unit 2

UNIT 2

Weeks 4, 5, 6. The Atmosphere. Assignment 1: Network Montana ESS activities due by end of unit. Assignment 2: begin discussion questions at beginning of unit. Assignment 3: Unit 2 extension due at end of week 6, Midnight Sunday, October 24, 1999.

You will have three weeks to complete this unit. Your first assignment is to evaluate the Global Circulation Activity at the Network Montana Web Site and one other atmosphere activity of your choice. The reason for asking that you look over the Global Circulation activity is because it has lots of basic information that will help you understand global weather dynamics.

http://www.math.montana.edu/~nmp/materials/ess/atmosphere/expert/activities/circulation/index.html

You do not need to turn in formal answers to these activities, only a written summary posted to the class discussion area at MSULink. In this summary, evaluate the activity: was it interactive, informative, doable, and fun? Do you have any suggestions for improvement?

Your second assignment is to log on to the appropriate folder at MSULink at the beginning the second week, and start the discussion of the questions posted there:

1) Discuss why the atmosphere can be considered as a system in its own right, and comprised of a system of systems.

2) Discuss the importance of the constancy of changing weather patterns. Please note that this question is deceptively simple sounding, and that the emphasis should be placed on "constancy" and "patterns." Even though weather events taken individually are unpredictable, the patterns are not!

By the start of the fifth week, you should have some ideas about how you would write an extension activity that would help your students use the internet to investigate some aspect of the atmosphere system: storms, weather, climate, and so on. Your third assignment is to write up this extension activity (see "How to Build and Extension" in the course supplement) and submit it by the end of unit two; turn in as an .htm (or html) document if you can, as a word processing document if you don't yet do html. I will work with you if you would like to explore the possibilities of using html.

"The Weather Book" will provide lots of background material for this unit, especially chapter #2, "How the Sun Causes Weather," chapter #3, "Why the Wind Blows," and chapter #4, Storms and Fronts."

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