The bibliographies to web pages for student activities that are linked from this section are categorized by the topics listed below. Each bibliographic entry represnts the student author's opinions about the suitability of the lesson plan activity for teaching 4th - 5th grade students.
Subject: Create a Cloud in a Bottle
Source: http://scool.larc.nasa.gov/cgi-bin/view_lessonplan.cgi?id=13
Focus: The "cloud activity" is a fun activity for kids of all ages, what makes the activity a science lesson is applying cloud formation to the more broad ideas of the water cycle or even to GCC. Children fill a jar with warm water, pour it out and create condensation, then place screen on top with 2 to 3 ice cubes on top of screen and wait. After the teacher lights a match, they blow it out and throw it in the jar and replace the top and presto, you have your cloud! If there is time, the lesson plan says that instead of smoke you can use chalk or salt. I would not change the lesson plan at all because I think it strongly pertains to the concepts of GCC. The science content is determining conditions necessary for cloud formation and how to perform an experiment. Though it would take a large amount of time (40-50 minutes) if materials are all set up when kids arrive, it would be a great introduction to a 10-15 minute debrief on cloud formation and the bigger aspects of GCC as described below in the critical uses section.
Critical Uses: As far as we know, the process of how clouds form is not going to change, so the concept will never be "dated." This activity would be beneficial to understanding science because it allows children to learn about condensation and cloud formation in a fun, hands-on way, rather than having them sitting and listening to a teacher lecture on the water cycle. As a follow-up to the activity, students can write a paragraph summarizing conditions necessary for the formation of a cloud (or to save time, I think we should do it in an open discussion). This does not create "activity-mania," because students must apply what they just did to a broader spectrum, by answering the following question: "In a real weather situation what conditions cause clouds to form?" Though we would need to purchase several items (canning jar with lid, screen, matches, ice, water), if children understand how clouds are formed they can build off of that understanding and could more easily absorb the concept of how heat affects the rate clouds form and from there look at the idea of albedo and the two functions clouds have for heating and cooling the Earth. By using other substances besides smoke, such as chalk or salt, we could extend the idea of how aerosols get into the atmosphere and create clouds, which may either warm or cool the temperature of the Earth.
Author: Paige Bedell
Subject: Making Clouds
Source: http://education.arm.gov/teacherslounge/lessons/makingclouds.stm
Focus: This plan outlines how to create an artificial cloud using common household materials. It shows students how clouds form through the presence of water vapor, cooling air and condensing nuclei. A pickle jar is filled with hot water, and then most is dumped out. The lid of the jar is filled with ice and put on the jar upside down. There are several experiments performed, a control, a match-only and an aerosol. The control involves putting nothing in the jar, the match only involves dropping a lit match in the jar and the aerosol involves spraying aerosol into the jar. The smoke and aerosol act as the condensing nuclei and form clouds.
Critical Uses: This experiment is a good way to demonstrate hands-on how clouds are formed. It is a fun activity that will engage the students, and will also teach them some science. There are a couple of extrapolations that need to be made in order to relate this experiment to clouds in the real world, and perhaps a bit of explanation, but if done in the proper way it could be very effective. This lesson plan does not relate directly to the concept of global climate change, and it does not address any human inputs. This lesson also does not make any value judgments.
Author: Tom Nielson
Subject: Understanding Cloud Formation
Source: http://scool.larc.nasa.gov/cgi-bin/view_lessonplan.cgi?id=31
Focus: This activity shows why water condenses and forms clouds. Two classes are filled: one with cold water and the other with hot water. They sit until water begins to condense around the cold glass. The lesson says to explain that the air around the cold glass is colder and cannot hold as much water but you could also engage the students by asking them why they think water condensed. The lesson then continues with a demonstration of cloud formation. A cake pan is filled with ice and a large jar is filled with warm water. Hold a lit match inside the jar for a few seconds and then drop it in. Hold the cake pan over the jar. A cloud will form as the water rises and cools. The intent of this demonstration is to show kids what condensing means and how it happens.
Critical Uses: This demonstration breaks down the process of cloud formation to a basic level that children can see and understand. This might be a good building block for our lessons about clouds and global climate change. Once students understand why and how clouds are there then you can build and expand to showing them how clouds are related to climate change. This may also be an effective demonstration because the condensation on a glass is something they have seen and probably noticed. They can connect to it and will probably notice it again but may think about clouds next time. The lesson also has a poem that immediately engages students.
