Sphere Demo
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- Tropical Cyclones Concepts
- P: Great. Data is just information. Let’s think about what information we need to figure out how hurricanes form. What’s in a hurricane—what are its ingredients
- P: I heard someone say wind. Does anyone know what causes wind Shout it out.
- G: Rise!
- Sea Surface Temperatures
- Communicate Information and Conclusion
- Appendix Resources
- Next Generation Science Standards
HurricanesSphere Demo© Created as part of the Exploring Earth Systems Science grant; This project was made possible in part by the Institute of Museum and Library Services grant number MA-10-13-0107-13. Please direct questions to: SIP@pacsci.org Terms of use: These materials are for non-commercial use only, and cannot be sold. These materials are for your organization’s internal use only. Additional requests should be made before sharing beyond your organization. If these materials or a portion of these materials are copied as is, please credit as follows: “Hurricanes demonstration created by Pacific Science Center, Exploring Earth Systems Science grant. This project was made possible in part by the Institute of Museum and Library Services grant number MA-10-13-0107-13”. If new activities are created that are based on this original activity, please credit as follows: "Activity modified from the Hurricanes demonstration created by Pacific Science Center, Exploring Earth Systems Science grant. This project was made possible in part by the Institute of Museum and Library Services grant number MA-10-13-0107-13”. DescriptionHurricanes is a live, 20 minute demo best for grades 6-8, featuring Science on a Sphere, a dynamic interactive data modeling tool. In this show, students will use standard science practices such as planning an investigation and analyzing data to explore tropical cyclones. Using hands-on props and interaction with a live science interpreter, they will learn what tropical cyclones are called and where and why they occur as well as discuss hurricane preparedness. After the show they can ask questions and explore an emergency kit. Props and MaterialsPermanentiPad 
Laser pointer Science Toolbox Signs for Science Toolbox Ask A Question Make an Observation Investigate Analyze Data Communicate Information Metal sign holders Easel Whiteboard Laser pointer Books Map Giant yellow key 
Legend for key Yardstick Laminated white circle Round magnet Red Cross emergency kit Consumable
PackingiPad: Put away in the cabinet in the office, making sure it is locked. Laser pointer: Put away in the Sphere cabinet. Science toolbox, toolbox signs, books: Store in the demo cart in the cart closet. Metal sign holders: Store in labeled drawer in cart closet. Easel and whiteboard: Store against the wall in the cart closet by the demo cart. Giant key, yardstick, laminated white circle: Store with general demo items in the cart closet. Red Cross emergency kit: Put this on the metal shelf to the left when you walk in the cart closet. KeyG: Guest P: Presenter Bold italics indicate action. Italics indicate a note to the presenter. indicates a cue Data-setsDemo Starting Soon Blue Marble NOAA Vocab: Hurricane, Cyclones, Typhoons Tropical Storm Image Hurricane Tracks: Cumulative 1950-2005 Ocean Surface Winds Vocab: Coriolis Effect Clouds Real time (2nd file dataset with label overlays) Hurricane Tracks: Cumulative 1950-2005 Sea Surface Temperatures Hurricane Sandy: Linear IR Oct 2012 Hurricane Tracks: Cumulative 1950-2005 Clouds Real-time (slice of CRT Oct 1st through Nov 5th with captures Joaquim, Patricia and Chapala) Blue Marble NOAA Tropical CyclonesConceptsTropical cyclones are called hurricanes, typhoons, or cyclones depending upon their locations. By making observations and analyzing data, scientists can draw conclusions about where, when, and why tropical cyclones occur. Heat is the driving force of a tropical storm and the rotation of the Earth helps it build. People can prepare for tropical cyclones by having emergency kits available and communicating awareness of where these disasters occur. Learning ObjectivesVisitors will look at a map of where tropical cyclones occur and identify the names of different storms in different locations. By comparing real data of tropical cyclones, wind direction, and sea surface temperatures, visitors will make connections between location, rotation, and heat to draw conclusions about where, when and why tropical cyclones occur. Visitors will manipulate a two dimensional model of the Earth to understand how the Earth’s rotation affects winds. By exploring a emergency kit, visitors will be able to communicate about tropical cyclone preparedness. Set-upOpen the Sphere cabinet, turn off daily demo, and call up the show announcement playlist. Push the benches so that there are several rows facing the Sphere. Roll the demo cart to the sphere and set it up on one side. Set up the easel with the whiteboard on it on the other side. Set up the metal sign holders along the railing of the sphere. Make sure the correct cards for the Science Toolbox are in the Science Toolbox, and put the toolbox in the cart. Make sure you have the correct legend for the big yellow key, and put the key in the cart for future use. Store the paper map, books, white laminated circle, magnets, yardstick, and marker in