OpenSciEd Unit 6.3 · Lesson 02 · 2.A
Look for: Hail isn’t seen in the winter months
From Teacher Edition
Facilitation guidance from the lesson plan — what to notice in student thinking and how to respond while teaching.
Building towards
2.A.2 Analyze and interpret data using graphical displays (e.g., maps, charts, graphs, tables) of large data sets to identify temporal and spatial patterns in the range of weather conditions that lead to the formation of precipitation (hail).
What to look / listen for
Ideas about patterns for where hailstorms occur:
- Hail isn’t seen in the winter months.
- Hail happens later in the day.
- The temperature is relatively warm (above 50℉) on days when it hails.
- Hailstorms are relatively short.
- Hailstorms appear in “lines”.
- Humidity is relatively high when it hails.
Note
Students may often notice the general trends listed below, though they are difficult ones to find in the data due to the relatively brief nature of the hailstorm vs. where weather stations are located and how often they are sampling the weather conditions:
The humidity often goes up and the temperature often goes down and there are often changes in the wind around the time of a hailstorm.
What to do
If students struggle to identify patterns, prompt them with questions such as, What time of day do hailstorms seem to happen? What time of year? How would you characterize the duration (length of time) of hailstorms? How would you characterize the temperature during a hailstorm? How did that compare across sites? If students struggle with the variability in the data (e.g., the temperatures differ from site to site), help them look for the broader pattern using a visual representation of the class data.
Cases A and G are somewhat more complex because in one case there are two hailstorm events and in one case the time of the hailstorm is unknown. As an opportunity for differentiation, you can provide these cases to students who may benefit from the extra challenge.