Weather Under Pressure
Primary Subject
Science
Integrated
Subjects
Math
Grade Level
5th
Length of Unit
10 days
Research
Sources
Elementary Science with Vernier Book
BrainPop
www.areasonfor.com/site/1/docs/Science_Level_F_SWT_Lesson_20.pdf
Promethean Planet
Scholastic Science Readers
http://www.thehomeschoolmom.com/teacherslounge/articles/
air_pressure_experiments.php
http://eo.ucar.edu/webweather/basic2.html
Unit Summary
Students will learn how to measure temperature. Then learn how temperature
affects other aspects of weather should as air pressure and seasonal changes.
Students will use thermometers, temperature probes, light probes, and pressure
sensor probes. Students will do multiple hands-on experiments, before
developing their own experiment to test how heat affects air pressure.
Key Vocabulary
temperature
thermometer
seasons
hot air (moves fast)
cold air (moves slowly)
air pressure
low pressure weather system
high pressure weather system
Essential
Standards/
NCSCOS
Essential Standards
5.P.3.2 Explain how heating and cooling affect some materials and how this
relates to their purpose and practical application.
5.E.1.1 Compare daily and seasonal changes in weather conditions and patterns.
5.E.1.2 Predict upcoming weather events from weather data collected through
observation and measurements.
NCSOS
3.02 Discuss and determine how the following are affected by predictable patterns
of weather: temperature, wind direction and speed, precipitation, cloud cover, and
air pressure.
Weather Under Pressure
Essential
Questions
Day 1 Why do we use a thermometer?
Day 2 What factors result in the highest temperatures?
Day 3 Is the temperature really as cold or as warm as it feels to the touch?
Day 4 What causes the seasons?
Day 5 Which is heavier: hot or cold air? Why?
Day 6 What is air pressure?
Day 7 What happens to the air when more pressure is added to an area?
Days 8 & 9 How does adding heat affect air pressure?
Day 10 (Post assessment)
Materials/
Resources
Needed
thermometers
calculators
Flipchart on temperature
vernier software
temperature probe
pressure probe
cups
hot water
warm water
cold water
paper towels
heat lamps
beakers
foam balls
meter sticks
tape
markers
red food coloring
blue food coloring
hair dryer
ping pong balls
index cards
2 liter bottles
clay
straws
funnels
marshmallows
syringes
computers
printers
poster paper
cameras
ActiVotes
Weather Under Pressure
Exploration/
Engagement
Activities
EQ: Why do we use a thermometer?
Day 1
Open up a discussion how or why do we use thermometers. Generate a whole
group list.
Pre-Assessment to open up the unit.
Then give students the worksheet on Fahrenheit and Celsius. Read through
these sheets to learn how to read the thermometers and the history of the scales.
Answer the questions on the sheet. Use calculators to practice using the formula
to convert the temperature scale.
Then open up the temperature promethean flipchart. Use the flipchart to help
students learn to read thermometers.
Exit question: Why do we have two different scales to measure temperature?
Exploration/
Engagement
Activities
Day 2
EQ: What factors result in the highest temperatures?
Students will use thermometers in a lab. Students will have to use thermometers
to test the temperature in several areas around the school playground.
Students will use the data collect table to write down results.
Students will measure temperature on the asphalt in the sun, on the asphalt in the
shade, in the grass in the sun, in the grass in the shade, on the cement in the sun,
and on the cement in the shade. Students will place thermometer on these places
and wait for 5 minutes. After 5 minutes students will record what temperature the
thermometer is reading and write that in the data table.
Students will make observations from their data table.
We will return to the room to discuss our finding.
Then we will begin to look at the Vernier probeware. How to use and turn on and
how to measure temperature using the probeware. Discuss how to use and how
to be careful with the technology. Have kids practice reading temperature from
tap water from sink, water fountain temp, and microwaved water temp. This will
get students prepared for the next dayʼs activities.
What types of places contain the highest temperatures?
Weather Under Pressure
Exploration/
Engagement
Activities
Vernier Lesson
Day 3
Line up the cups of water in front of you on the desk so the room -temperature
water is in the middle and the warm and cold are at either end.
Decide which group member will test the water first. Have that person place two
fingers of one hand in the warm water and two fingers of their other hand in the
cold water. Hold them there for about 30 seconds. It is important to leave your
fingers in the water baths for the whole 30 seconds.
The person with their fingers in the water should estimate (make a best guess) the
temperature of the water in the two cups, in °F. Record these values in the Data
Table below.
The person with their fingers in the water should now put their fingers in the roomtemperature water (the one in the middle). Record the estimated temperature of
the room-temperature water in the Data Table.
Record your observations about what your fingers were feeling when they were
placed in the room-temperature water.
While the person who tested the water first records their observations, dispose of
the water as directed by your teacher, and then obtain new amounts of all three
types of water. Repeat Steps 4-9 for each student.You will now measure the
temperatures of the water baths using the temperature probe.Place the probe in
the cool water. Hold onto the probe so you do not tip the cup over. Watch the
temperature on the computer screen. When the temperature readings are the
same for several seconds (stop increasing or decreasing for each reading), record
the temperature value in your Data Table.
