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Weather and Climate for Teachers
2008 Summer Teacher's Course

course

This class consists of 10 sesssions, each on a particular topic. For each topic, there is a sequence of activities that follow the "5 Es", Engage, Explore, Explain, Extend, Evaluate.

Each session begins with a series of Engage and Explore activities. These are open-ended hands-on investigations designed to give participants a chance to explore, to get a feeling for the topics to be discussed. These are described in PDF files that give an intriguing question for each activity: "Why is the sky purple?" or "If hot air rises, why is it cold in the mountains?"

The sessions then continue with a traditional lecture, the Explain portion, with heavily illustrated animated slides, available in PowerPoint and PDF formats below. These slides for a clear and coherent whole, and are an excellent reference to the material of the course.

activities The sessions finish with an Extend activity, a chance for participants to use the knowledge and insight they gained. This is a crucial piece of the puzzle, to let folks apply what they just learned.

Finally, we finish with some form of Evaluation, which could be as simple as telling what worked well, or as detailed as a written test.

Overview and Details Course Materials
The course materials below are organized by the theme of each class session
and placed into the day they were presented.
  • Day 1 :
    • What is Energy? Conservation of Energy, Weather vs. Climate
    • Radiation and Seasons

  • Day 2 :
    • Pressure, Density, Temperature, Buoyancy
    • Phases of Water, Latent Heat, and Clouds

  • Day 3 :
    • Convection and Precipitation
    • Forces and Winds

  • Day 4 :
    • Rotation and Global Circulation
    • Fronts and Storms

  • Day 5 :
    • Climate Change and Global Warming
    • Mitigating and Adapting to Climate Change
Participants
Contact info

Course Photos

Feedback
Do you like how the course is organized and made available on these webpages?
We would appreciate your suggestions and comments here!

Supporters
hach Instructional materials and other support for participants in the 2008 summer course
was provided by the Hach Scientific Foundation.

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