Weather and Climate Basics

Contributor
National Center for Atmospheric Research and the National Science Foundation
Type Category
Instructional Materials
Types
Tutorial , Article , Informative Text
Note
This resource, vetted by NSTA curators, is provided to teachers along with suggested modifications to make it more in line with the vision of the NGSS. While not considered to be "fully aligned," the resources and expert recommendations provide teachers with concrete examples and expert guidance using the EQuIP rubric to adapted existing resources. Read more here.

Reviews

Description

This is a resource from the National Center for Atmospheric Research and the National Science Foundation that explains the basics of weather and climate. This article is designed as background information for the teacher.

Intended Audience

Educator
Educational Level
  • Grade 5
  • Grade 4
  • Grade 3
  • Upper Elementary
  • Grade 2
  • Grade 1
  • Early Elementary
  • Kindergarten
  • Elementary School
  • Pre-Kindergarten
Language
English
Access Restrictions

Free access - The right to view and/or download material without financial, registration, or excessive advertising barriers.

Performance Expectations

K-ESS2-1 Use and share observations of local weather conditions to describe patterns over time.

Clarification Statement: Examples of qualitative observations could include descriptions of the weather (such as sunny, cloudy, rainy, and warm); examples of quantitative observations could include numbers of sunny, windy, and rainy days in a month. Examples of patterns could include that it is usually cooler in the morning than in the afternoon and the number of sunny days versus cloudy days in different months.

Assessment Boundary: Assessment of quantitative observations limited to whole numbers and relative measures such as warmer/cooler.

This resource appears to be designed to build towards this performance expectation, though the resource developer has not explicitly stated so.

Comments about Including the Performance Expectation
This resource should be used for teacher background information before teaching weather. Some of the information available on the site: the difference between weather and climate, types of weather (tornadoes, typhoons, hurricanes, blizzards, thunderstorms), cloud formations (the pictures of the clouds are something that should be shared with students when learning about clouds), forecasting and the tools used to observe weather, and climate change (effects, ancient climate change, models that can help predict the future of climate change). This information could be used at a local level with students.

Science and Engineering Practices

This resource appears to be designed to build towards this science and engineering practice, though the resource developer has not explicitly stated so.

Comments about Including the Science and Engineering Practice
The information about weather and climate learned will help the teacher to explain and teach students how to use information from weather observations to describe phenomena and notice weather patterns. The resource provides examples of how scientists gather evidence, the kind of data they gather, and technology used. This can be shared with students.

Disciplinary Core Ideas

This resource is explicitly designed to build towards this disciplinary core idea.

Comments about Including the Disciplinary Core Idea
By viewing the complete resource, a teacher will gain a great deal of knowledge and visuals to share about weather, it's patterns, and how it is measured.

Crosscutting Concepts

This resource appears to be designed to build towards this crosscutting concept, though the resource developer has not explicitly stated so.

Comments about Including the Crosscutting Concept
When learning about weather and climate on this site, patterns of the natural world are described to explain phenomena. The teacher will gain background information to help students build toward this crosscutting concept when studying weather and climate.

Resource Quality

  • Alignment to the Dimensions of the NGSS: The information gained from this resource will help to support students in three-dimensional learning.

  • Instructional Supports: After viewing this resource teachers may find they are able to engage students in authentic and meaningful scenarios that reflect the practice of science and engineering as experienced in the real world and that provide students with a purpose (e.g., making sense of phenomena and/or designing solutions to problems.

  • Monitoring Student Progress: There is no student progress that needs to be measured.

  • Quality of Technological Interactivity: This resource has excellent graphics, pictures, and text.