ALEX Classroom Resource

  

Clouds!: An Interactive Lesson

  Classroom Resource Information  

Title:

 Clouds!: An Interactive Lesson

URL:

 https://aptv.pbslearningmedia.org/resource/reach-with-stem-clouds/clouds/

Content Source:

 PBS
Type: Interactive/Game

Overview:

Ready, set, soar! Soar high in the clouds with a sleepy condor who wants to help you learn in this interactive lesson about the water cycle, how it works, and how clouds are formed. In this lesson, students will learn to find and describe the connections between scientific concepts.

Content Standard(s):
Science
SC2015 (2015)
Grade: 5
14 ) Use a model to represent how any two systems, specifically the atmosphere, biosphere, geosphere, and/or hydrosphere, interact and support life (e.g., influence of the ocean on ecosystems, landform shape, and climate; influence of the atmosphere on landforms and ecosystems through weather and climate; influence of mountain ranges on winds and clouds in the atmosphere).

Unpacked Content
Scientific And Engineering Practices:
Developing and Using Models
Crosscutting Concepts: Systems and System Models
Disciplinary Core Idea: Earth's Systems
Evidence Of Student Attainment:
Students:
  • Develop a model using an example to describe ways the geosphere, biosphere, hydrosphere, and/or atmosphere interact.
Teacher Vocabulary:
  • Atmosphere
  • Hydrosphere
  • Geosphere
  • Biosphere
  • Model
  • Phenomenon
  • System
  • Earth
Knowledge:
Students know:
  • Earth's major systems are the geosphere (solid and molten rock, soil, and sediments), the hydrosphere (water and ice), the atmosphere, and the biosphere (living things, including humans).
  • These systems interact in multiple ways to affect Earth's surface materials and processes.
  • The ocean supports a variety of ecosystems and organisms, shapes landforms, and influences climate.
  • Winds and clouds in the atmosphere interact with the landforms to determine patterns of weather.
Skills:
Students are able to:
  • Develop a model, using a specific given example of a phenomenon, to describe ways that the geosphere, biosphere, hydrosphere, and/or atmosphere interact. In the model, identify the relevant components of their example, including features of two of the following systems that are relevant for the given example:
    • Geosphere (i.e., solid and molten rock, soil, sediment, continents, mountains).
    • Hydrosphere (i.e., water and ice in the form of rivers, lakes, glaciers).
    • Atmosphere (i.e., wind, oxygen).
    • Biosphere [i.e., plants, animals (including humans)].
  • Identify and describe relationships (interactions) within and between the parts of the Earth systems identified in the model that are relevant to the example (e.g., the atmosphere and the hydrosphere interact by exchanging water through evaporation and precipitation; the hydrosphere and atmosphere interact through air temperature changes, which lead to the formation or melting of ice).
  • Use the model to describe a variety of ways in which the parts of two major Earth systems in the specific given example interact to affect the Earth's surface materials and processes in that context. Use the model to describe how parts of an individual Earth system:
    • Work together to affect the functioning of that Earth system.
    • Contribute to the functioning of the other relevant Earth system.
Understanding:
Students understand that:
  • Systems, like the atmosphere, biosphere, geosphere, and hydrosphere, can be described in terms of their components and their interactions.
AMSTI Resources:
AMSTI Module:
Dynamics of Ecosystems
Alabama Alternate Achievement Standards
AAS Standard:
SCI.AAS.5.14- Identify how the atmosphere and hydrosphere interact to support life (e.g. air, water).
Science
SC2015 (2015)
Grade: 6
Earth and Space Science
7 ) Use models to construct explanations of the various biogeochemical cycles of Earth (e.g., water, carbon, nitrogen) and the flow of energy that drives these processes.

NAEP Framework
NAEP Statement::
E12.11: Earth is a system containing essentially a fixed amount of each stable chemical atom or element. Most elements can exist in several different chemical forms. Earth elements move within and between the lithosphere, atmosphere, hydrosphere, and biosphere as part of biogeochemical cycles.

NAEP Statement::
E8.14a: Water, which covers the majority of Earth's surface, circulates through the crust, oceans, and atmosphere in what is known as the water cycle.

NAEP Statement::
E8.14b: Water evaporates from Earth's surface, rises and cools as it moves to higher elevations, condenses as clouds, falls as rain or snow, and collects in lakes, oceans, soil, and underground.

