After Earth Winds, Currents and Climate LP

Transcription

1 After Earth Winds, Currents and Climate LP For Teachers: The following is a lesson plan designed to be used with the first section of the Climate Change material from the After Earth Science website. We recommend that you download and print the student worksheet pages and distribute them for interactive use with the learning tools and animations provided by the web site on this topic. Goal: Understanding interactions of winds, currents and climate that set the stage for human activities to influence the biosphere and contribute to climate change. Objective: Students will be able to write an explanation in their own words of how interactions among solar energy, winds and currents in the biosphere regulate heat and create climate. Overview: Directions for the exercise are contained in the body of the lesson plan. Students will first gain some related terms. We recommend that you allow students to access the web freely to define these terms, and then conduct a discussion to agree as a class on a definition for each term. Students will next access the web site and use the worksheet to master the material presented on the site. Possible formative assessment for this lesson: 1. Last question of worksheet. Key to student worksheet: (Note that underlined words in key are blanks on student worksheet) Winds, Currents and Climate Objective: Students will be able to write an explanation in their own words of how interactions among solar energy, winds and currents in the biosphere regulate heat and create climate. When scientists want to investigate a question or run an experiment, the first thing they do is learn as much as they can about the subject. This worksheet is designed to help you organize your notes on a very complex subject. Define the terms below: Climate Weather Circulation Current

2 Go to the Climate Change page: (link) Fill in the notes below: Our Global Climate System: 1. Our global climate system is powered by solar energy in the form of heat. 2. If the amount of heat retained in the biosphere changes, or if the distribution of heat between the equator and the poles changes, then the structure and the operation of the climate system will CHANGE. Write sentence #2 in your own words, below. OR draw a diagram. 3. Warm air rises. Cold air falls (or sinks). Near the equator, intense solar radiation heats Earth s surface and air above it. As that air warms, it rises. As it rises, it spreads north and south, loses heat to space, and ultimately sinks back towards Earth s surface. This rising and falling produces cells of circulating air that move in opposite directions north and south of the equator. View the first visual and draw a diagram of these cells below. 4. Read the second paragraph and watch the second visual. Similar processes of heating and cooling produce two more sets of circulating cells one each in the northern and southern temperate zones, and one centered over each pole. Because Earth is spinning, the laws of physics cause this rising and falling air to blow sideways as it moves across Earth s surface. Air circulating in cells just north and south of the equator blows from east to west. Air circulating over the temperate zones blows from west to east. The cells over the poles produce winds that blow from east to west. After watching the second animation, draw a labeled diagram of the hemisphere in which you live showing the circulation of the atmosphere.

3 5. Read the paragraph that begins: These data show two things. In your own words, tell what the data show. (Sample answer: 1-Easterly winds at the equator, westerly winds in temperate zones, easterly winds at poles, 2- You can see large blobs of red that show industrial activity and burning forests releasing large amounts of carbon dioxide and carbon monoxide into the atmosphere.) 6. Ocean Currents. Read the next paragraph and view the visual. Fill in the blanks, below. These prevailing winds blowing over the oceans push surface water around, helping to drive rivers within the seas that we call currents. Those currents are more complicated than prevailing winds, because continents get in their way. Watch the animation and then draw a diagram of the ocean nearest you and the circulation of currents in it. 7. Ocean Currents, continued. Read the next paragraph and view the visual. Fill in the notes, below: These currents are extremely important to climate. Why? Because solar energy also heats oceans in the tropics, so currents flowing out of the tropics carry enormous amounts of heat, which researchers can measure and track by satellite. The data shown below use color to indicate sea surface temperature. Watch as warm water flows west from the tropical Atlantic into the Gulf of Mexico, and then around the tip of Florida to form the Gulf Stream. Watch the animation of the Gulf Stream. Notice how this current is like a river in the ocean. In the space below, draw a map of what you see in the animation of where the Gulf Stream circulates. Label the following on your map: Atlantic Ocean, North America, Florida, Massachusetts (Cape Cod), England, Western Europe. Draw in the Gulf Stream current and show the direction of flow. Why is the climate in England warmer and milder, on average, than the climate in New Foundland, Canada (which is at the same latitude)? Sample answer: Because the gulf stream current transports water heated at the equator to the coast of England and Western Europe which gives off heat. 8. Ocean currents and the winds that drive them affect more than just temperature. Currents, especially warm currents, release lots of water vapor to air moving above them. What happens to that water vapor? Sooner or later, and somewhere or other, that water vapor falls as rain or snow. Just where and when that precipitation falls depends on which way the winds blow, and how air temperature in those winds changes. Warm air can carry more water vapor than colder air. When winds run into mountains, air is forced upwards, and it cools. That cooling causes lots of water vapor to condense and fall.

