Hurricanes and Climate

Hurricanes and Climate
https://scied.ucar.edu/activity/hurricanes-and-climate

Lisa Gardiner, UCAR Science Education; NESTA

In this activity, students use maps and data to learn about where and how hurricanes form and possible correlations with climate change affecting their strength.

Activity takes one to three 50-minute class periods.

Learn more about Teaching Climate Literacy and Energy Awareness»

See how this Activity supports the Next Generation Science Standards»

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Middle School

Performance Expectations: 2

MS-ESS2-6: Develop and use a model to describe how unequal heating and rotation of the Earth cause patterns of atmospheric and oceanic circulation that determine regional climates.

MS-ESS3-2: Analyze and interpret data on natural hazards to forecast future catastrophic events and inform the development of technologies to mitigate their effects.

Disciplinary Core Ideas: 3

MS-ESS2.C2: The complex patterns of the changes and the movement of water in the atmosphere, determined by winds, landforms, and ocean temperatures and currents, are major determinants of local weather patterns.

MS-ESS2.D1: Weather and climate are influenced by interactions involving sunlight, the ocean, the atmosphere, ice, landforms, and living things. These interactions vary with latitude, altitude, and local and regional geography, all of which can affect oceanic and atmospheric flow patterns.

MS-ESS2.D3: The ocean exerts a major influence on weather and climate by absorbing energy from the sun, releasing it over time, and globally redistributing it through ocean currents.

Cross Cutting Concepts: 6

Systems and System Models, Energy and Matter, Stability and Change, Patterns, Cause and effect

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Systems and System Models, Energy and Matter, Stability and Change, Patterns, Cause and effect

MS-C1.4: Graphs, charts, and images can be used to identify patterns in data.

MS-C2.2: Cause and effect relationships may be used to predict phenomena in natural or designed systems.

MS-C4.1: Systems may interact with other systems; they may have sub-systems and be a part of larger complex systems.

MS-C5.2: Within a natural or designed system, the transfer of energy drives the motion and/or cycling of matter.

MS-C7.2: Small changes in one part of a system might cause large changes in another part.

MS-C7.3: Stability might be disturbed either by sudden events or gradual changes that accumulate over time.

Science and Engineering Practices: 6

Analyzing and Interpreting Data, Constructing Explanations and Designing Solutions, Obtaining, Evaluating, and Communicating Information, Asking Questions and Defining Problems

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Analyzing and Interpreting Data, Constructing Explanations and Designing Solutions, Obtaining, Evaluating, and Communicating Information, Asking Questions and Defining Problems

MS-P1.1: Ask questions that arise from careful observation of phenomena, models, or unexpected results, to clarify and/or seek additional information.

MS-P4.1: Construct, analyze, and/or interpret graphical displays of data and/or large data sets to identify linear and nonlinear relationships.

MS-P4.2: Use graphical displays (e.g., maps, charts, graphs, and/or tables) of large data sets to identify temporal and spatial relationships.

MS-P6.1: Construct an explanation that includes qualitative or quantitative relationships between variables that predict(s) and/or describe(s) phenomena.

MS-P6.4: Apply scientific ideas, principles, and/or evidence to construct, revise and/or use an explanation for real- world phenomena, examples, or events.

MS-P8.5: Communicate scientific and/or technical information (e.g. about a proposed object, tool, process, system) in writing and/or through oral presentations.

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High School

Performance Expectations: 1

HS-ESS2-2: Analyze geoscience data to make the claim that one change to Earth's surface can create feedbacks that cause changes to other Earth systems.

Disciplinary Core Ideas: 2

HS-ESS2.A1: Earth’s systems, being dynamic and interacting, cause feedback effects that can increase or decrease the original changes.

HS-ESS2.D4: Current models predict that, although future regional climate changes will be complex and varied, average global temperatures will continue to rise. The outcomes predicted by global climate models strongly depend on the amounts of human-generated greenhouse gases added to the atmosphere each year and by the ways in which these gases are absorbed by the ocean and biosphere.

Cross Cutting Concepts: 6

Patterns, Cause and effect, Systems and System Models, Energy and Matter, Stability and Change

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Patterns, Cause and effect, Systems and System Models, Energy and Matter, Stability and Change

HS-C1.5: Empirical evidence is needed to identify patterns.

