Climate and Weather
Climate and Weather
Warm-up: Show students this video to introduce the topic of climate and weather or activate prior knowledge.
Note: This video becomes pixilated when enlarged. It would be best to assign to students through Google classroom instead of projecting.
http://video.nationalgeographic.com/video/climate-weather-sci
National Geographic
This video discusses the differences between climate and weather by defining and presenting examples of each. When presenting examples of weather, the video focuses on severe events and how meteorologists predict and study the weather using measurement, satellites, and radar. The climate focus is primarily on an overview of climate zones.
Video length: 3:22 min.
Background Infomation
- Climate is the average weather conditions over a long period of time. There are six major climate zones across the globe. Climate is a factor that helps people determine where to live.
- Weather is the day-to-day conditions of the conditions of Earth's atmosphere. Severe weather events cause billions of dollars in damages to infrastructure. Weather forecasts allow humans to prepare for severe weather events.
- Meteorologists and scientists use advanced tools to research the atmosphere. These tools include computer models, radar, and satellites.
- Comments from expert scientist: Clear articulation of the difference between climate and weather.
- The point is well made that Earth has different climate zones but within each zone, the conditions are highly variable.
Follow Up Activity
The following activity can be used as an assessment tool to gauge student understanding of climate and weather.
References
Weather or Climate? Follow up activity by Cindy Grigg Retrieved from
Remixed from the following activity