Repeat Step 11 two times. First you will place the temperature probe in the roomtemperature water, and the second time you will place it in the warm water.
Have students analyze their data. Discuss as a class their findings.
EQ: Is the temperature really as cold or as warm as it feels to the touch?
Exit question: Are our bodies good judges of temperature? Why or why not?
Weather Under Pressure
Exploration/
Engagement
Activities
Vernier lesson
Day 4
Ask the kids the above question and generate ideas about seasons. Then have
them hypothesize about the following questions.
EQ: What causes the seasons?
When it is summer where I live, we receive" (more or less) sunlight.
When it is winter where I live, we receive" (more or less) sunlight.
Place the lamp on a table and turn it on.
Do the following to collect data for summertime:
Compare the foam ball to the globe. Hold the ball so that the top of the skewer is
tilted toward the light at an angle of 23°. This matches the angle of the tilt of the
Earth. The tip of the Light Probe should be pointing between the North Pole and
the equator (see the drawing above).
Practice spinning the ball slowly around the skewer. Practice counting while you
spin so that you make two complete rotations in about 20 seconds.
Hold the ball over the meter stick so it is about 50 cm from the light.
Turn the lights down in the room.
Start data collection and slowly rotate the ball twice around the skewer in the 20second data-collection period.
Determine the Summer day and Summer night light level.
To examine the data pairs on the displayed graph, tap any data point. As you tap
each data point, the light and time values are displayed to the right of the graph.
Move the cursor to the highest point of the graph. Record the value as the
Summer Light Level – Day in your Data Table. Move the cursor to the lowest point
of the graph. Record the value as the Summer Light Level – Night in your Data
Table. Tap the File Cabinet icon to store your data.
Record your observations about the amount of light that reaches the surface
during the summer and winter time.
Discuss findings from lab as a group.
Exit question: Explain how we get our seasons.
Weather Under Pressure
Exploration/
Engagement
Activities
Day 5
EQ: Which is heavier: hot or cold air? Why?
Students will use two beakers of water. One beaker of water with hot water the
other beaker with cold water. They will drop 6 drops of red food coloring into the
hot water beaker. They will drop 6 drops of blue food coloring into the cold water
beaker at the same time as they did the other beaker. Students will observe that
the cold water should turn blue faster than the hot water turns red. Students
should then predict why this happened. Then students will use Marshmallow
puppets in groups to show how they think the molecules in the hot water and the
molecules in the hot water are reacting with each other. Then they will
demonstrate this to the class. Then the teacher will show them how the molecules
are acting with students by pulling them up into demonstration groups, have
students act as molecules. Then we will pour hot water into the cold water
solution and the students should see that the hot water layers on top of the cold
water with some mixing.
Exit question: We learned that cold air sinks. Why does this happen?
Weather Under Pressure
Exploration/
Engagement
Activities
EQ: What is air pressure?
Use the following website to discuss air pressure
http://eo.ucar.edu/webweather/basic2.html
Day 6
1.
2.
3.
Plug in the hair dryer and turn it on.
Put it on the highest setting and point it straight up.
Place your ping pong ball above the hair dryer and watch what happens.
Whatʼs happening?
Your ping pong ball floats gently above the hair dryer without shifting sideways or
flying across the other side of the room. The airflow from the hair dryer pushes the
ping pong ball upwards until its upward force equals the force of gravity pushing
down on it. When it reaches this point it gently bounces around, floating where the
upward and downward forces are equal.
The reason the ping pong ball stays nicely inside the column of air produced by
the hair dryer without shifting sideways is due to air pressure. The fast moving air
from the hair dryer creates a column of lower air pressure, the surrounding higher
air pressure forces the ping pong ball to stay inside this column, making it easy to
move the hair dryer around without losing control of the ping pong ball.
See if you can float 2 or even 3 ping pong balls as an extra challenge.
Magic Water Glass Trick: Fill a glass one third with water. Cover the mouth with
an index card and invert (holding the card in place) over a sink. Remove your
hand from the card. Voila! The card stays in place because air is heavier than
water, and the card experiences about 15 pounds of force pushing upward by the
air and only about one pound of force pushing downward from the water - hence
the card stays in place. (Try this trick over someone's head when you get good at
it.)
Fountain Bottle: Seal a 2-liter soda water bottle (half-full of water) with a lump of
clay wrapped around a long straw, sealing the straw to the mouth of the bottle.
Blow hard into the straw. As you blow air into the bottle, the air pressure
increases. This higher pressure pushes on the water, which gets forced up and
out the straw.
Ping Pong Funnel: Insert a ping pong ball into a funnel and blow hard. (You can
tilt your head back so that the ball end points to the ceiling. Can you blow hard
enough so when you invert the funnel, the ball stays inside? Can you pick up a
ball from the table? As you blow into the funnel, the air where the ball sits in the
funnel moves faster and generates lower air pressure than the rest of the air
surrounding the ball. This means that the pressure under the ball is lower than the
surrounding air which is, by comparison, a higher pressure. This higher pressure
pushes the ball back into the funnel… no matter how hard you blow or which way
you hold the funnel.
