Lesson 4: Clouds and Raindrops

Scientist You Should Know

Dr. Marshall Shepherd is an Atmospheric Scientist who studies how cities impact weather and climate, among many other topics in atmospheric science.

http://www.drmarshallshepherd.com/

Introduction to the topic

Experiencing the Science

Please, for the love of all that is holy, please: Lay on the ground and look up at the clouds during weather learning. Do it on all kinds of days. Make observations. This is where I suggest a weather journal. Every nature journal can start out with a sky observation. I have never met a human being who regrets laying on the ground looking up at the clouds if they have what they need to get down onto the ground, lay there comfortably, and get back up again with dignity.

Cloud-in-a-bottle demonstration.

I’ve seen this done a few different ways. The idea is to convince ourselves that clouds are made of droplets. The first two also give you the “condensation nuclei” idea, which is great.

https://kids.nationalgeographic.com/science/article/make-clouds-in-a-bottle

Responding/Processing/Manipulating

Multisensory

Water tables, water droppers, spray bottles for spraying onto surfaces: tables, windows, etc. Clouds are made of water droplets. Rain is falling water droplets. Experience water droplets. Play around with water droplets. Push them together, break them apart. Put them on your arm…

If you use cotton balls to make clouds, focus on what it feels like to make a cotton ball into the shapes of all types of clouds. I wonder if the wind in the sky is making those shapes. It is, right? So what’s the wind doing? Our fingers are the air.

Creative

We haven’t talked about poetry yet in this unit, and I love doing science poetry. When I was in grad school I did my decompression by swimming laps, but also I found lap swimming boring. So I composed limericks about my research while I was swimming. I would emerge from a 30 minute swim with one fully composed limerick and one that I’d gotten started. Scientists loved these. I would include them as openers or closers when I presented my data, and the little whimsical brain break of it was useful for everyone involved. Learners who are new to language can do some rhyming couplets. They can also listen to recitations of poems by more verbal learners. Learners who have lots of vocabulary and experience with language can write sonnets or songs. They can use big new words they enjoy like “condensation nuclei” or they can talk about how it feels to be a falling raindrop worrying about the transition from sky to ground.

Please do consider making the different cloud types out of cotton balls. The new words can be fun to say.

Verbal

Make a news report or a public service announcement for social media. What does the world need to know about clouds and raindrops? Why is that the most important thing to make the audience aware of? If you have separate learners or groups of learners with different opinions, try a debate. I love the fun debate style on Smash, Boom, Best.

https://www.smashboom.org/episode/2023/02/09/scuba-diving-vs-skydiving

https://www.smashboom.org/episode/2020/10/14/flowers-vs-rainbows

Analytical responses for lab notebook-keepers and lab report-writers

Let’s think about ways to manipulate and measure stuff. Raindrop size is a good thing to measure. That’s something we know how to do. What can we change? Maybe temperature or time it takes to “rain” (in our simulation bottle)? How long the “cloud” stays around is a reasonable thing we can measure. What else?

Obviously, scaffolding is important here. The very first experiment a learner designs/lab report any learner ever writes should have some sort of hand-holding. I will provide a pdf of my tiered lab report formats. Drawing the system, listing the variables, and writing down the data are the sort of elemental starting pieces. In the beginning, maybe label the variables on the drawing itself.

Here are two format options I can suggest for reporting experiments :

The one the ib students need to learn

I scored labs (Internal Assessments) as an IB examiner and as a teacher and I got super used to this format. It has some distinct advantages in terms of learning/developing the practice of science. For one thing, we get to practice some excellent vocabulary like variables (controlled, independent/tested, dependent/measured) and error.

1. Draw a picture of the system- practicing the idea of a “system” and describing a model is a great idea. Some stuff in the world impacts our experiment, some stuff doesn’t. Let’s use this opportunity to identify what all is participating in our experiment. It’s kind of like making a visual materials and methods section.
2. List all the variables you can think of. Everything about the system that could change. Now, I like to have them indicate the thing they are going to change on purpose in order to test it (the independent/test variable) on the list. Put a box around it. Circle the one you’re going to measure to see if it changes in response to the thing you changed on purpose (the dependent variable). All the others are “controlled” if possible.
3. IB learners have to describe how they controlled/measured the controlled variables. If you kept the aquarium the same size every time by always using the same aquarium, measure it. You’re done. Easy. But not trivial. Changing the size of the test system would change the results of the
4. Raw data. Columns and rows need to be labeled with units. QUALITATIVE DATA NEED TO BE INCLUDED. WRITE DOWN WHAT YOU PERCEIVE WITH ALL YOUR SENSES.
5. Data analysis. IB Diploma students have to process data using some sort of math. The math has to be included in the lab report. It can be statistical analysis and/or it can test an equation that is part of the curriculum (Like F=ma). In Biology, it was incredibly important to statistically combine (i.e., average) data and then graph the analyzed data with the independent variable on the x-axis and the dependent variable on the y-axis. So so important.
6. Results. Make some neutral observations about the data. Save the judgements for the conclusions.
7. Sources of error are a big deal for IB science. Or, at least they were last time I taught it. Students should look at all those “controlled” variables for one thing. Were they controlled? Did it matter? Did they change? What about assumptions that were made in building the system?
8. Conclusions need to point back to the hypothesis. It’s a CER task to support or reject the hypothesis.

The classic

(largely because it looks like a journal article)

1. Introduction- This should be a well-cited research piece that builds toward a research question and a hypothesis. Alternatively, you can make the hypothesis a thesis sentence and work backward. It’s really its own (heavily verbal) piece of response. I usually use it as a separate grade/assignment/lesson….
2. Materials and methods- Classically Science Fairs and classrooms have call this the “procedures” section.
3. Data- Tables and graphs. Raw data are just the first part. Some sort of data processing is suggested. This can include mathematical processing (averages, slopes, ranges, etc.) but can also include maps, color coding, and other visual communication of the learner’s reflection on the data.
4. Results-Just describe the data analysis part. What were the high values? What were the low values?
5. Conclusions- Is your hypothesis supported or rejected (equally valuable analyses)? Why? Would you need to do anything differently to make it address the question better? What do you want to do next to follow up on these data?