Week 13: Air
Weeks 13, 14, and 15 make up a three-week cycle about air (Atmosphere). Currently, you are in Week A: Teacher As Researcher.

This week, try an activity with your students and analyze what happens. Use the resources listed under Readings, discuss your observations with your teammates, then submit your individual analysis to your Portfolio. Discuss what makes an effective activity with your team and submit a set of criteria to your Portfolio for a grade.

Assignments

Submit your individual observations, reflections and criteria to your Portfolio in the Classroom for a grade.

 

Team: (by midnight Sunday) Review the Team Goal and Rubric for your team's work this week. Revisit and revise your criteria for effective concept-building activities and the learning and teaching strategies that make them work with your teammates in the Teacher as Researcher in the Classroom.

Submit your team criteria with rationale and reflection on the team process to your Portfolio in the Classroom for a grade.

Essential Questions about Air
What do you know about air? What are your key questions? As you do the activities with your students, notice how they address questions like these:

• How do you study air?
• How does air change?
• What causes air to change?
• How does water exist in air?
• How does air help living things?
• How do you know about weather?

Readings

1. Young children can begin to understand the atmosphere through analogies. The Earth's atmosphere could be described as the "lungs" of the living Earth. All living organisms require and exchange atmospheric gasses to sustain life. A large part of the basic food for life on Earth (CO₂ for photosynthesis) is obtained from the atmosphere and the waste product is O₂ that supports combustion (respiration) that provides the energy of life. Thus, the living organisms of Earth actually help create the composition of the atmosphere. In turn, the atmosphere helps to regulate the Earth's temperature so that it is appropriate for life.

2. Young children are aware of the weather. They wear different clothes and do different activities. They can begin to understand the connection between the atmosphere and the hydrosphere by observing and exploring evaporation and condensation. This is the beginning of understanding how the atmosphere provides an envelope of air pressure that keeps water in a liquid form. The atmosphere produces the weather, which is often very predictable as well as unpredictable. This water cycle is a requirement for a living Earth.

3. To understand how the atmosphere directly shapes the land through the force of wind and water, children can observe streambeds or wind worn rocks, and explore the same phenomena in sand table experiments.

4. Understanding the atmosphere presents a major challenge for K-4 students. At this age level the ability to develop an understanding of something which cannot be seen is very difficult. But air moves things - rustling leaves in trees, the puff that blows out birthday candles, the cold of a winter day, or the warmth of a fire or evaporating liquid in a bowl in the classroom. Early explorations of the presence and possibilities of air through observation, stories and discussion lay the groundwork for understanding gases.

Web Sites

• The Atmosphere Images and definitions of Atmosphere, Biosphere, Geosphere, Hydrosphere and Anthrosphere.
• How Weather Works USA Today's weather site. Click on Weather Basics to access a glossary of terms related to weather phenomena such as air density, air masses, clouds, fog and wind.

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