the cart so they are easily accessible. Have the iPad and laser pointer ready. ScriptPre-ShowCue next dataset, which will be a blank/black sphere. This will let you keep the attention of your audience for the intro portion of the show. IntroP: Hi! My name is ______________. Can everyone say, “Hi, ______________?” G: Hi, _______________. Science on a Sphere Cue NOAA logo. P: This is called “Science on a Sphere” and it was given by NOAA, which is the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. We all use it to teach about storms, geology, astronomy and all sorts of stuff. It’s a great teaching tool. Can we get a big round of applause for NOAA? G: Clap clap clap P: Why do you think NOAA made this Science on A Sphere a big sphere? Why not Science on a Cube? Why is a big sphere a good model for the earth? Take ideas until you get to the conclusion that the earth is a sphere. What kinds of things can we see on the sphere? Cue real-time blue marble dataset. G: Clouds! Oceans! Continents! P: What kinds of things can’t we see on this model? G: Buildings! People! P: This model is good for showing big, global things and not as good at showing small details. Today we are going to look at some information gathered by scientists! For example, this information we are looking at shows us what the land and oceans look like, as well as how the clouds move. How can we tell when this information was collected? G: There is a date on the bottom! P: Yeah! The sphere allows us to look at real time data collected by scientists, as well as look at data from the past to try to analyze and learn from it. Since we’re talking about tropical cyclones, which are huge storms, is there anything you can see on this globe right now that might be connected to storms? G: Clouds! P: Fantastic! These are satellite images of the clouds. Scientists use clouds and their movements all of the time to analyze the weather, which can help them to see tropical cyclones. Maybe this will help us with the first step of our investigation—what is a tropical cyclone? P: Today we’re here to talk about tropical cyclones. Who has heard of a tropical cyclone? Let’s get a show of hands. Alright, I have another question. Who has heard of a hurricane? Let’s get another show of hands. Looks like most of you have heard of one or the other. There actually three names for tropical cyclones: hurricane, cyclone and typhoon. What’s the difference? Cue Tropical Storm Image. So, as we see here, the difference is only where they occur. If it’s moving along the coasts of North or South America it’s a hurricane; even on the Pacific side. If it occurs in the Indian Ocean, it’s a cyclone. A typhoon is what occurs if the storm hits in the northwestern Pacific. Got it? (Using laser pointer) If it hits Florida, what is it? G: Hurricane P: Right. If it hits on the west coast of Mexico, what is it? G: Still a hurricane. P: Right on. If it hits Japan? G: Typhoon P: Correctumundo. And if it hits India? G: Cyclone P: You got it. Good job. Now, how many of you have ever been in a typhoon, cyclone, or hurricane? (If someone raises their hand, ask this question to an individual. If no one has raised their hand, mention that we’ve all seen tropical cyclones on the news.) What happens during these kinds of storms? G: Rain. Wind. Destruction. Death. P: Pretty much. Tropical cyclones can destroy houses and buildings. Roads can be blocked by flooding or fallen trees. Your electricity can be knocked out for days, or even weeks, at a time. This is not your typical storm. If you’ve been in or heard about a tropical storm or hurricane, where did it occur? G: New Orleans, New York, the Philippines, Japan. P: Hm. No one said Seattle. Do you think we need to worry about tropical cyclones happening here? G: Yes! No! Maybe! Science ToolboxP: This is a tough question. Whenever I have a question about something, I use my Science Toolbox! I carry it with me everywhere, even during a tropical cyclone! Take out toolbox and pretend to dig through it. The tools in here help me figure out what to do step by step. Let’s try this one. What does it say? Put up ‘Ask a Question’ tag. G: Ask a question! P: Look at that, we’ve already done that. What is our question in today’s investigation? G: Will a tropical cyclone happen in Seattle? P: Yes, perfect. For the next little bit, we are going to be doing some investigating to learn about where tropical cyclones happen. I already see another tool from our toolbox that we can bring out. Put up ‘Make an Observation’ tag. What does the Toolbox tell us to do? G: Make an observation! P: Great! Let’s look at tropical cyclones. We can observe where they occur to answer our question. Cue Accumulative Hurricane Tracks 1950 - 2005 P: These lines you see are all paths of hurricanes. We can see tropical cyclones forming here in the Atlantic. They sweep up along the east coast of the United States, or over through the Gulf of Mexico into the southern states, Mexico, and Central America. So what do you observe when you look at the east coast of the U.S. compared to the west coast? G: There aren’t cyclones. P: Right. We can also see tropical cyclones forming on the other side of Mexico, but they don’t hit the west coast of the USA very often. Maybe we’ve answered our question. What do you think—will a tropical cyclone hit Seattle? G: No! P: