Download I. Content - WordPress @ Clark U

Ariana Foster
January Unit: The Water Cycle & Weather
March 1, 2013
LAP 5: Types of Precipitation
I.
Content: Describe what it is you will teach. What is the content?
In this lesson students will examine the four main types of precipitation,
rain, snow, sleet, and hail. Students will work in their science groups to read and
chart information about each type of precipitation, what it is called, how it occurs,
and how it affects the world around us. Students will also illustrate each type of
precipitation in their charts. Additionally, I will place real, unlabeled pictures on
the ELMO to give students more visual support. We will conclude with a whole
class share out about what they learned and discussed within their groups, and I
will ask students to help me identify the pictures based on their new knowledge of
the types of precipitation.
II.
Learning Goal(s): Describe what specifically students will know and be able
to do after the experience of this class.

Students will know the four main types of precipitation (rain, snow, sleet
& hail), how/ why they occur, how they behave, what effects they cause
and what they look like.

Students will be able to identify types of precipitation based on
characteristics of weather in a given place and time.

Students will be able to explain why it is important to study weather.
Rationale: Explain how the content and learning goal(s) relate to your
Curriculum Unit Plan learning goals.
In this lesson students will begin to more closely examine precipitation as
a phenomenon of weather. Through this lesson it is my hope that students will
begin to see the essential relationship between the water cycle and weather.
Precipitation is a key component of weather, and is very familiar to students,
particularly those living in New England. Through charting and illustrating what
the different types of precipitation, students will begin to see how particular
weather conditions, particularly temperature, affects the type of precipitation a
given area experiences. In our next lesson we will be progressing from learning
about weather, to learning how to predict weather.
III.
IV.
Assessment: Describe how you and your students will know they have
reached your learning goals.
 Observing discussions/checking in with groups throughout activity
 Precipitation Chart
 Whole class discussion
V.
Personalization: Describe how you will provide for individual student
strengths and needs. How will you and your lesson consider the needs of each
student and scaffold learning?
In order to account for the strengths and needs of all of my students
I will utilize my science groups (heterogeneous groupings). These groupings will
allow both high flying and struggling students to discuss what they are reading
and thereby deepening understanding for all students in the group.
Additionally, when creating the information packet I edited much of what
I found in my own research to make it more “kid friendly.” I accomplished this by
Ariana Foster
January Unit: The Water Cycle & Weather
March 1, 2013
LAP 5: Types of Precipitation
separating the packet into sections based on the type of precipitation; I also
provided headings for each section. Additionally I provided visual support by
displaying the picture of the four different types of precipitation on the ELMO
during the activity. I also provided a portion on the chart where students had the
opportunity to illustrate the types of precipitation; I did this to provide extra
support to my more visual learners.
VI.
Activity description Agenda: Describe the activities that will help your
students understand the content of your class lesson by creating an agenda
with time frames for your class. Be prepared to explain why you think each
activity will help students on the path toward understanding.
Teacher will…
Teacher will access previous
knowledge by asking students
to recap what we discussed in
the last lesson, and what the
four types of precipitation
might be. Teacher will then
provide directions for activity.
Walk around and facilitate
activity.
Answer any questions/assist
groups with activity where
necessary.
Facilitate wrap-up discussion,
ask students to identify
precipitation in pictures, and
clear up any misconceptions
generated during lesson.
Students will…
- Participate in
discussion about
weather.
- Listen to instructions
regarding activity.
-
-
-
Read precipitation
packet aloud with
groups.
Discuss and chart
information and
drawings
Participate in whole
class discussion.
Time
10 minutes
25-30 minutes
15-20 minutes
VII.
List the Massachusetts Learning Standards this lesson addresses.
 6. Explain how air temperature, moisture, wind speed and direction, and
precipitation make up the weather in a particular place and time.
 7. Distinguish among the various forms of precipitation (rain, snow, sleet, and
hail), making connections to the weather in a particular place and time.
 10. Describe how water on earth cycles in different forms and in different
locations, including underground and in the atmosphere.
 11. Give examples of how the cycling of water, both in and out of the
atmosphere, has an effect on climate.
VIII.
