The Extreme Weather MEL

The Extreme Weather MEL asks students to weigh the connections between evidence and alternative explanations about the relationship between extreme weather and climate change. Extreme weather is a critical environmental issue facing Earth and its inhabitants.

MEL Activities

There are two forms of this MEL Extreme Weather Activity....a pre-constructed (pcMEL) and a build-a-MEL (baMEL). The pcMEL limits student choices, which may be good for the first time the activity is introduced to a class or if you are working at earlier grade levels. The baMEL allows more choices, which may be good for students who have used the MEL before or are at an advanced grade level. Below the activity links are additional teaching resources that will help students learn more about fundamental scientific principles related to climate and weather.

Overview

This article provides an introduction to the Extreme Weather build-a-MEL (baMEL). It is useful even if you are using the Extreme weather pcMEL with your students. The primary difference between the pcMEL and the baMEL is that with the pcMEL students are given two models and four lines of evidence in a preconstructed diagram where as with the baMEL students choose two models from three and select four lines of evidence from eight to create their own MEL diagram.

Extreme Weather Events Article Cover
Extreme Weather Events and the Climate Crisis (Acrobat (PDF) 223kB Feb8 21)

Next Generation Science Standards Performance Expectations

MS-ESS3-2: Earth and Human Activity

  • Analyze and interpret data on natural hazards to forecast future catastrophic events and inform the development of technologies to mitigate their effects.

HS-ESS3-4: Earth and Human Activity

  • Use a model to describe how variations in the flow of energy into and out of Earth systems result in changes in climate.

Lateral Reading (LR) Resources

What does it mean for a source to be credible? Why should we investigate whether a source is credible before we read it? How do we decide whether online sources are credible? Use lateral reading to find out.

Use lateral reading to evaluate the credibility of two sources related to extreme weather.

These LR sources connect to pcMEL Evidence #2 and baMEL Evidence #5: Since 1983, the number of fires each year in the U.S. has not changed. The number of acres burned by those fires has increased. Also, since 1983, the average annual temperature in the U.S. has increased.

Use the LR Guiding Questions to evaluate the credibility of each source.

  • LR Guiding Questions (Acrobat (PDF) 28kB Jun8 23)
  • Source A: The 2015 Wildfire Season Set an Ominous Record
  • Source B: U.S Wildfires
Lateral Reading Teacher Guide


Other Resources

This Plausibility Ranking Task (PRT), which may be completed prior to using any MELs, helps students to understand the role of evidence in supporting or refuting models.

Virtual MEL

The Google Drive folder below contains MEL resource documents in the Google formats. In order to maximize the flexibility of our activities, the MEL Project Team wanted to make more resources compatible with virtual settings. We have made our MEL scaffolds available in Google formats, so that they can be copied, modified, and uploaded more easily on a variety of platforms and devices. Please note that to access all the materials for each MEL scaffold, you will need a Google account. View the README file first.

Digital Resources

Extreme Weather NCA
This site on Extreme Weather from the National Climate Assessment provides an introduction to extreme weather events, including heat waves, droughts, heavy downpours, floods, hurricanes, and other storms.

Extreme Weather

Assessing the U.S. Climate in 2024 NOAA's NCEI Billion Dollar Weather and Climate Disasters