Cool! We could stop there and that would be fine, but scientists like to be thorough. Just because you observe that something rarely happens doesn’t mean it will never happen. Let’s figure out what a scientist would do next. What does this say? Put up ‘Investigate’ tag. G: Investigate! P: I love investigating! We know a tropical cyclone won’t happen in Seattle, because we looked at data about where they occur. But now we need to figure out why tropical cyclones occur where they do. Let’s go to our Toolbox to figure out how to tackle this investigation. Put up or allow guest to ‘Analyze data’ tag. What does the Toolbox tell us to do? G: Analyze data! Wind PatternsP: Great. Data is just information. Let’s think about what information we need to figure out how hurricanes form. What’s in a hurricane—what are its ingredients?G: Rain. The rage of Poseidon. Wind! Water! Earth! Fire! Captain Planet!P: I heard someone say wind. Does anyone know what causes wind? Shout it out.G: Rotation. The Earth is spinning. Gas doesn’t stay in one spot. We don’t know!P: (If someone says rotation, that’s correct. Acknowledge that it’s a great answer, but wait for the other correct answer, which is temperature, if the audience is forthcoming). Wind is made of air. Air can have different qualities that causes it to move. Have you ever heard what warm air does?G: Rise!P: Exactly. Temperature can cause air to move, creating wind. Okay, since warm air rises, where on Earth would you expect air to be warm? G: The middle! The Equator!P: The middle, the Equator. Warm air rises at the equator. Cool air from farther north moves south to replace it. This creates a movement that circulates air all the way up and down the globe. But if that’s what makes wind, wind should move in straight lines. Let’s take a look at the direction of the wind.Ocean surface vector winds Immediately pause data-set P: Wow! Is this what wind looks like when you go outside? G: No. P: You’re right. All these colors and symbols must mean something! I’m going to need a key to figure this out. Hmm. Oh, I think I have one. Get the key. Here we go! You all appear unamused. But I’m hilarious! C’mon, you know it’s funny! You—yeah you! I see you laughing! Okay, you’re right. We don’t need this kind of key. Turn the key over. We need this kind of key. I need another volunteer. What’s your name? G: Pansy Parkinson. P: Alright, Pansy. Can you tell me what green on the Sphere means? G: Slow moving air. P: And blue? G: Faster air. P: So color is the speed of the air. What do the arrows mean? G: Direction of the wind. P: Direction of the wind. Thank you! Everyone, please give Pansy a round of applause! G: Clap clap clap P: So, here on the Sphere we are looking at both wind speed and wind direction. We were trying to find out whether hurricanes would come to Seattle, right? Let’s ignore the wind speed for a moment, and just look at the wind. Step through the movie frame by frame P: Is the moving in straight lines? G: No. P: It’s going all over the place! The wind above the Equator curves to the north, then keeps on curving right back down to the south. The wind below the Equator curves to the south, then keeps on curving left back up to the north. The wind curves in this way because the Earth is rotating. This is called the Coriolis Effect. Vocab: Coriolis Effect P: To show you how the Coriolis Effect works, I’m going to need a volunteer. What’s your name? G: Blaise Zabini. Give them the yardstick, then direct them to hold it while you draw a vertical line along the center of the wheel. Tell them good job, then have them do it again while you’re drawing the line and spinning the wheel. P: Blaise, did you move that ruler? G: No, I swear I didn’t! (Blaise is used to Snape.) P: Wow, my line must have curved because I was rotating the paper, just like the Earth is rotating! Give Blaise a round of applause for helping me demonstrate the Coriolis Effect! G: Clap clap clap. Can we have points for Slytherin? P: Okay. So wind curves. Let’s take a look at a simple diagram to see how it curves. Wind direction overlay P: By looking at the patterns of the wind, we can see why hurricanes would be carried away from us on the west coast, but toward us on the east coast . . . sort of. This doesn’t explain everything. Let’s look back at tropical cyclones over time to explain the rest. Sea Surface TemperaturesAccumulative Hurricane Tracks 1950 - 2005 P: We noticed that hurricanes tend to curve away from the west coast of America. Where do most of them occur? (Collect some answers.) For instance, do any occur near the north or south poles? G: No. P: Right. Tropical storms seem to mainly occur in the middle of the globe. Now, we already talked about this region a bit. Does anyone remember what we said air was like at the Equator? G: Hot! P: Exactly. It’s warm at the Equator because this area gets the most sun. That makes the air hot—what about the water? Let’s take a look. Sea Surface temperatures P: This data is showing us the temperature of the sea. We’re just looking at the ocean, so the continents are black. Red is the hottest temperature, blue the coolest. Where do you see a lot of red? G: In the middle. P: Right. The sun heats the ocean as well as the air. Where do most of the tropical cyclones originate?
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