Reflection
a. In light of all areas of planning, but especially in terms of your stated purpose
and learning goals, in what ways was the activity(ies) successful? How do you
Ariana Foster
January Unit: The Water Cycle & Weather
March 1, 2013
LAP 5: Types of Precipitation
know? In what ways was it not successful? How might the activity be planned
differently another time?
As luck would have it, the timing of this lesson ended up working out extremely
well! We had a delay due to the sleet which we experienced in the morning. Additionally
to providing students with the readings and charts, I posed a challenge to the class. Once
they read through their information about the different types of precipitation, I asked
them to tell me which type of precipitation had occurred that morning, and what
conditions it brought which caused us to have a delay. This allowed students to apply
what they were learning to real world experiences. I rewarded all groups who answered
correctly with a PBIS ticket.
Students were extremely engaged and excited during the lesson, and wanted to be
the first to give me the correct answer. By the end of the lesson all groups had correctly
guess sleet as the type of precipitation! It was exciting to see them so engaged, and I am
very happy with how it went. Students were also able to correctly identify each type of
precipitation in the picture on the ELMO following their reading and charting.
b. What did you learn from the experience of this lesson that will inform your next
LAP?
I am feeling confident that students have a solid grasp on the water cycle and
different types of weather and precipitation and would like to move forward to examining
how weather is predicted and studied. I have noticed that visual aids and discussion have
been extremely helpful in allowing students to understand the material we are learning. I
plan to continue to incorporate both of these things as we continue to move forward, to
ensure that all students are able to access the material in many ways, and have the benefit
of learning with, and from, one another.
Ariana Foster
January Unit: The Water Cycle & Weather
March 1, 2013
LAP 5: Types of Precipitation
Weather and Precipitation Packet:
Weather simply refers to the condition of the air on earth at a given place
and time –whether it is warm or cold, dry or wet, blowing or calm. The condition of
air and how it acts to create weather is influenced primarily by two things - heat
(the sun) and water.
As air rises, its temperature drops. As the moisture in the air cools, it
condenses around particles in the air forming ice crystals and water droplets which
come together to form clouds. Eventually, they are too heavy to remain suspended
and fall to earth as precipitation. Each form of precipitation is unique with its own
important characteristics. The main types of precipitation are rain, snow, sleet,
and hail.
Rain:
Rain is by far the most common type of precipitation in our atmosphere and
can occur any time of year. Rain forms when water vapor in air rises, and condenses
around little pieces of sea salt or a particle of dust or smoke. Each particle
(surrounded by water) becomes a tiny droplet.—Picture a huge room full of tiny
droplets moving around. If one droplet bumps into another droplet, the bigger
droplet will "eat" the smaller droplet. This new bigger droplet will bump into other
smaller droplets and become even bigger--this is called coalescence. Soon the
droplet is so heavy that the cloud (or the room) can no longer hold it up and it
starts falling. In air below 0 °F, raindrops may start as snow or ice crystals but
melt when they fall into warmer air (32F).
As it falls it eats up even more droplets. We can call the growing droplet a raindrop
as soon as it reaches the size of 0.5mm in diameter or bigger. If it gets any larger
than 4 millimeters, however, it will usually split into two separate drops.
Ariana Foster
January Unit: The Water Cycle & Weather
March 1, 2013
LAP 5: Types of Precipitation
The raindrop will continue falling until it reaches the ground. As it falls, sometimes
an upward gust of wind (updraft) will force the drop back up into the cloud where
it continues eating other droplets and getting bigger. When the drops finally reach
the ground, the biggest drops will be the ones that bumped into and coalesced with
the most droplets. The smaller drops are the ones that didn't run into as many
droplets. The larger and heavier the raindrop, the stronger the gravitational pull
and the faster the drops will fall!
Although rain is often shown as being in the shape
of a tear drop, this is actually not the case! Small
raindrops (1 mm) are spherical, or round; larger ones
assume a shape more like that of a hamburger bun. When
they get larger than a about 4.5 mm they rapidly become distorted into a shape
more like a parachute with a tube of water around the base—they break up into
smaller drops.
Rain often takes one of two main forms. These two forms are showers and
drizzles. A shower lasts just a brief period of time, and usually is made up of large
heavy drops. Drizzles generally last much longer, and are made up of smaller, finer
droplets of water.