HS-C2.2: Cause and effect relationships can be suggested and predicted for complex natural and human designed systems by examining what is known about smaller scale mechanisms within the system.

HS-C2.4: Changes in systems may have various causes that may not have equal effects.

HS-C4.3: Models (e.g., physical, mathematical, computer models) can be used to simulate systems and interactions—including energy, matter, and information flows—within and between systems at different scales.

HS-C5.2: Changes of energy and matter in a system can be described in terms of energy and matter flows into, out of, and within that system.

HS-C7.1: Much of science deals with constructing explanations of how things change and how they remain stable.

Science and Engineering Practices: 5

Asking Questions and Defining Problems, Constructing Explanations and Designing Solutions, Engaging in Argument from Evidence, Obtaining, Evaluating, and Communicating Information

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Asking Questions and Defining Problems, Constructing Explanations and Designing Solutions, Engaging in Argument from Evidence, Obtaining, Evaluating, and Communicating Information

HS-P1.3: ask questions to determine relationships, including quantitative relationships, between independent and dependent variables

HS-P6.1: Make a quantitative and/or qualitative claim regarding the relationship between dependent and independent variables.

HS-P6.2: Construct and revise an explanation based on valid and reliable evidence obtained from a variety of sources (including students’ own investigations, models, theories, simulations, peer review) and the assumption that theories and laws that describe the natural world operate today as they did in the past and will continue to do so in the future.

HS-P7.1: Compare and evaluate competing arguments or design solutions in light of currently accepted explanations, new evidence, limitations (e.g., trade-offs), constraints, and ethical issues

HS-P8.5: Communicate scientific and/or technical information or ideas (e.g. about phenomena and/or the process of development and the design and performance of a proposed process or system) in multiple formats (i.e., orally, graphically, textually, mathematically).

Grade Level

Middle (6-8)
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High School (9-12)
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Topics

Measurements and Observations
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Climate Data
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Hurricanes and Storms
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Climate Literacy

This Activity builds on the following concepts of Climate Literacy.

Click a topic below for supporting information, teaching ideas, and sample activities.

Energy Literacy

This Activity builds on the following concepts of Energy Literacy.

Click a topic below for supporting information, teaching ideas, and sample activities.

Physical processes on Earth are the result of energy flow

Notes From Our Reviewers The CLEAN collection is hand-picked and rigorously reviewed for scientific accuracy and classroom effectiveness. Read what our review team had to say about this resource below or learn more about how CLEAN reviews teaching materials
Teaching Tips | Science | Pedagogy | Technical Details

Teaching Tips

Would be a good piece included in a larger lesson on weather and connections between ocean and the atmosphere.

About the Content

This activity is about where (geographically) and when (seasonally) hurricanes occur, relative frequencies of hurricanes in different locations, and relationships among sea surface temperature, hurricane location, and frequency of occurrence.
Science background provided in the activity is somewhat superficial.
Comments from expert scientist:
Great activity with an excellent student workbook component.
Scientific strengths:
- creating bar graphs
- clear explanation of why hurricanes form where they do
- interpreting SST maps and making the connection between where hurricanes form and the warmest waters
- inferring why hurricanes might become stronger and more frequent
- very slight introduction to the Coriolis Effect (too difficult to explain but at least the students get some exposure)
- explanation between warming global temperatures and hurricanes

About the Pedagogy

Would fit in well with a class learning about weather, ocean/atmosphere interactions, or hurricanes. Focuses mostly on hurricanes with information about how they're formed and how ocean and air temperatures are a factor in their creation. Would fit well as an introduction or add-on to a larger lesson about one of the above topics.
Activity involves reading and analyzing maps of displayed data, constructing simple bar graphs and a timeline, and reflecting on the information conveyed by the visuals. Links to additional sources of information provided.

Technical Details/Ease of Use

Activity downloadable in pdf form.

Entered the Collection: May 2018 Last Reviewed: May 2015

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Middle School (see details)

Middle School

Performance Expectations: 2

Disciplinary Core Ideas: 3

Cross Cutting Concepts: 6

Science and Engineering Practices: 6

High School (see details)

High School

Performance Expectations: 1

Disciplinary Core Ideas: 2

Cross Cutting Concepts: 6

Science and Engineering Practices: 5

Grade Level

Topics

Climate Literacy

Energy Literacy

Teaching Tips

About the Content

About the Pedagogy

Technical Details/Ease of Use

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