4 Watch the next animation. On the map below: A. Draw arrows that show the direction the major winds are blowing--the westerlies in the temperate zones of the northern and southern hemispheres, and the trade winds of the equator. B. Watch where the yellow occurs (precipitation) in the animation. Place some X s where the major precipitation falls--in South America; in North America; in Europe and in Africa. C. Now look at a globe in the classroom or other map that shows where mountain ranges are. Does the location of your X s confirm the idea that water vapor is being blown in from the ocean and forced up over the mountain ranges to condense? Yes D. Based on the diagram you are making from these data, label your map with RF for areas you would expect to be rain forests. (should show Amazon Basin, South America; possible Cascade Mts and Coastal Mts of North America; Alaskan Pennisula; possible Central America, central Africa, Indonesia) E. Again, based on the diagram you are making from these data, label your map with D for areas you would expect to be deserts. (likely N. Africa, Egypt, India) In a paragraph below, explain why the rain forests are located where they are in the world, and why the deserts are located where they are in the world. (Sample Answer: The water vapor from the ocean gets swept up by the large circulation of winds on the planet and then gets forced up over mountain ranges on land. This causes the water vapor to condense and LOTS of rain to fall which is a great place for rain forests to be. Deserts are created on the other sides of mountains, when all the water vapor that came from the oceans has already been taken out of the atmosphere.)

5 In your own words, how do the winds, ocean and currents create climate? (Hint, look at the summary paragraph on the website page for help.) Sample Student Answer: The machinery that creates climate is powered by heat that is trapped in the biosphere. Air/atmosphere warms and rises, and moves as winds around the Earth. These winds move in directions that are prompted by the spinning of the Earth and the rising and falling of the warm and cold air cells. Winds blow across ocean waters and create currents that move in the same direction as the winds, until they bump into continents. The transport of warm ocean water around the earth contributes to milder climates in some areas as heat is dispersed. The oceans also contribute water vapor to the air which can then be pushed up over mountain chains by the prevailing winds. This causes the water vapor to condense and fall to earth creating wet zones where forests may grow on the windward sides of mountain chains, and dry zones where deserts may form on the leeward sides of mountains.

6 Winds, Currents and Climate Student Worksheet Objective: Students will be able to write an explanation in their own words of the interactions among wind, current and heat in the biosphere that create climate. When scientists want to investigate a question or run an experiment, the first thing they do is learn as much as they can about the subject. This worksheet is designed to help you organize your notes on a very complex subject. To get started, some vocabulary. Define the terms, below: Climate Weather Circulation Current Go to the Climate Change page (List link address here) Fill in the notes below: Our Global Climate System: 1. Our global climate system is powered by in the form of. 2. If the amount of heat retained in the biosphere changes, or if the distribution of heat between the equator and the poles changes, then the and the of the climate system will CHANGE. Write sentence #2 in your own words, below. OR draw a diagram.

7 3. Warm air. Cold air Near the equator, intense solar radiation heats and above it. As that air, it rises. As it rises, it spreads and, loses to, and ultimately back towards Earth s. This rising and falling produces cells of circulating air that move in north and south of the equator. View the first visual and draw a diagram of these cells below. 4. Read the second paragraph and watch the second visual. Similar processes of and produce more of circulating cells one each in the northern and southern, and one. Because Earth is, the laws of physics cause this rising and falling air to blow as it moves. Air circulating in cells just north and south of the blows from. Air circulating over the blows from. The cells over the produce winds that blow from. After watching the second animation, draw a labeled diagram of the hemisphere in which you live showing the circulation of the atmosphere.

8 5. Read the paragraph that begins: These data show two things. In your own words, tell what the data show. 6. Ocean Currents. Read the next paragraph and view the visual. Fill in the blanks, below. These prevailing winds over the oceans around, helping to drive rivers within the seas that we call. Those currents are more complicated than, because. Watch the animation and then draw a diagram of the ocean nearest you and the circulation of currents in it. 7. Ocean Currents, continued. Read the next paragraph and view the visual. Fill in the notes, below: These currents are extremely important to climate. Why? Because also heats in the, so currents flowing out of the tropics carry, which researchers can measure and track by satellite. The data shown below use color to indicate. Watch as flows west from the tropical Atlantic into the Gulf of Mexico, and then around the tip of Florida to form the. Watch the animation of the Gulf Stream. Notice how this current is like a river in the ocean. In the space below, draw a map of what you see in the animation of where the Gulf Stream circulates. Label the following on your map: Atlantic Ocean, North America, Florida, Massachusetts (Cape Cod), England, Western Europe. Draw in the Gulf Stream current and show the direction of flow.

9 Why is the climate in England warmer and milder, on average, than the climate in New Foundland, Canada (which is at the same latitude)? 8. Ocean currents and the winds that affect more than just. Currents, especially warm currents, release to air moving above them. What happens to that water vapor? Sooner or later, and somewhere or other, that vapor as or. Just where and when that depends on the, and in those winds. Warm air can carry water vapor than colder air. When winds run into, air is, and it. That cooling causes lots of to and. Watch the next animation. On the map below: A. Draw arrows that show the direction the major winds are blowing--the westerlies in the temperate zones of the northern and southern hemispheres, and the trade winds of the equator. B. Watch where the yellow occurs (precipitation) in the animation. Place some X s where the major precipitation falls--in South America; in North America; in Europe and in Africa.

10 C. Now look at a globe in the classroom or other map that shows where mountain ranges are. Does the location of your X s confirm the idea that water vapor is being blown in from the ocean and forced up over the mountain ranges to condense? D. Based on the diagram you are making from these data, label your map with RF for areas you would expect to be rain forests. E. Again, based on the diagram you are making from these data, label your map with D for areas you would expect to be deserts. In a paragraph below, explain why the rain forests are located where they are in the world, and why the deserts are located where they are in the world. In your own words, how do the winds, oceans and currents create climate? (Hint, look at the summary paragraph on the website page for help.)