Science Curriculum Topic Study

Air & Atmosphere and Weather & Climate

II. Consider Instructional Implications

Benchmarks for Science Literacy

• Grades K-2: Students should keep daily records of temperature (hot, cold, pleasant) and precipitation (none, some, lots). They should plot them by week, month, and years. Students should recognize patterns of ups and downs. They should become familiar with freezing water and melting ice (no weight change), the disappearance of melting water into air, and the appearance of water on cold surfaces. Students observe and read about things that change and come to understand that change is something that happens.
• Grades 3-5: Students learn about some of the surface features of earth and the earth’s relationship to the sun, moon, and other planets. They gain more knowledge of the physical environment becoming more familiar with details of geological features. They begin learning scale. They also learn the connection between gas, liquid, and solid forms of water. Students should figure out where water in an open container goes and that air has mass and movement.
• Grades 6-8: Students add more details to prior knowledge learning more about the seasons and scale and forces that shape the earth. An evitable paradox of scale can be found in the example that an ocean can be 7 miles deep, but that it is considered a thin layer on the earth’s surface.
• Grades 9-12: Information can now be synthesized more holistically, connecting physical concepts and principles, such as energy, gravity, conservation, and radiation. They begin to consider the effects that human activities have on the earth’s surface.

National Science Education Standards

• Grades K-4: Children are naturally interested in world around them. They should be guided to observe changes and cycles. Students can keep a weather journal. Emphasis is on developing observation and description skills and the explanations should be based on observations.
• Grades 5-8: A major goal is for students to develop an understanding of the earth and solar system as a set of closely coupled systems. Students investigate 4 major interacting components of the earth’s system: geosphere, hydrosphere, atmosphere, and biosphere. They study the composition of the atmosphere and global climate. Energy from the sun transferred by light and other radiation is the primary energy source for processes on earth’s surface and in its hydrosphere, atmosphere, and biosphere.
• Grades 9-12: Students focus on matter, energy, crustal dynamics, cycles, geochemical processes, and the expanded time scales necessary to understand the earth system. Driven by sunlight and earth’s internal heat, a variety of cycles connect and continually circulate energy and material through the components of the earth system. Together, these cycles establish the structure of the earth system and regulate earth’s climate. Students deepen their understanding of the water cycle as a carrier of material, and see that it is also important for energy transfer. Students also learn the carbon cycle as it plays a central role in establishing and maintaining earth’s climate. They also extend their knowledge of radiation, convection, and conduction transfer energy through the earth system. They study the fluctuations of climate over earth’s history, including fluctuations in global temperatures. Using this background, students can examine environmental changes occurring today and make predictions about future temperature fluctuations in the earth system. Many students need concrete examples and considerable help in following the multistep logic necessary to develop the understandings described in this standard.

References:

§ American Association for the Advancement of Science. 1994. Benchmarks for Science Literacy. New York: Oxford University Press. Note: This document is also available on the web at: http://www.project2061.org/publications/bsl/online/bolintro.htm

§ National Research Council. (1996). The National Science Education Standards. Washington, DC: National Academy Press. Note: This document is also available on the web at: http://www.nap.edu/readingroom/books/nses/html