Lab 8: Hot Water and Hurricanes

This file is only accessible to verified educators. If you would like access to this file, please enter your email address below. If you are new to the site, you will be asked to complete a short request form. If you have already been verified by the EarthLabs project, you will be taken directly to the file download page.

California Science Teaching Standards met by this activity

Investigation and Experimentation Standards

1. Scientific progress is made by asking meaningful questions and conducting careful investigations. As a basis for understanding this concept and addressing the content in the other four strands, students should develop their own questions and perform investigations. Students will:

g. Recognize the usefulness and limitations of models and theories as scientific representations of reality.
i. Analyze the locations, sequences, or time intervals that are characteristic of natural phenomena.

Earth Science Content Standards - Grades 9-12

4. Energy enters the Earth system primarily as solar radiation and eventually escapes as heat. As a basis for understanding this concept:

2. Students know the fate of incoming solar radiation in terms of reflection, absorption, and photosynthesis.

5. Heating of Earth's surface and atmosphere by the sun drives convection within the atmosphere and oceans, producing winds and ocean currents. As a basis for understanding this concept:

1. Students know how differential heating of Earth results in circulation patterns in the atmosphere and oceans that globally distribute the heat.

Applicable Massachusetts Science and Technology Standards (PDF - 1.3 Mb)

Earth and Space Science - Content Standards

1. Matter and Energy in the Earth System 
Central Concepts: The entire Earth system and its various cycles are driven by energy. Earth has both internal and external sources of energy. Two fundamental energy concepts included in the Earth system are gravity and electromagnetism.

1.3 Explain how the transfer of energy through radiation, conduction, and convection contributes to global atmospheric processes, such as storms, winds, and currents. 
1.6 Describe the various conditions associated with frontal boundaries and cyclonic storms (e.g., thunderstorms, winter storms [nor'easters], hurricanes, tornadoes) and their impact on human affairs, including storm preparations.

Earth and Space Science - Scientific Inquiry Skills Standards

SIS3. Analyze and interpret results of scientific investigations.

• Represent data and relationships between and among variables in charts and graphs.
• Use mathematical operations to analyze and interpret data results.

Earth and Space Science - Mathematical Skills

• Solve simple algebraic expressions.
• Convert within a unit (e.g., centimeters to meters).
• Use scientific notation, where appropriate.
• Use appropriate metric/standard international (SI) units of measurement for mass (kg); length (m); time (s); force (N); speed (m/s); acceleration (m/s2); and frequency (Hz).
• Use the Celsius and Kelvin scales.

Applicable New York Core Curricula

STANDARD 4 - Students will understand and apply scientific concepts, principles, and theories pertaining to the physical setting and living environment and recognize the historical development of ideas in science. 
Key Idea 2: Many of the phenomena that we observe on Earth involve interactions among components of air, water, and land.

2.1b The transfer of heat energy within the atmosphere, the hydrosphere, and Earth's interior results in the formation of regions of different densities. These density differences result in motion. 
2.1d Weather variables are measured using instruments such as thermometers, barometers, psychrometers, precipitation gauges, anemometers, and wind vanes. 
2.1f Air temperature, dewpoint, cloud formation, and precipitation are affected by the expansion and contraction of air due to vertical atmospheric movement. 
2.2 Explain how incoming solar radiation, ocean currents, and land masses affect weather and climate.

2.2b The transfer of heat energy within the atmosphere, the hydrosphere, and Earth's surface occurs as the result of radiation, convection, and conduction.

COMPETENCY GOAL 1: The learner will develop abilities necessary to do and understand scientific inquiry in the earth and environmental sciences.

1.02 Design and conduct scientific investigations to answer questions related to earth and environmental science.

• Analyze and interpret data.

COMPETENCY GOAL 4: The learner will build an understanding of the hydrosphere and its interactions and influences on the lithosphere, the atmosphere, and environmental quality.

4.02 Analyze mechanisms for generating ocean currents and upwelling:

Temperature

Applicable Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills (TEKS)

112.42. Integrated Physics and Chemistry.

(c) Knowledge and skills: 
(6) Science concepts. The student knows the impact of energy transformations in everyday life. The student is expected to:

(H) analyze the effects of heating and cooling processes in systems such as weather, living, and mechanical.

112.49. Geology, Meteorology, and Oceanography.

(c) Knowledge and skills: 
(2) Scientific processes. The student uses scientific methods during field and laboratory investigations. The student is expected to:

(C) organize, analyze, evaluate, make inferences, and predict trends from data;

(c) Knowledge and skills: 
(13) Science concepts. The student knows the role of energy in governing weather and climate. The student is expected to:

(A) describe the transfer of heat energy at the boundaries between the atmosphere, land masses, and oceans resulting in layers of different temperatures and densities in both the ocean and atmosphere;

Applicable National Science Education Standards (SRI)

Science as Inquiry (12ASI)

Abilities necessary to do scientific inquiry

12ASI1.2 Design and conduct scientific investigations. Designing and conducting a scientific investigation requires introduction to the major concepts in the area being investigated, proper equipment, safety precautions, assistance with methodological problems, recommendations for use of technologies, clarification of ideas that guide the inquiry, and scientific knowledge obtained from sources other than the actual investigation. The investigation may also require student clarification of the question, method, controls, and variables; student organization and display of data; student revision of methods and explanations; and a public presentation of the results with a critical response from peers. Regardless of the scientific investigation performed, students must use evidence, apply logic, and construct an argument for their proposed explanations.

12ASI1.3 Use technology and mathematics to improve investigations and communications. A variety of technologies, such as hand tools, measuring instruments, and calculators, should be an integral component of scientific investigations. The use of computers for the collection, analysis, and display of data is also a part of this standard. Mathematics plays an essential role in all aspects of an inquiry. For example, measurement is used for posing questions, formulas are used for developing explanations, and charts and graphs are used for communicating results.

Earth and Space Science (12DESS)

Energy in the earth system

12DESS1.3 Heating of earth's surface and atmosphere by the sun drives convection within the atmosphere and oceans, producing winds and ocean currents.