Unit 6: Weather and Climate

Essential Guiding Questions:

What causes different types of weather?
How does weather differ from climate?
Why is understanding how weather forms important to our lives?
What are the indicators that interact to produce weather?
How do patterns in local weather careate climate?
Why is weather forecasting important locally and globally?

Critical Vocabulary:

Cumulus, Stratus, Cirrus, Weather, Temperature, Air Pressure, Humidity, Precipitation, Wind, Air Mass, Warm Front, Cold Front, Occluded Front, Air Density, Climate, Coriolis Effect, Wind Chill, Dew Point, Jet Stream, Thermometer, Polar, Maritime, Continental, Water Cycle, Precipitation, Condensation, Evaporation, Weathering, Erosion

KY SCIENCE STANDARDS

Disciplinary Code Ideas

ESS2.C: The Roles of Water in Earth’s Surface Processes

Water continually cycles among land, ocean, and atmosphere via transpiration, evaporation, condensation and crystallization, and precipitation, as well as downhill flows on land. (MS-ESS2-4)
Global movements of water and its changes in form are propelled by sunlight and gravity. (MS-ESS2-4)

The complex patterns of the changes and the movement of water in the atmosphere, determined by winds, landforms, and ocean temperatures and currents, are major determinants of local weather patterns. (MS-ESS2-5)
Variations in density due to variations in temperature and salinity drive a global pattern of interconnected ocean currents. (MS-ESS2-6)

ESS2.D: Weather and Climate

Weather and climate are influenced by interactions involving sunlight, the ocean, the atmosphere, ice, landforms, and living things. These interactions vary with latitude, altitude, and local and regional geography, all of which can affect oceanic and atmospheric flow patterns. (MS-ESS2-6)
Because these patterns are so complex, weather can only be predicted probabilistically. (MS-ESS2-5)
The ocean exerts a major influence on weather and climate by absorbing energy from the sun, releasing it over time, and globally redistributing it through ocean currents. (MS-ESS2-6)

Cross Cutting Concepts

Cause and effect relationships may be used to predict phenomena in natural or designed systems. (MS-ESS2-5)
Models can be used to represent systems and their interactions—such as inputs, processes and outputs—and energy, matter, and information flows within systems. (MS-ESS2-6)
Within a natural or designed system, the transfer of energy drives the motion and/or cycling of matter. (MS-ESS2-4)

NGSS STANDARDS and Learning Targets

ESS2-4. Develop a model to describe the cycling of water through Earth's systems driven by energy from the sun and the force of gravity.

ESS2-5. Collect data to provide evidence for how the motions and complex interactions of air masses result in changes in weather conditions.

ESS2-6. Develop and use a model to describe how unequal heating and rotation of the Earth cause patterns of atmospheric and oceanic circulation that determine regional climates.

ESS 2-4

I can use a model to create an explanation of how water cycles through a system that is driven by energy from the sun and gravity to recycle matter.

ESS 2-5