- Tornadoes: Lesson Plan
This on-line lesson explores the basics of tornadoes. This lesson:
- Shows how tornadoes form.
- Talks about tornado energy forms and sources.
- Discusses new ways to predict tornadoes.
- Discusses tornado safety, including ways to build stronger houses.
- Challenges students to use real-time data to predict today's tornadoes. Students can then check back the next day to see how accurate their forecast turned out to be.
- Offers an on-line quiz that is automatically graded. The computer can automatically send you the results if the student enters your e-mail address. Students can also print out the results and submit this to you.
- Grade Levels: 6 to 12
Prerequisites: None
Time Needed to Complete: 60 to 90 minutes.
- Special Thanks: We thank the staff the the University
of Wisconsin's National Institute for Science Education, which allowed
us to adapt this lesson for you. Check out the Why
Files for other great activities from the NISE.
- Lesson Objectives:
- Learn the basics of tornadoes
- Explore forms of energy
- Discover why some homes are stronger than others
- Use decision-making and analysis skills to predict where tornadoes are most likely.
- Learn computer skills while exploring the lesson and taking an on-line test.
Lesson Outline:
- Lesson Index/Start
- The Most Ferocious Storm: Lesson Introduction
- Making a Twister: Basics of Tornado Formation
- Tornado Breeding Ground: Tornado Frequency
- Winds Too Quick to Meter: Wind Speeds/Tornado Names
- The Nuts and Bolts of a Tornado: Step by Step
- Activity: Will Tornadoes Hit Today? You predict today's tornadoes.
- Spinning Like a Dynamo: Tornado Energy
- New Problems in Tornado Prediction: New Research.
- Lightning aloft: A New Way to See Tornadoes?
- Protecting yourself: Tornado Safety Basics
- Protecting your home: Stronger Homes, but How Safe?
- Mobile Homes: Tornado Targets?
- Quiz: On-line Quiz. (Results can be automatically e-mailed to you or students can print them out.)
- On-line vs. Off-line Lesson Use
- We try to make our lessons as flexible as possible. Most
of this lesson could be done off-line, if you choose to print out the text
portions of the activity. You could duplicate these items and use them
in your class. (Permission is granted for teachers to copy and redistribute
these pages for use in their individual classes.)
The on-line forecast activity, however, needs to be done on-line. Students will be trying to predict where storms will hit today, so they must call up the latest information. The next day, students will need to check back to see if they were right or wrong. This section can be skipped if you have no way to let students work on-line.
The on-line quiz can be printed out and done off-line....but, of course, you will lose the computer's scoring ability.
- Grading Suggestions:
- Research/Analysis Activity: Predict today's tornadoes.
- Have students write a short essay explaining where they think severe storms and tornadoes are likely to hit today.
- You might choose to have them write this in the style of a Hazardous Weather Update, taking the role of a severe storms forecaster.
- Have the students do a follow-up the next day. Assign them to review whether or not their "forecast" was correct. Have them speculate as to why it was or was not.
- Quiz
- Have students take the on-line quiz at the end of the lesson. Give students your e-mail address to enter and the results will be automatically sent to your e-mail box. If you don't have e-mail, have the students print out the results and turn them in to you.
- If you would rather, your can print out the test and have the students do the quiz in class.
- Here is the answer key to the quiz. (You will need your teachers' password/user name to access this answer key.)
Feedback:
Please send your suggestions on this lesson to shall@kgan.com.
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