Estimated # of Students: 30
Age/Grade Level: Middle School
Content: Science
Unit Title: Climate Change
Lesson Title: Ocean and Air Currents
Lesson Alignment to Unit
Respond to all of the following items:
a) Unit goal(s) addressed by this lesson
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The students will be able to collect data to provide evidence for how the motions
and complex interactions of air masses results in changes in weather conditions.
The students will be able to ask questions to clarify evidence of the factors that have
caused the rise in global temperatures over the past century.
The students will be able to 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.
The students will be able to apply scientific principles to design a method of
monitoring and minimizing a human impact on the environment.
b) Common student misconceptions:
The ocean has no currents. The different waters just mix together instead of forming any
type of current. If there are ocean currents they will have no affect on the Earth, with
relation to climate change.
c) Describe summative assessments(s) for this particular unit and how lessons in this unit
contribute the summative assessment.
The students will be able to understand that having too much fresh water in the ocean
currents could have a major impact on the Earth. The students will know that the cold fresh
water coming from the melting glaciers will flow to the bottom of the oceans. The fresh water
will be less dense than the salt water causing it to flow back up towards the surface, therefore
causing circulations.
Lesson Objectives/
Learning Targets:
Assessments:
Instructional Strategies/Activities:
1. Model unequal
heating of the
oceans cause
rotation and
currents.
1. Questions asked during the
experiment and the observation
the students write on their white
boards.
2. Make inferences 2. A handout that the students
from their
write their observation after the
observations.
experiments.
3. Make predictions 3. Write their predictions on the
about how ocean handout.
currents effect
climate change.
Differentiated Assessment Plan/Strategies:
1. Experiment.
2. The handout.
3. Handout and classroom discussion.
Media/Technologies/Resources:
Simulation of ocean currents, clip from
Finding Nemo with the EAC
Science Supplies: Warm salt water, cold fresh water, Safety Concerns:
red food coloring, blue food coloring, two 5 gallon
Warm water might be hot to touch
buckets, large clear tub/gutter
Procedures
5E Lesson Format
Engage
The teacher will start by welcoming the class. Then the teacher will start the lesson by review what
they learned in the previous lesson. The teacher will say something similar to, “As we learned yesterday,
when the ice absorbs heat it doesn’t actually warm up until it melts. What do you think happens to the
water that is melted from the cold glaciers?” The students will come up with a variety of answers but the
teacher will want to lead the students into a discussion of the water flowing into the ocean. The teacher
will ask the students, “What do you think will happen when this cold fresh water mixes into the warmer
salt water, or do they even mix at all?” The students might use their previous knowledge of the
weather/climate experience to try to explain their ideas. The teacher will ask the students, “How could
we test these ideas?”
Explore
The teacher will group the students into group of 4 and give them materials: tub/gutter, 5 gallon
bucket warm salt water, 5 gallon bucket of cold fresh water, red and blue food coloring, and white
boards. The teacher will have the students to explain their ideas of the warm and cold waters mixing.
The teacher will lead the students to an experiment consisting of a large clear tub or gutter. The warmer
water will be colored red with red food coloring and the colder water will be colored with blue food
coloring. The tub or gutter will be filled with the warm water to resemble the “warmer” oceans. Then
the students will pour the colder water resembling the melted glacier water into the ocean. The students
will observe what happens. The teacher will ask probing question throughout the whole experiment (ex.
“What do you notice about the waters as they mix?”). The students will write their observations and
ideas on their white boards.
Explain part A
The teacher will have the different groups explain what they wrote on their white boards. The
students should have found that the colder water flows underneath the warmer water and maybe see
some type of circulation. Throughout this the teacher will be asking probing questions:
What happened to the cold water?
What happened to the warm water?
Why do you think this happened?
What do you know about the density of fresh water and salt water?
Explain part B
The teacher will explain how the salt water is more dense than the fresh water and how they
interact. When the glaciers melt it releases cold fresh water causing it to sink under the warm
water. Then the fresh water is less dense than the salt water then it causes it to flow back up,
therefore causing a circulation. The teacher will use a simulation on the computer to help explain
the process of ocean currents. The teacher can ask the students, “What do you think will happen if
there is too much fresh water coming into the ocean?” The teacher will explain how global
warming is causing the all the ice to melt and releasing more fresh cold water into the oceans.
“Could this have an impact on the Earth and how?”
Elaboration
The teacher will show a short video clip of Finding Nemo, where they meet the turtles at the
East Australian Current (EAC). From here the teacher will explain that this is a form of current
that our experiment created. The teacher would ask, “What do you think would happen if this
current was to cease?” The students will come up with different theories. The teacher will then
explain how this is an issue with climate change, that this could actually happen. Then have a
class discussion of the classroom ideas including what the teacher has found with this topic in
research.
Evaluation
The teacher will give the students an exit slip consisting of these three questions:
What are the two factors that determine ocean circulation?
When the ice melts from the glaciers, how does it react when it flows into the ocean (explain
what you saw in the experiment)?
If all of the ice melts at the North Pole, what do you predict will happen?
**Example questions that could be on the handout: (And you can add “why” to some of these)
What does the blue water represent?
What does the red water represent?
What do you notice when they are mixed together?
Which water flows faster?
Which water flow slower?
After seeing this which water is more dense? And how do you know?