Drastic Weather Changes

The video includes weather images and data from April 2020 in Iowa.

Driving Question

Students could:

Investigate what causes the weather to change in certain areas. Specifically they will want to know what causes it to snow or what causes the temperatures to be high or low.
Discuss whether or not snow in April normal or part of Iowa’s climate.
Discuss severe weather events with videos of severe weather as a part of a lesson specific phenomenon.

UCAR Center for Science Education | Modeling a Weather Front: This is designed for younger students, but may be a good model to show them early on as a review. While it would be best as a teacher model for the entire class, higher level students can also do their own mini-versions.
NASA: Meteorology | An Educator’s Resource: NASA-curated, inquiry-based activities on the topic of weather. Activities are not necessarily sequential and can be selected based on student interest and lines of investigation.
Teach Engineering | Weather and Atmosphere: This is a 14-day unit about weather and climate from Teach Engineering. All or parts of this may be used to support the anchoring phenomena. These activities have an engineering focus and can be used to hit on engineering standards as well.
Smithsonian Science Education Center | Weather Lab: This interactive demonstrates how different air masses impact the weather experienced in an area.
NOAA | Severe Weather 101: The National Severe Storms Laboratory provides information on different severe weather events. Severe weather in Iowa could be a lesson-specific phenomena to support the anchoring phenomenon. Students could do a webquest in groups about a specific type of severe weather and present it to the class. This could be done in a jigsaw activity as well.
TED-Ed: How do tornadoes form?: TedEd animiated video on the formation of tornadoes.

MS-ESS2-5:

Collect data to provide evidence for how the motions and complex interactions of air masses results in changes in weather conditions