• Design and conduct scientific investigations.
• Use appropriate tools and techniques to gather, analyze, and interpret data.
• Develop descriptions, explanations, predictions, and models using evidence.
• Think critically and logically to make connections between evidence and explanations.
• Interpret meteorological data.
• Communicate scientific procedures and explanations.
• Use mathematics in scientific inquiry.
• Understand that different kinds of questions suggest different kinds of scientific investigations; current knowledge guides scientific investigations; and mathematics and technology are important scientific tools.
• Understand that scientific explanations emphasize evidence.
• Record and graph data concretely, pictorially, and symbolically to discover relationships.
• Acquire the vocabulary associated with light and sound.
• Use scientific thinking processes to conduct investigations and build explanations:  observing, communicating, organizing, relating and inferring.
• Work collaboratively and relate knowledge to new experiences.

Assessments:

• Lab experiments
• Performance assessments
• Reflective journals
• Teacher created assessments
• End of unit projects
• Rubrics
• Checklists
• Homework/Class work
• Teacher observations

Meteorology

Content
Develop students’ understanding in how to measure, analyze, and predict factors that effect weather.

• Clouds form in the atmosphere above the earth’s surface.
• Heat can be transferred by radiation, conduction, or convection.
• Solar radiation is a major source of energy for weather phenomena.
• The composition, color, and moisture content of a material affect the rate at which it absorbs or reflects solar energy.
• The atmosphere has different properties at different altitudes and is a mixture of nitrogen, oxygen, and trace gases including water vapor.
• Air rises and falls as it is heated or cooled as the surface absorbs or radiates heat.
• Rising water vapor cools, and condenses to form clouds.
• Patterns in atmospheric movement affect weather.
• Convection currents move heat through the troposphere.
• Fronts form at the boundary between two air masses with different temperature, pressure, and humidity conditions.
• The movement and exchange of water between the earth, atmosphere, and oceans is called the water cycle.
• Precipitation, thunderstorms, tornadoes, and hurricanes often develop in low-pressure weather conditions (or when warm and cold air masses meet).
• Oceans have a major effect on climate.

Internet Links:
pde.state.pa.us/k12/lib/k12/scitech.doc

education-world.com/
standards/national/science/index.shtm

umtsd.org/Science_list

http://Achieve.Weatherbug.com

http://ww2010.atmos.uiuc.edu/(Gh)
/guides/mtr/home.rxml

Planned Instruction