The Tech Savvy Teacher

Teaching Tornadoes
By Hannah Hicks

I am very honored to have the opportunity to write this month in the Tech Savvy Teacher column. There are so many different ways to include technology into our lessons/teaching that the possibilities are nearly endless. Since there are so many different ways to include technology I have decided to share with you one of my favorite lessons. This lesson uses technology to make learning about tornadoes more interesting.


Fourth Grade Science Standard 2.3


ANTICIPATORY SET: A picture of a tornado will be displayed where it can easily be seen by all the students. Give the class about one minute to observe the picture. After observation ask the students to predict and have them write what tomorrow's headline would be. Note: Any picture of a tornado can be used but this one was found at http://www.chaseday.com/tornadoes-03.htm.

INSTRUCTIONAL INPUT:
1) Discuss what the weather conditions need to be like for a tornado to form.
2) Discuss and define what a Tornado Watch and a Tornado Warning are.
3) Talk about how long a tornado lasts.
4) Discuss the wind speed of a tornado. Make sure that in this part you teach about the Fujita Scale. There are many web sites that will talk about this scale, but the one that I particularly liked was found at http://www.enchantedlearning.com/subjects/weather/tornado/fscale.shtml.

GUIDED PRACTICE: The students will have the opportunity to create their own Tornado in a bottle. Directions can be found at http://www.yesmag.ca/projects/tornado_tube.html. Note: Instead of drilling a whole in the caps you can buy vortex bottle connectors to make the project more student friendly.

INDEPENDENT PRACTICE: There are many options for the students to test their knowledge about tornadoes. I will give you two websites that will test their knowledge. The first will be a short video followed by a quiz. The other website allows the students to adjust the funnel width and the core pressure of a tornado, to then see the destruction it would cause, and then guess where it would be on the F-scale.


Tornado Movie & Quiz
http://www.kidsknowit.com/interactive-educational-movies/free-online-movies.php?movie=Tornadoes

Interactive Twister

http://whyfiles.org/013tornado/3.html

CLOSURE: Assign the students to make a bubble chart showing their knowledge of the Fujita Scale. They can either draw it by hand or create it on the computer.

In this lesson example the students had the opportunity to use technology in their learning. The movie and quiz and the interactive twister was a fun way for the students to learn using technology, they also had the opportunity to create their bubble chart on the computer. The students now have a better understanding of how tornadoes are formed and the effects that they can have on the environment.