Katherine Morash
Earth and Space Science
Week 3
Lesson 1: Tsunamis, 7/2/2012
Objectives
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Students will discuss and brainstorm various facts that they know about tsunamis.
Students will answer questions during a video to see how well they were observing it.
Students will create a step by step diagram of a tsunami collaboratively on a long piece of art paper.
Procedure
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HW Logs and attendance
Warm up: (3 Minutes)
o Pair Share: What do you know about tsunamis? Write it down on a piece of paper. If a pair finishes
early, have them join another pair to swap more ideas.
o After checking the HW Logs and attendance, ask a pair to share what they came up with and then ask
another pair to respond to their brainstorming (for corrections, validations, and development).
Repeat within time limits and make sure everyone gets a chance to talk.
Brain Pop Video and Observation Sheet (12 minutes)
o Pass out the Brain Pop Observation Sheet and read through the questions.
o Now we are going to watch a Brain Pop video about tsunamis. The answers to the questions will be in
the video, so pay attention.
o Video: Immediately hit forward 4 times. Once he says “I know, kind of hard to wrap your head around
it.” Click the forward button until the white screen. Then hit “continue” in the same corner.
o Give the students 2-3 minutes to fill out the sheet. Eyes up, pencils down when they are done.
o Now we are going to watch it one more time so that you can check your answers.
o Watch video
o Give another minute for changes.
o Go over answers as a class, following along with the quiz on the Brain Pop video.
Video- Japan earthquake: Footage of moment tsunami hit (BBC) (5 minutes)
o I have a short video to help you get a better idea of how a tsunami wave is different than a normal
wave.
o Video
o What does the bay area look like? (overflowing faucet)
o Watch the first 30 seconds again to point that out.
How can we represent a tsunami, from beginning to end, on this piece of art paper? (20 minutes)
o Show paper. Mediate the discussion to something similar to the following:
 Draw the earthquake spot, the underwater waves, the inclining shore, the swell of water, and
the town/forest/city on the land.
 Delegate the drawing of each piece to someone so everyone is involved. *Someone has to
draw the ocean floor line and the water line before some people can draw their parts.
 LABELS.
 Once the outline is on there, the students can add color to their drawing because it will be
posted in the hallway/back of the room.
o With 5 minutes to go in this section, give them a heads up.
Katherine Morash
Earth and Space Science
Week 3
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Wrap up (5 minutes)
o Walk through the diagram they made.
HW
o WS: When Flooding is Good
Materials
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Brain Pop Tsunamis on Fact Monster (2:30): http://www.factmonster.com/p/brainpop/tsunami.html
Tsunami Video Observation Sheets
BBC News Asia-Pacific, “Japan earthquake: Footage of moment tsunami hit”
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-pacific-12725646
When Flooding is Good WS
Long piece of art paper
Markers
Katherine Morash
Earth and Space Science
Week 3
Lesson 2: Nilometer, 7/3/2012
Objectives
Procedure
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Attendance, No HW Log, Check HW
Warm up (5 minutes)
o Pair share: Why is flooding a good thing in Egypt? (brings in fertilizer for the riverside farms, it brings in
more water in a place mostly dominated by desert)
Video: What the Ancients Knew- Nilometer (7 minutes)
o Now we are going to watch a video about the Nile. I want you to keep an eye out for the animals that
live on the Nile and the landscape around it.
o Watch video.
o What kinds of animals live on the Nile? (hippos, cranes, crocodiles, giraffes, donkeys, people) Write
them on the chalkboard.
o What does the land around the Nile look like? What is it made of? (desert with a little bit of green
shrubs, or light green grass)
Measuring our own Nilometers (20 minutes)
o Look around the room. Do you see the blue paper in various places? They are the Nile at different
points during the years. On the paper I have written the month that the Nile was that high and I also
have a question on it: With this measurement of the Nile in the month of ______, is there going to be
a draught, a good farming season, or flooding for the year? Under that I have written “draught”,
“farming”, and “flood”. Once you measure the Nile and look at the time of year to see if it is in the
flooding season, the farming season, or the dry season.
o We are going to measure them with meter sticks. Because we can’t actually have the entire Nile in
the classroom, I will post a chart of what different measurements mean. (100 cm-60 cm flooding
season, 59 cm- 40 cm farming seasons)
o Remember July-October is the flooding season. November-February was planting season. May-June
was harvesting time.
o Measure.