Exit question: What happens to the objects when high pressure is exerted on it?
Weather Under Pressure
Exploration/
Engagement
Activities
Day 7
EQ: What happens to the air when more pressure is added to an area?
Place a marshmallow on your work surface. Observe it closely, looking for any
evidence that this marshmallow might suddenly change size! Make notes in
journals about what you observe.
Pick up the syringe and pull the handle all the way out of the tube. Carefully
place the marshmallow in the tube. Replace the handle and slowly push down
until it almost touches the marshmallow. Observe the marshmallow. Make notes
on what you see.
Continue observing the marshmallow as you pull the handle almost out, then
slowly push it down again until it almost touches the marshmallow. Repeat two or
three times. Make notes on what you see.
Plug the tip of the syringe with your finger. Slowly pull the handle back.
Observe the marshmallow. Now push the handle back in. Observe the
marshmallow. Repeat until everyone has had a turn. Share and compare
observations with your partners.
Then students will use pressure sensors to measure air pressure. Students will
compare air pressure as they add and take away air in a bottle.
Students will use the pressure sensor, place it in the bottle. Then use the syringe
to add air to the bottle. Students should observe the sensor reading. Then
students will use the syringe to take away air from the bottle. Students will
observe the sensor reading as they take the air out of the bottle.
Students will make conclusions based on what they witnessed the sensor
readings did as they added air and removed air to the bottle.
Discuss as a class.
Exit question: Based on the effects of air pressure on the marshmallow, what can
you conclude about how air pressure affects humans?
Exploration/
Engagement
Activities
EQ: How does adding heat affect air pressure?
Students will design their own experiment where they will do an experiment using
the pressure sensor in the bottle and adding a heat source.
Days 8 & 9
Students will have to design their own experiment, data collection table, and then
create a science fair type poster to display their experiment and data.
Students will then present their poster and experiment in front of the whole group.
As students listen to other groups they are to compare and contrast their
experiments based on their one that is being presented.
Exit question: Based on your findings from your experiment, how does heat affect
air pressure?
Weather Under Pressure
Exploration/
Engagement
Activities
Post Assessment
Day 10
Accommodation
Students will be read aloud the pre- and post test if needed.
Students will work in colaborative groups to that everyone expertise is utelized.
Lab groups will be kept small so that everyone has a chance to participate.
ESOL and EC teachers will be involved in an inclusive classroom.
Front loaded vocabulary to help ESOL students.
Cross Curricular
Integration
Math: Students graph temperature change over time and air pressure change
over time. Students also are introduced to temperature conversion from degrees
Celsius and degrees Fahrenheit.
Reading: Night of the Twisters (Weather related novel) will be read during our
Novel Study Block.
Weather Under Pressure
Assessments:
- Performancebased
- Formative
- Summative
Day 1
Pre-assessment: open ended written test
Choral read word of the day: temperature
Worksheet: temperature
Exit question: Why do we have two different scales to measure temperature?
Day 2
Choral read word of the day: thermometer
Data sheet: investigation observations
Think-Pair-Share: discuss observations
Exit question: What types of places contain the highest temperatures?
Day 3
Choral read previous words of the day: temperature, thermometer
Data sheet: investigation observations
Think-Pair-Share: discuss observations
Exit question: Are our bodies good judges of temperature? Why or why not?
Day 4
Choral read word of the day: seasons
Data sheet: investigation observations
Think-Pair-Share: discuss observations
Exit question: Explain how we get our seasons.
Day 5
Choral read words of the day: hot air (moves fast), cold air (moves slowly)
One sentence summary: investigation observations
Act it out: puppet configurations of matter movement
Exit question: We learned that cold air sinks. Why does this happen?
Day 6
Choral read word of the day: air pressure
Journal: investigation observations
Sticky note: statements to discuss what was learned from each station
Exit question: What happens to the objects when high pressure is exerted on it?
Day 7
Choral read previous word of the day: air pressure
Journal: investigation observations
Think-Pair-Share: discuss observations
Data sheet: investigation observations
Think-Pair-Share: discuss observations
Exit question: Based on the effects of air pressure on the marshmallow, what can
you conclude about how air pressure affects humans?
Days 8 & 9
Choral read previous words of the day: temperature, air pressure
Student created experiment: design, data
Poster: present experiment design and data on poster, evaluated using rubric
Sticky note: comments on other groupʼs experiment posters
Exit question: Based on your findings from your experiment, how does heat affect
air pressure?
Day 10
Post assessment: open ended written test
Weather Under Pressure
Extension
Activities
After this unit students will be able to apply knowledge of cold air and warm air to
warm and cold front weather patterns.
Created By
Gretchen Brown
Ken Hartman
Elizabeth Wolff
browngm@rss.k12.nc.us
hartmakc@rss.k12.nc.us
wolffea@rss.k12.nc.us