Author: Jessica Kortmeyer
Subject: Cloud protocols, categorizing and qualitative analysis
Source: http://www.globe.gov/tctg/clouds.pdf?sectionId=8&rg=n&lang=en
Focus: Students learn the meteorological concepts of cloud heights, types, and cloud cover and learn the ten basic cloud types. The experiment gets children outside and has them estimate how much of the sky is covered with clouds. The students are instructed to divide the sky into quarters and estimate the percentage of covering within each. Then an average is taken for the four quarters. The students use cloud classification cards to help them identify what the types of clouds.
Critical use: This experiment is a simple ~10 minute activity that gets students outside and qualitatively looking at the sky and the cloud cover. No equipment is used, but a visual aid such as a cloud chart may be nice to have to be able to describe the different categories of clouds. The experiment is a good way to show students what types of clouds hold what type of water, as well as to get them thinking about science every time they look up at the sky.
Author: Alex Osmond
Subject: Poetry in Weather
Source: http://scool.larc.nasa.gov/cgi-bin/view_lessonplan.cgi?id=27
Focus: This idea is a creative one that is not your typical science lesson. The activity involves looking at a cloud chart and studying it, teaching the students about cumulus, cirrus, stratus, and nimbostratus cloud formations. Once the students understand what each type looks like, take the chart outside and compare the clouds to the chart. Afterwards, the students, with facilitation from teachers, could do a group brainstorm and write individual poetry. The lesson plan suggests looking at poetry like Carl Sandburg's "fog" to generate ideas for them, but I think this would take too much time and the students should just start writing and drawing about what they just saw. This would be a good introduction to learning about cloud formation, the water cycle, and perhaps even the bigger ideas of GCC. The science content areas that would be addressed specifically from the activity would be an ability to classify and recognize different cloud formations and trying to make sense of the scientific concepts through art.
Critical Uses: The critical use of this activity is to make science learning and discovery fun. Besides identifying clouds, children are able to individually try and connect concepts they just learned and express it through art. The information of cloud formation cannot be dated and it is up to us as teachers to decide how "in-depth" we want to go with the ideas. I think when children share their poetry or art pieces, the teachers can find some common misconceptions children have about clouds and could address them as they come up. To stay focused on the science aspect, after all the kids have shared their cloud artwork, the teachers could relate the ideas of how clouds are formed and from there, perhaps the children could more easily absorb the concept of how heat affects the rate clouds form and from there, looking at the idea of albedo and the two functions clouds have for heating and cooling the Earth. The teachers could pose questions about global warming by addressing different types of clouds: "How would clouds closer to the Earth's surface affect the temperature of the Earth" or "What type of cloud could mean precipitation? Are the particles going to rain back down to the Earth's surface?"
Author: Paige Bedell
Subject: Cloud Poems
Source: http://scool.larc.nasa.gov/cgi-bin/view_lessonplan.cgi?id=9
Focus: The purpose of this experiment is to get students to start thinking about the clouds and why they are different shapes and sizes. Throughout this experiment, the students will observe the clouds in a certain area for an allotted amount of time. While doing this, they will take notes and do drawings on what they observe in their observation journals. Then, using a cloud chart the students can try to identify the clouds they see. The students will then select a special day from their observation journal to write a poem about. If the students only observed for one day, then they will write about that day.
Critical Uses: This activity really gets the students to think about the clouds that they see on a daily basis. It gets them to question why certain clouds are shaped differently from others and what the different shapes mean. The students also discover the different names of clouds and how the different clouds affect the earth differently. This activity relates to the environment in that the clouds affect global climate change through albedo and infrared light absorption. The students could briefly discuss albedo and the effects that humans have on it. Also, the students could list how they (and by extension, all humans) affect the distribution and number clouds. Then they could come up with ideas of how to reduce human impact on the clouds. This experiment teaches students that science is everywhere even in things they see everyday such as clouds or the ground. The activity will hopefully open their minds to intuitive thinking by inspiring questions about their surroundings. Also through this experiment the students get to dabble in poetry and further explore their artistic side. I feel that this activity is an eye-opening and thought-inspiring experiment especially for a younger age group.
Author: Annie de Mayo