Unpacked Content
Scientific And Engineering Practices:
Developing and Using Models
Crosscutting Concepts: Stability and Change
Disciplinary Core Idea: Earth's Systems
Evidence Of Student Attainment:
Students:
  • Use models to explain the various biogeochemical cycles of Earth and the flow of energy that drives these processes.
Teacher Vocabulary:
  • Biogeochemical
  • Biotic
  • Abiotic
  • Atom
  • Water cycle
  • Carbon cycle
  • Nitrogen cycle
  • Chemical compound
  • Hydrogen
  • Oxygen
  • Gravity
  • Atmosphere
  • Water vapor
  • Crystallize
  • Transpiration
  • Evaporation
  • Condensation
  • Precipitation
  • Glacier
  • Aquifer
  • Ice sheet
  • Organism
  • Decompose
  • Respiration
  • Element
  • Chemical process
  • Ecosystem
  • Geosphere
  • Carbon dioxide
  • Methane
  • Photosynthesis
  • Fossil fuel
  • Nitrogen
  • Carbon
  • Amino acid
  • Protein
  • DNA
  • Molecule
  • Bacteria
  • Fertilizer
  • Livestock
  • Nitrate
Knowledge:
Students:
  • The cycle of atoms between living and non-living things is known as a biogeochemical cycle.
  • Biogeochemical cycles interact through biotic and abiotic processes.
  • Biotic involves living or once living things such as plants, animals, and bacteria.
  • Abiotic involves nonliving things like air, rocks, and water.
  • Biogeochemical cycles may include, but are not limited to, the water, carbon, and nitrogen cycles.
  • The water cycle is the continuous process by which water is circulated throughout the earth and the atmosphere.
  • Water is a chemical compound made up of the elements hydrogen and oxygen.
  • Global movements of water and its changes in form are propelled by sunlight and gravity.
  • Energy from the sun drives the movement of water from the Earth (e.g., oceans, landforms, plants) into the atmosphere through transpiration and evaporation.
  • Water vapor in the atmosphere can cool and condense to form rain or crystallize to form snow or ice, which returns to Earth when pulled down by gravity.
  • Water continually cycles among land, ocean, and atmosphere via transpiration, evaporation, condensation and crystallization, and precipitation, as well as downhill flows on land.
  • Gravity causes water on land to move downhill (e.g., rivers and glaciers) and much of it eventually flows into oceans.
  • Some liquid and solid water remains on land in the form of bodies of water, glaciers and ice sheets or can be stored below ground in aquifers.
  • Some water remains in the tissues of plants and other living organisms, and this water is released when the tissues decompose. Water is also released by plants through transpiration and by other living organisms through respiration.
  • Carbon is an element found in the oceans, air, rocks, soil and all living organisms.
  • Carbon is the fundamental building block of life and an important component of many chemical processes.
  • In a process called the carbon cycle, carbon is exchanged among Earth's oceans, atmosphere, ecosystem, and geosphere.
  • Carbon is present in the atmosphere primarily attached to oxygen in a gas called carbon dioxide (CO2), but is also found in other less abundant but climatically significant gases, such as methane (CH4).
  • With the help of the Sun, through the process of photosynthesis, carbon dioxide is pulled from the air to make plant food.
  • Through food chains, the carbon that is in plants moves to the animals that eat them. When an animal eats another animal, the carbon is transferred.
  • When plants and animals die, their bodies, wood, and leaves decay bringing the carbon into the ground. Some become buried miles underground and will become fossil fuels in millions and millions of years.
  • Organisms release carbon dioxide gas through a process called respiration.
  • When humans burn fossil fuels to power factories, power plants, cars and trucks, most of the carbon quickly enters the atmosphere as carbon dioxide gas.
  • The oceans, and other bodies of water, soak up some carbon from the atmosphere.
  • Nitrogen is an element found in living things like plants and animals.
  • Nitrogen is also an important part of non-living things like the air and the soil.
  • Nitrogen atoms move slowly between living things, dead things, the air, soil and water.
  • The continuous process by which nitrogen is exchanged between organisms and the environment is called the nitrogen cycle.
  • Most of the nitrogen on Earth is in the atmosphere as molecules of nitrogen gas (N2).
  • All plants and animals need nitrogen to make amino acids, proteins, and DNA, but the nitrogen in the atmosphere is not in a form that they can use.
  • The molecules of nitrogen in the atmosphere can become usable for living things when they are broken apart during lightning strikes or fires, by certain types of bacteria, or by bacteria associated with bean plants.
  • Most plants get the nitrogen they need to grow from the soils or water in which they live. Animals get the nitrogen they need by eating plants or other animals that contain nitrogen.
  • When organisms die, their bodies decompose bringing the nitrogen into soil on land or into ocean water. Bacteria alter the nitrogen into a form that plants are able to use. Other types of bacteria are able to change nitrogen dissolved in waterways into a form that allows it to return to the atmosphere.
  • Certain actions of humans can cause changes to the nitrogen cycle and the amount of nitrogen that is stored in the land, water, air, and organisms.
  • The use of nitrogen-rich fertilizers can add too much nitrogen in nearby waterways as the fertilizer washes into streams and ponds. The waste associated with livestock farming also adds large amounts of nitrogen into soil and water. The increased nitrate levels cause plants to grow rapidly until they use up the supply and die. The number of plant-eating animals will increase when the plant supply increases and then the animals are left without any food when the plants die.
Skills:
Students are able to:
  • Use a model of the various biogeochemical cycles and identify the relevant components.
  • Describe the relationships between components of the model including the flow of energy.
  • Articulate a statement that relates a given phenomenon to a scientific idea, including the various biogeochemical cycles of Earth and the flow of energy that drives these processes.
Understanding:
Students understand that:
  • The transfer of energy drives the motion and/or cycling of matter of the various biogeochemical cycles.
AMSTI Resources:
AMSTI Module:
Understanding Weather and Climate
Alabama Alternate Achievement Standards
AAS Standard:
SCI.AAS.6.7- Use a model to explain the water cycle, including evaporation, condensation, and precipitation; recognize that the sun provides the energy which drives the water cycle.
Tags: clouds, condensation, evaporation, precipitation, surface water, water cycle
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Author: Stephanie Carver
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