Wrap up (5 minutes)
o Look at tally results. Are there going to any draughts or flooding that will prevent a good farming
season?
Materials
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http://videos.howstuffworks.com/science-channel/30376-what-the-ancients-knew-nilometer-video.htm
Measuring WS
Katherine Morash
Earth and Space Science
Week 3
Lesson 3: 7/5/2012
Objectives
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Students will observe the weather outside and record their observations.
Students will decode the meteorologist’s predicted weather reports from Egypt and Bethlehem to infer the
relevant data.
Students will read the Beaufort Wind Scale and deduce how to measure in that scale to record the weather
outside.
Procedure
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Attendance, HW, HW Log
Warm up (15 minutes)
o Going outside
 Rules (no talking, stick together, stay off God’s Acre)
o Pass out the Observations Sheet and Meteorologist’s Report with Beaufort scale on the other side. Go
over instructions and agenda.
o Walk onto the porch. Stop and point out the thermometer there and have a student who behaved
very well in the hallway read it and keep that number in his/her head.
o Walk to available part of God’s Acre and have the students sit on the ground.
o Students complete the observation sheet on their own now, once they are given the temperature and
the time to write in the chart.
Meteorologist Report WS (20 minutes)
o Students are called back together to go over the Beaufort Chart.
 The wind is going (XX) mph according to the local weather station. Who can find the Beaufort
Number for that? (if needed help them find the correct box.)
 Something to remember before I pass out the info sheets:
 Labels- always label your numbers and make sure your words are clear and
understandable.
o Hand out the Cairo, Egypt meteorologist report to each student. Talk students through the report and
how to correctly fill in the chart.
Wrap up 10 minutes
o Go back inside silently.
o Give students a meteorology report on Bethlehem to help them fill out the rest of the worksheet. This
one they will do in pairs, using the Cairo report as an example.
HW: Write 5 sentences about the weather for tomorrow using the Friday Meteorologist Report. Write like you
are a weatherman or woman on tv or the radio. Tomorrow we will be presenting them to the class and voting
on someone to present the weather for pool day during ASM.
Materials
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Weather Observation Sheet
Meteorologist Report WS with Beaufort Scale on the back
Printed weather.com Meteorologist reports for Bethlehem and Cairo.
Katherine Morash
Earth and Space Science
Week 3
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Thermometer on porch
Friday’s meteorologist report from weather.com
Katherine Morash
Earth and Space Science
Week 3
Lesson 4: Communicating and Presenting Data, 7/6/2012
Objectives
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Students will peer edit their homework paragraphs.
Students will read and present their paragraph to the class and receive pertinent questions to help them
articulate more of the data.
Procedure
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Attendance, HW
Warm up: (10 minutes)
o Trade papers with your partner and, in a different color pen/pencil/colored pencil, peer edit. Once
you are done, go over the edits with your partner.
Presenting Data (25 minutes)
o Now you have collected data, written it down, and turned it into a paragraph. The only step left is
presenting or communicating the data that you have found with other people. We are going to
practice how to verbally present a weather report.
o We are going to watch a weather report from the news. I want you to pay attention to how they talk,
what their inflection is (emphasis on words), and what their tone of voice is. (write those on the
board)
o Watch clip from WABC Weather.
o Ask for answers from the questions stated above.
o Now it’s your turn. Who would like to come up and share their paragraph first? You will all be coming
up at some point.
o Reading. Applause.
o Okay, do we have any compliments for _____?
o Now how about some constructive criticism about how he presented his paragraph. (speak louder,
enunciate, smile, etc)
o Thank you. Next person.
Wrap up: (5 minutes)
o Now that we have heard everyone, those of you who would like to present during ASM today please
stand up. Everyone gets to vote once. Close your eyes. (say names and count raised hands.)
Congratulations _______________.
Materials
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WABC Weather: http://abclocal.go.com/wabc/channel?section=weather/forecast&id=6650531 (Then click on
featured video)