What core ideas do

you intend students

to learn? (Link to
NGSS Disciplinary
CoRe Ideas)
Why is it important
for students to learn
this concept?
(Rationale)

CoRe Teaching Plans

3-ESS2-1 Earth's Systems
3-ESS2-1.-Represent data in tables and graphical displays to describe typical weather conditions
expected during a particular season. [Clarification Statement: Examples of data could include average
temperature, precipitation, and wind direction.] [Assessment Boundary: Assessment of graphical
displays is limited to pictographs and bar graphs. Assessment does not include climate change.]
3-ESS2-2 Earth's Systems
3-ESS2-2.- Obtain and combine information to describe climates in different regions of the world.
Students should learn about climate and weather patterns because it is something present in

What do YOU know

about this topic and
its importance?
What do you expect
students be able to
do as a result of your
instruction?
(Link to NGSS
Performance
Expectation)

their everyday life. This lesson will introduce them to concepts about cycles, patterns, and
educated predictions. It will allows students to view weather, something present in everyday life
from a scientific perspective. These concepts of cycles, patterns, and data based predictions
encourage skills that will be used in future science lessons.
Students also should gain the understanding that although weather within a climate can be
varied, there are tools and patterns that weatherman can use to help predict weather such as
geographic location (talking about distance from the equator and season.)

I know that average temperature increases the closer the location is to the equator.
I know that seasons are less defined the closer you are to the equator.
I know that a climate is made up of a variety of weather patterns.

Upon completing this lesson, we expect students to be able to understand how climate is
different depending on where you are in the world in relation to the equator. They will be able to
explain the expected climate of a region of the world by looking at its relation to the equator and
compare/contrast it to a different location of the world. This relates to the NGSS Performance
Expectation 3-ESS2-2: Climate describes a range of an areas typical weather conditions and
the extent to which those conditions vary over years. (Next Generation Science Standards,
2014)
They should also be able to explain how weather can be unpredictable, even if climate is
relatively consistent. They will be able to associate certain weather patterns in relation to the 4
seasons (for areas that experience 4 seasons). Students will also be able to predict what
weather will be like in certain regions in specific months of the year using predictions of climate
patterns. This relates to the NGSS Performance Expectation 3-ESS2-1: Scientists record
patterns of the weather across different times and areas so that they can make predictions
about what kind of weather might happen next. (Next Generation Science Standards, 2014)

Adapted from the Content Representation Tool (Loughran, Mulhall, & Berry, 2004)

What difficulties do
you anticipate
students will have?

I think students will have difficulties if they do not understand what the difference is between
weather and climate. We will discuss what that means so that they have a foundation of the
concept we will teach them. I also think there will be difficulty in knowing that we can predict the
weather but weather is never set in stone and can change at any moment. We can talk through
that with them as well as discuss their thoughts on how we can predict weather by what season
it is. It will be hard for students to see that different weather patterns can be seen in multiple
seasons and not just one season.

What specific
activities and
experiences could
you use to help
students learn?
(Should engage
students in the NGSS
scientific practices)

We will start the lesson by having the students draw a line down the center of their whiteboard.
One section title was weather and the other was climate. We will have them brainstorm ideas
about what comes to their mind when they think of or see weather. They could draw pictures or
write down words that represented weather to them. Then, they will do the same for climate.
This will help us understand their thoughts or misconceptions about weather and climate and
where we should begin with our lesson from there. We will discuss what weather is and what
climate is and what their similarities and differences are.
We will provide the students with a graph on paper of the days of the week. We will have each
day of the week and two boxes for each for the students to record their data. We will give the
students a Welch's fruit snack, explain that the bag of fruit snacks represents the climate and
the fruit snacks within the bag represent a weather. Emma, Hannah, and I will choose a state,
each with different climate, we chose Maine, Florida, and Missouri. We made a weather key, for
each color of the fruit snacks we assigned a weather pattern such as, rainy, cloudy, sunny,
snowy, cold, and hot. We will explain that they could not eat the fruit snacks until we were
finished and will have them pick out one fruit snack at a time without looking. The will pick out a
fruit snack, use the key to see what weather pattern came out of the climate bag and write it in a
box for that day's weather. They will do this for 7 days and then did it again for another 7 days.
This relates to the NGSS Performance Expectation 3-ESS2-1: Scientists record patterns of the
weather across different times and areas so that they can make predictions about what kind of
weather might happen next. (Next Generation Science Standards, 2014)
After that we will compare data from the different states they have. They will see that even their
own two weeks in their states will be different because weather changes. We will discuss why
one state's weather was different from another state's weather. That is how we will explain the
climate concept and how the climate is the same in one area but the weather changes daily.
This relates to the NGSS Performance Expectation 3-ESS2-2: Climate describes a range of an
areas typical weather conditions and the extent to which those conditions vary over years.
(Next Generation Science Standards, 2014)

Adapted from the Content Representation Tool (Loughran, Mulhall, & Berry, 2004)

In what ways would

you assess students
understanding or
confusion?

7. What materials/
equipment are
needed to teach the
lesson?

We will introduce the equator and how that affects climate. They will think of why Florida's
weather is different than Maine's weather. This will show that the closer you are to the equator
the warmer the climate and the farther away you are from the equator the cooler it is, that
affects their weather.
We will divide butcher paper into the 4 seasons: summer, spring, fall and winter. We created a
card sort activity. The cards said: rain, snow, hail, windy, hot, cold, cool, and warm. They will put
these cards into what season they think they would most likely fall into. The will discover that
some of them can overlap into many seasons and not just one. We will discuss what weather
looks like in Florida's climate. This will serve as an assessment to see if they understand the
different weather/climates and what seasons they typically belong to.
We will be able to assess students understanding by asking them questions throughout the
lesson so we will know not to move on until they grasp the concept we had just finished
covering. Questions will be scaffolded so students will answer in regards to the concept we
covered. This will allow us to see right away if they understand or if they are answering around
the question because they do not understand. For example, we could ask questions such as:
o What season are we in right now? How do you know?
o What is the weather outside like right now? How do you know?
We will also assess their understanding by having them apply concepts to make certain
predictions. This will allow us to see if they grasp the concepts by applying them to real life
examples. For example:
o **after the card sort...Do you agree with where the cards are right now? What if we were
talking about the fall climate in Florida. Would it change? Why?
o Based on what we talked about today, can you draw on your whiteboard what you think
the weather will be like tomorrow?
o Why do you think the weathermen talk about different weather or climate patterns
depending on where theyre located?

We will need:
individual serving sized bags of fruit snacks that are small and colorful to represent a particular
climate and individual weather within
A large colored map of the United States showing differences of temperature at different
distances from the equator
Large piece of butcher paper divided into four seasons: summer, fall, winter, spring.
Adapted from the Content Representation Tool (Loughran, Mulhall, & Berry, 2004)

8. References (Please
list all resources
consulted in
developing this form)

Notecards detailing different weathers (rain, snow, ice, sun, warm, cool) that students can sort
between seasons.
White board and markers for students to record observations of the weather occurring outside.

MS-ESS2 Earth's Systems Next Generation Science Standards. MS-ESS2 Earth's Systems Next
Generation Science Standards. Next Generation Science Standards, n.d. Web. 05 Oct. 2014.
<http://www.nextgenscience.org/msess2-earth-systems>.

Adapted from the Content Representation Tool (Loughran, Mulhall, & Berry, 2004)