Rain is essential for plants, animals and humans to live, but too much rain can
lead to flooding and monsoons which can cause are very dangerous and can cause a
great deal of damage!
Snow:
Snow forms when water vapor turns directly into ice without ever passing
through a liquid state. This happens as ice crystals condense around tiny particles
carried high into the atmosphere by the wind. Snow begins forming in a very cold
Ariana Foster
January Unit: The Water Cycle & Weather
March 1, 2013
LAP 5: Types of Precipitation
cloud (32F) that has both super cold water droplets and ice crystals. When
water vapor droplets collide with a piece of already formed ice crystal, the droplet
freezes to it making it grow into a slightly larger new ice crystal. When many ice
crystals stick together and fall, they are called "snow crystals." This is what we
call a "snowflake."
No Two snowflakes are exactly the same! Each snowflake is six-sided and
made of as many as 200 ice crystals. The shape of the snow crystal is determined
by the temperature in the cloud. The size of an ice crystal is determined by
moisture in the cloud. The more moisture there is, the bigger the crystals will be.
As it falls from one cloud, it will pass through other clouds with a different
temperature or moisture level and change shape and size of the snowflake. It may
combine two different shapes. The speed of the snowflake falling can also change
the shape of the crystal.
As snow falls to the ground, it often melts on the warm surface of the
Earth. If the surface of the Earth is chilled sufficiently, snow begins to pile up,
creating snow drifts. In some locations, such as mountains, these snow drifts can
reach several feet or meters in depth! There are many fun things to do when it
snows, like skiing or building snowmen, however, lots of snow can make it difficult
for us to get around and cause dangerous situations. For example, blizzards, long
lasting snowstorms with high winds and intense snowfall, can cause trees to fall,
power to go out, and make it very dangerous to be outside.
Sleet:
Sleet is rain, or melted snow, that freezes into ice pellets before hitting the
ground. Sleet only happens under very specific weather conditions, and generally
occurs during the wintertime. In order for sleet to occur there must be a layer of
Ariana Foster
January Unit: The Water Cycle & Weather
March 1, 2013
LAP 5: Types of Precipitation
air near the ground whose temperature is below freezing (32F)
where water turns to ice. Above this layer of freezing air must be a layer of
warmer air. As snow falls through the warm air, it melts or partially melts into
raindrops. As the melted snow falls through the cold layer of air, it re-freezes. It
forms ice pellets, we call “sleet”, before hitting the ground.
Sleet usually cannot do severe damage to crops or transportation systems
the way heavy snow, freezing rain, or hail can, however, it can cause icy conditions
which may make it more difficult to travel. In fact, sleet is so light and tiny it
usually bounces when it hits a hard surface.
Hail
Hail forms in a complex dance between moisture and wind. Deep within
cumulonimbus clouds, generally about 8,000 to 10,000 feet above the earth’s
surface, ice crystals form and begin to fall towards the Earth’s surface. As this
happens, wind gusts pick up the ice crystals, pushing them back up high into the
clouds. As they begin to again fall down, they continue growing in size as more
layers of ice form around the crystals. Again, a wind gust might catch the growing
hail stones, pushing them back up high into the clouds. This process may be
repeated several more times until the hail stones become so large that they are
too heavy for the wind to carry, causing them to fall towards the Earth.
Very large hailstones are associated with severe thunderstorms this is because
large hailstones are an indication of powerful updraft winds (upward moving air)
and downdraft winds (downward moving air) within a thunderstorm. Hail generally
occurs during the spring and summer months.
Ariana Foster
January Unit: The Water Cycle & Weather
March 1, 2013
LAP 5: Types of Precipitation
To create pea-size hail (about 1/2 inch in diameter) winds within the
thunderstorm updraft will generally be around 20 miles per hour. Quarter size hail
(3/4 of an inch in diameter) requires updrafts of about 40 miles per hour. Golf ball
size hail (1 3/4 inches in diameter) needs updrafts of around 55 miles per hour and
softball size hail, approximately 100 miles per hour! Hailstones can cause extreme
damage to buildings, vehicles, and crops.