Geology Lab
SUPPLEMENTARY MATERIALS
The Moons of Jupiter
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Program Overview
The Event-Based Science series is a program for middle school students in grades 6-9. Each module tells the story of a real event--such as the 1995 outbreak of the Ebola virus in Zaire--through reprinted newspaper articles and personal interviews; sections of background information explain relevant scientific concepts. A central task related to the module's story line leads to a final product that allows students to apply the science they have learned. For each module, a student book, teacher's guide, and videotape and/or videodisc are available.
Student Edition
Recommended grade level:
7-8.
Hurricane Andrew of 1992 is the event on which this 5-week study of meteorological topics is based. The topics addressed in Hurricane! include air pressure, humidity, wind, hurricane formation, and the hydrologic cycle. The module also introduces students to practical ways of preparing for and cleaning up after a major weather event. Students begin the module by watching television news coverage and reading newspaper accounts of the devastation caused by Hurricane Andrew. They are told that their major task during the module will be to design, in 6-member teams, a 3-page newspaper explaining the impact of a hurricane on a community. The module's 10 activities provide students with the background information and skills they need for this task.
Among the activities, for example, students track a hurricane and use various weather features--such as earth wind patterns--to predict its path. They follow the movement of weather across the United States in order to make a forecast. They determine the best location for scientific instruments designed to detect hurricanes that are forming. They also construct a bar graph showing when during the year hurricanes are most likely to occur.
The module provides short narratives on meteorological topics; copies of actual newspaper articles; explanatory graphics; and profiles of professionals who might be involved in publishing a newspaper on a hurricane--for example, an editor, a hurricane specialist, a meteorologist, a natural hazards planner, a reporter, and an environmental scientist. Middle school students who experienced Hurricane Andrew tell their stories throughout the module. Other information that students need to complete the task must be obtained from encyclopedias, textbooks, films, magazines, and other sources they can find. The unit culminates with a display of each team's newspaper. Teachers may want to supplement or exchange the activities in the unit depending on the latest "real event" in the news.
Teacher's Edition
The teacher's guide provides brief overview information on the module's structure and activities. It includes suggestions for guiding specific student activities and a scoring rubric for a performance assessment.
Key to Content Standards: 5-8 (see app. C)
UNIFYING CONCEPTS AND PROCESSES: Systems, order, and organization; evidence, models, and explanation; change, constancy, and measurement.
SCIENCE AS INQUIRY: Abilities necessary to do scientific inquiry; understandings about scientific inquiry.
PHYSICAL SCIENCE: Motions and forces; transfer of energy.
EARTH AND SPACE SCIENCE: Structure of the earth system.
SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY: Abilities of technological design; understandings about science and technology.
SCIENCE IN PERSONAL AND SOCIAL PERSPECTIVES: Natural hazards; risks and benefits; science and technology in society.
HISTORY AND NATURE OF SCIENCE: Science as a human endeavor; nature of science.
Prices:
Student edition (ISBN 0-201-49094-3), $7.95. Teacher's edition (ISBN 0-201-49416-7), with video, $18.00. Classroom package, $115.00.
Publisher/supplier:
Addison-Wesley/Longman.
Materials:
Available locally.
