Scientists from NOAA's research laboratories in Boulder and Seattle have joined me in collaborating for a second time to produce a series of classroom science activities on meteorology, and atmospheric and oceanic science. We call this second series Student Activities in Meteorology-II or SAM-II. As with the original SAM, our goal is to provide activities that are interesting to students, and at the same time convenient and easy to use for teachers. The topics that we chose are designed so that students use current trend setting scientific research and cutting edge technology to learn the processes of science - data collecting, graphing, analyzing, predicting, etc. - as well as information, principles, and concepts of science. In SAM-II, we included an oceanography activity to address the global effects of the atmosphere-ocean connection. We believe that these activities are versatile and can be easily integrated into your current science, environmental studies, health and safety, social studies, and math curriculum. A grid that shows how SAM-II conforms to the National Science Education Content Standards is included. Also, please notice the Website addresses included in SAM-II. Some of the student activities are based on information that is available as website data or information. Students who are familiar with the Internet might enjoy comparing the results of their procedure to that of the researchers. Other students may find more information on the topics that appear in SAM-II. Although each SAM-II activity can be used alone, the series is designed to supplement your established curriculum. Three activities, "Anatomy of Clouds", "Disappearing Ozone", and ,"Greenhouse Effect", have two procedures. In each case, the first procedure is less difficult and can be done independently of the second procedure. The activity, "Forecasting Tornados", uses a complicated looking graph called a Skew-T diagram: yet, eighth graders, who had previous graphing experience, quickly mastered the diagonal graphing strategy during our field test. We have included an updated version of the "Greenhouse Effect" from the original SAM. This newer version includes a wealth of historical data including the currently available carbon dioxide and methane concentrations. For all of SAM-II, we tried to create activities that are both useful and flexible enough to adapt to different teaching and classroom styles. Furthermore, these activities are designed to span a wide range of grade and ability levels. The reading level is aimed at grades 7 - 10. All middle school and older students should be able to complete the procedures. The questions that follow each procedure vary in difficulty and can challenge high school students. By design, easier questions are at the beginning followed by more difficult questions toward the end of the question section. A serious attempt was made to incorporate math into the procedures and follow-up questions. All SAM-II activities are well-suited for small group instruction, individual student work, and independent study. We hope that you find these activities flexible enough to adapt to your teaching and classroom style. We hope that these activities prove to be interesting and motivational, and provide a springboard to lively classroom discussions.
|
