The emphasis of this lesson is deepening students' understanding of how and why we measure precipitation across the globe. Students will look at NASA Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM) data gathered during hurricanes and how this data can... (View More) prove essential in helping scientists forecast the amount of precipitation. Students will also learn how the Global Precipitation Measurement (GPM) Mission is enabling scientists to collect new information on hurricanes. The lesson uses the 5E instructional sequence. (View Less)

Students will use NASA's Global Climate Change website to research five of the key indicators (vital signs) of Earth’s climate health. These indicators are: global surface temperature, carbon dioxide concentrations, sea level, Arctic sea ice, and... (View More) land ice. They will use this information, shared in their expert groups, to create an informative poster about their assigned key indicator. The poster will be used by other groups to learn about all five of the key indicators and how Earth scientists use these indicators to analyze changes in Earth’s climate. The lesson plan uses the 5E instructional sequence. (View Less)

In this activity, students will research weather proverbs, analyze the scientific validity of three weather proverbs and present their reasoning in an essay. As an extension, students may survey 15 senior citizens to determine most frequently heard... (View More) weather proverbs and the proverbs they feel were most scientifically valid, then create histograms charting this information. Students may also compare their Student Cloud Observations On-Line (S'COOL) observation record of clouds with their findings regarding the validity of the weather proverb, "The higher the clouds, the better the weather," to determine if the days high clouds were observed were days of fair weather. (View Less)