Atomspheric Systems

As the wind gusts up around the island in ways I never dreamed possible, so many questions come to my mind about the wind and the air above me.  This module introduces the various layers of the atmosphere and how it impacts our lives.

Clouds like these found in Cold Bay, AK make me think.

Explain:
"We're like lobsters living at the bottom of an immense ocean of air."  This line make me think about the complexity of the air around us.  I like the image of the ocean of air.  Too often, we leave out studies about the air and the atmosphere yet it is complex just like the many habitats and systems we teach.


I am saddened to learn more about the arctic haze and the damage we are doing to the regions of the north.  One of the biggest reasons I came to Alaska was to breathe clean air.  But did I really get away from the pollutants of big cities?  The science of the currents of the Earth and pollution are not two topics I ever thought about together. Now I may teach them together.  I think the arctic haze really helps paint the picture about how we are all connected and what we do does impact others.

I have always enjoyed dreaming in the clouds and making silly shapes out of them in my mind but I never stopped to really think about what were telling me unless they were dark rain clouds.  The compare and contrast interactive media on warm and cold fronts made me think about clouds in a new way.  The clouds are more than cute shapes; they are telling me about the weather that is coming.  The cute fluffy clouds are those Cumulonimbus clouds that come with a cold front.  While a warm front brings a variety of clouds at various levels of the atmosphere.  I can imagine this being crucial to a pilot understand the air above us.

What are these clouds over Dutch Harbor, AK telling us?

Explore:
Atmospheric systems are a tough topic for students to understand.  There are so many great resources in this unit to help students visualize what is happening above us.  I specifically like the interactive media that shows the various layers of the atmosphere and students can change between them.  I can see this being helpful for students to see the layers like a cake.  I would use this specific media to create atmospheric flip book showing the layers of the atmosphere and what is in them.

The Google Earth activity adding the weather layer would be fun to use with students to compare weather in various locations on the Earth.  Then they could use the Jet Stream media to see what impact the Jet Stream had on the weather at various locations.  This would be a fun discovery tool for students rather than just talking about the weather. 


Evaluate:
The videos in this module are very  informative and useful when teaching about weather and the atmosphere.  I would have really liked to see the Six Principals of Weather video but I could never get it to work.  It is so helpful to have them gathered by topics.  Having the standards connected to them in the Teachers Domain makes planning so easy.

I felt the interactive medias in this module did a good job at illustrating tough concepts.  This will help the students visualize the concepts and support discussions. 

I found the Phun Physics of Phase Change interesting although I do not see me using it much in my classroom.  The Vacuum video was interesting but at the middle school level I could see if confusing some students.  I would have to do more background teaching before I used some of the material in this area.  For a high school class, this is a great introduction to latent heat and the physics of pressure. 

3 Colleagues:
Konrad shares some wonderful resources to highlight topics in this module.   I especially liked the book recommendation, one we need to check out.

Cheryl recommends the use of the Google Time-line feature.  This is a great connection to the weather layer.

I appreciate how Jesse used other student's blogs to discuss the topics of this module.  This was not a lesson I saw a lot of history tied into but he still found a way to do.  Plus the cartoon is great.