students will research the parts of the water cycle and create a visual display and final product on what they know about the water cycle.

Type: Project

The representation is a detailed, labeled diagram of the water cycle. Included in the representation are the major concepts of evaporation, precipitation and ground infiltration, as well as more advanced ideas such as transpiration and water storage. Above and below the diagram are several paragraphs that provide an introduction to the water cycle, a quick summary of the parts of the water cycle and information about global water distribution.

Type: Teaching Idea

This is a great song to help students remember the water cycle. My students love to sing this song. I use it throughout the year, especially when we have a little extra time before lunch or changing classes.

Type: Teaching Idea

This informational text is intended to support reading in the content area. The text informs readers about how several types of precipitation are formed in the atmosphere, including rain, hail, freezing rain, and snow.

Type: Text Resource

This informational text resource is intended to support reading in the content area. The article and graphics explain the atmospheric conditions needed to form different types of precipitation: snow, freezing rain, and sleet.

Type: Text Resource

This informational text resource is intended to support reading in the content area. The article walks the reader through the water cycle, from the point of view of a drop of water.

Type: Text Resource

This informational text resource is intended to support reading in the content area. This article discusses the steps in the water cycle.

Type: Text Resource

National Hurricane Center's site for hurricane preparedness. Includes sample family disaster plan, checklist for supply kit, and links to background knowledge about storm surges, flooding, and high winds.

Type: Text Resource

The Treehouse Weather Kids is designed for teachers and students in the 5th – 8th grades. It provides basic information on weather topics such as winds, moisture, air pressure, seasons, and storms. This tutorial discusses clouds, humidity, and precipitation.

Type: Tutorial

The Treehouse Weather Kids is designed for teachers and students in the 5th – 8th grades. It provides basic information on weather topics such as winds, moisture, air pressure, seasons, and storms. This tutorial discusses air pressue and wind.

Type: Tutorial

In this ZOOM-adapted video clip, a student explains how her interest in weather observation led her to volunteer at a local weather center so she could get practical experience with weather instruments and learn from a practicing meteorologist how forecasts are created.

Type: Video/Audio/Animation

Precipitation is water that falls from the sky, such as rain or snow. Precipitation can affect your day-to-day life, even though it is just one aspect of the weather. However, precipitation is also vital to the water cycle as it returns water from the atmosphere back to Earth's surface. In this video clip three different types of precipitation are observed - rain, hail, and snow.

Type: Video/Audio/Animation

In this ZOOM-adapted video clip, guest Tommy takes you into Florida's Everglades, describing the animals, plants, and weather he observes while in swamps and marshy grasslands. Connections between other regions are made, such as bird migration from one ecosystem to another.

Type: Video/Audio/Animation

The process that moves water around Earth is known as the water cycle. I this ZOOM-adapted video clip, the cast uses a homemade solar still to separate pure water from a saltwater mixture, mimicing this natural process.

Type: Video/Audio/Animation

The hydrologic cycle describes how water is perpetually recycled, continuously traveling between Earth's surface and the atmosphere through five main processes: condensation, precipitation, infiltration, runoff, and evapotranspiration. This NASA-adapted interactive resource explores the steps of the water cycle in a computer model.

Type: Video/Audio/Animation

Through this website, students learn about different weather disasters and what to do before, during, and after an emergency.

Type: Virtual Manipulative