NAME Education Module Scope

NAME is compiling an Education Module for grades K-12 with the following three objectives: 1.

For students to recognize that there is a summer monsoon in the Southwest and (especially for those that live there) it is relevant to their lives because of the scarcity of water in the region.

2.

For students to realize that improved understanding of the monsoon can lead to better rainfall forecasts, hence a better ability to manage scarce water resources.

3.

Understanding the monsoon helps student to link weather and climate, and provide an explanation for weather extremes (e.g. floods, tornados, hail) that people care about.

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NAME Education Module Approach

Key Issues at the Outset: • What teaching materials are useful at different grade levels?

• How will the materials address standards? • How should the module be packaged and disseminated? What is the proper mix of printed, video, cd, and web-based materials?

• How will the materials be evaluated? How will feedback be acquired and used to modify the module?

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NAME Education Module Elements

 Teachers in the Field  Monograph  Curriculum, Unit and Lesson Plans  Teacher Workshop Opportunities 3

NAME Teachers In the Field

 NAME is sponsoring two “Teachers in the Field” Rhonda Feher is an elementary school teacher from Kayenta, Arizona. Her school is located on the Navajo Nation reservation .

Josephina Hinojos , teaches high school biology and chemistry at Centro de Estudios Tecnologicos in Sonora, Mexico.

 NAME TIF’s will travel to Tucson in mid-July and join with the North American Monsoon Experiment (NAME) researchers there. Later they will travel to the other operations center at Mazatlan, Mexico where they will fly aboard the NOAA P-3 aircraft and visit the NCAR S-Pol Radar . 4

North American Monsoon Monograph

The North American Monsoon Table of Contents

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Why Predict the Monsoon?

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What is a Monsoon?

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A Case Study

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Monsoons and Climate

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Learning from the Past

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Winds, Precipitation, and Food

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When the Winds Reverse

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How the Land and Sea Affect the Monsoon

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Global Consequences of Monsoons

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Monsoon Prediction

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How Predictions are Used: An Example

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Looking Ahead

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North American Monsoon

Curriculum, Unit and Lesson Plans

Steve Uyeda, a 9th Grade Earth Science Teacher at Sunnyside High School in Tucson, will develop lesson plans on the North American monsoon addressing questions across four science strands: Strand 1: weather and clim ate Question 1 When does the rain fall in the U.S.

and Mexico?

Question 2: When does the rain fall in the U.S.

and Mexico and how much falls?

Question 3: Why does so much rain fall in the summ er mo nsoon?

Question 4: How has this rainfall amo unt changed over time?

Strand 2: The monsoon season and society Question 1: What part of the regional economy depends on the rainfall?

Strand 3: The monsoon season and the natural land scape Question 1: What animals and plants live in mo nsoon regions?

Question 2: How is this part of the economy rela ted to precipitation trends seen in Strand 1, Question 4?

Question 2: What adaptations allow these organisms to live here?

Strand 4 Monsoon storm prediction Question 1: What weather conditions cause the monsoon season?

Question 2: What atmospheric conditions cause mo nsoon storms ?

Question 3: How do agencies alert the public about “dangerous” monsoon storms ?

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North American Monsoon

Curriculum, Unit and Lesson Plans

Initial Set: 10 lesson plans Targeting middle school range (6th-9th grade) Drafted by October 1 Future: Expand to other grade levels Targeting elementary school range (K-5th) Timing TBD 7

NAME Education Module Timeline

Phase 1: Summer 2004 • First Draft of Monograph (July) • Teacher in the Field Completed (August) Phase 2: Fall 2004 • Monograph Completed and Posted on Web (September) • Lesson Plans & Activities for Middle School Completed (October) Phase 3: Winter-Spring 2005 •Product Evaluation Phase 4: Summer 2005 • Workshop to Teach the Teachers 8