Event-Based
Science is a new way to teach middle
school science. It is an award-winning,
standards-based program in which
newsworthy events establish the relevance
of science topics; authentic tasks create
the need-to-know more about those topics;
and lively interviews, photographs, Web
pages, and inquiry-based science
activities create a desire to know more
about those topics.
Hurricane!
is an Event-Based Science module about one
of the most devastating weather events
that people can experience. Our story
focuses on the devastation that
Hurricane Andrew brought to South
Florida in August, 1992. This storm
destroyed 25,524 homes, damaged 101,241
more, left 250,000 people homeless and 54
dead.
The
task in Hurricane! turns your class
into teams of experts. Each team will
publish a newspaper account of a real
hurricane that is approaching one of 11
American cities that have been chosen as
the teams' home cities. Each home
city has a history that includes hurricane
strikes and damage.
Each team of 6 students has
its own Editor-In-Chief, Hurricane Specialist,
Meteorologist, Natural Hazards Planner, Reporter,
and Environmental Scientist. As this team receives
daily information on the hurricane bearing down on
its coastal city, decisions must be made. Action
must be taken! The public must be
informed!
A "pdf" file containing web
sites, books, material lists, and correlations with
National Science Education Standards.
Use the
BACK button in your browser to return to
this page.
If you are a
teacher who is about to do the Science Activity
called Hurricane Tracking, we have
created a tool called Update Tracking Data.
It is an MSWord file that presents tracking
data for Day 8 through Day 13.
Download the file and print out the three
pages. Then cut out and glue the appropriate
weather maps from Hurricane! Teacher Guide
page 43 onto Update Tracking Data. Two maps
will fit on each page. Make transparencies from
these pages and use the transparencies to present
additional tracking data as your students complete
the activity.
During hurricane season---June 1
through November 30---you can use the Event-Based Science Hurricane!
page as your starting point for tracking
the latest storm. Try clicking on on the word
"tracking"
to see what's happening now. You can also use the map below
to get almost real-time wind and wave-height measurements
from a data buoy near any active hurricane. This year's Hurricane began
on May 9, when Andrea reached Tropical Storm status.
HELPING HURRICANE VICTIMS
One
way to engage your students in
the topic of hurricanes is to have them
support families who were directly
affected by a recent hurricane. Begin your search for
ways to help with these two organizations:
2007 Atlantic Hurricane Names
Underlined
names below are linked to the tracking map for that storm.
Names in red
are active at the present time. Bold name became
hurricanes. Italics names indicate that
the storm was a tropical storm that never reached hurricane
strength. A number in parentheses is the maximum hurricane
category reached by that storm.
A wording problem has been
found in the "Cloud Formation" Discovery File on
page 5: "These tiny droplets condense onto solid
particles ...", although correct could be misread
as the already formed droplets collecting around
particles rather than the original condensation of
the droplets occurring onto the particles.
Similarly with "additional water droplets attach
themselves to the surrounding
particles".
Another problem was found in
the figure on page 36. The cross-section shown for
the stationary front is actually a cross-section of
an occluded front which is one in which a cold
front has caught up with a warm front thus lifting
all the warm air off the ground as shown in the
figure. A stationary front is one that still has
warm air at the ground on one side and cold air on
the other side (as suggested by the map symbol) and
thus could turn into a warm front or a cold front
if it starts moving.
Thanks to Dr. Steven
Carson (Geophysical Fluid Dynamics Laboratory
(GFDL) of NOAA) for catching these errors and
providing the correct
information.
Building
and Testing A Hurricane Resistant
Building
Roger Johnson (science
teacher, Maplewood Middle School, Maplewood, NJ)
has designed a great new activity to go with
Hurricane! Click here to read about his activity: Hurricane-Resistant
Building Design
Seeing
Into the Heart of a Hurricane
Despite the forecasts that
Hurricane Opal would hit their town in a little
more than 24 hours, the residents of Pensacola,
Florida, remained relatively calm on October 3,
1995. They pulled their boats out of the water,
boarded up the beachfront businesses and went about
their daily routines, fearing no more than perhaps
a few fallen trees and a missed day of work. At
that time, the National Hurricane Center predicted
that Opal would remain a Category 1 storm, packing
peak winds of around 90 miles per hour---a
veritable creampuff as far as hurricanes
go.
Then overnight, as the
hurricane moved across the Gulf of Mexico towards
the city, something happened that no one predicted.
The hurricane gathered energy from some then unseen
reserves, jumped up in intensity to a strong
Category 4 storm with peak winds of 150 mph, and
threatened to turn Pensacola into a deluge of
seawater and rain. The whole region went into a
frenzy. The residents gathered what they could,
evacuated their homes, and lined up bumper to
bumper on Interstate 110 in an effort to
flee.
As with all Event-Based
Science modules, much of the information you need
is provided in Hurricane!. To help you
further, the section below contains a list of
World-Wide Web sites where additional information
about hurricanes is available. Point to and click
on the highlighted words to be linked with stormy
web pages.
Links To
Hurricane! Related Web
Sites
(Links are checked monthly. They were working
on the date of the last update.)
National
Hurricane CenterGo
to this site for the latest official information on active
hurricanes and tropical storms.
UNISYS
Weather - Hurricane
points you to a lot of facts about hurricanes
including tracking information for this
hurricane season. It is complete with pictures
and histories of hurricanes including
Gilbert, Hugo, Mitch, and Andrew.
You'll also get information on hurricane
names and force
data.
USA
Radar
This site contains the current
weather-radar map of the United
States.
Hurricane
Andrew Sequence - NASA
NODS
Climate Visualization
This is a great site that allows students to
graph and download data from the World's Weather
Data Archive. As you work to complete the
Hurricane! task, you might want to plot
real weather data from your city. This site will
give you graphs of different weather
measurements for the year and month the
hurricane actually hit--a great addition to your
newspaper.
Damage Caused by
Hurricane Isabel, 2003
Courtesy US Fish and
Wildlife Service
U.S.
Census
BureauMaps and population information that will
help you to better understand the community
your newspaper is covering.