Storm Lab: Protect the Town from a Tornado
Students make a spring storm that drops an EF2 tornado, send it across a town, and count the buildings that lost their walls or roof: 7. Then they spend game money to strengthen the town and send the very same tornado again. Hurricane straps on every house change nothing: the count stays at 7, because the houses slide off their foundations instead. Bolts alone change nothing either: the walls stand, and the roofs come off. Straps and bolts together cut it to 3: every house keeps its walls and roof. Then the money runs short, and students choose which mobile homes to tie down. By the end, students can explain the load path, why building codes ask for every link, and how damage surveys rate a tornado.
At a glance
Essential question
How can a town be built so that a tornado does less damage?
Objectives
Students will be able to:
- explain the load path: the roof is tied to the walls, and the walls to the foundation
- predict how a strengthening plan will change the damage, then test it on the same tornado and record the result
- explain why strengthening one link of the load path alone can leave the damage count unchanged
- design a plan within a budget and defend it with test results
Vocabulary
load path, hurricane straps, anchor bolts, tie-downs, safe room, Enhanced Fujita scale
Standards
MS-ESS3-2, MS-ETS1-3
Time and materials
45 minutes, grades 6-8.
- One computer or Chromebook per student or pair
- A projector
- The worksheet and exit ticket, one copy each per student
- The rubric, one copy per student if you grade the project
Prep
Make copies of the worksheet and exit ticket. Before class, open mytekdev.com/try/stormlab?lesson=protect-the-town-from-a-tornado&ref=tpt-stormlab-2 once on a student computer, press Make the storm and then Send it across the town, to check that your school's filter allows it. No account is needed.
Assessment
- Formative: the questions under What to look for, asked while students work, and the exit ticket (answer key included).
- Summative: the worksheet's test table and the student's written defense of their plan, scored with the rubric out of 12.
Technology and privacy
Runs in any browser, Chromebooks included, with nothing to install. The storm is worked out from rules, not a full simulation, and the lesson's starting project fixes the roll of the dice, so every student gets the same tornado on the same path and the same counts. Students need no account and no email: the link works signed out, and nothing they make is stored on our server unless they choose to save it to an account. If your school blocks new sites, ask IT to allow mytekdev.com.
What’s included
- A one-page overview: objectives, essential question, vocabulary, standards and assessment
- A ten-minute walkthrough to rehearse before class, and background in plain words for the teacher
- A 45-minute lesson sequence: warm-up, direct instruction, guided practice, independent practice, closure
- Slides for the board: a PowerPoint file that also opens in Google Slides
- A student worksheet with a QR code
- A 3-question exit ticket, two to a page, with an answer key
- A rubric: 3 criteria, 4 levels, scored out of 12
- Differentiation for English learners, students with IEPs or 504 plans, and students who need more support or more challenge
- Cross-curricular extensions, and notes for teaching it in grades 4-5 and 9-12
- Standards: NGSS
Standards
These NGSS middle school standards ask students to use data on natural hazards to inform technologies that reduce their effects, and to compare tests of design solutions and combine their best parts. Students test strengthening plans against the same tornado and combine straps and bolts into the plan that works.
| Framework | Code | Grades | Standard | How the lesson meets it |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| NGSS | MS-ESS3-2 | 6-8 | Analyze and interpret data on natural hazards to forecast future catastrophic events and inform the development of technologies to mitigate their effects. | Students interpret damage data from a tornado and use it to choose strengthening that reduces the damage. |
| NGSS | MS-ETS1-3 | 6-8 | Analyze data from tests to determine similarities and differences among several design solutions to identify the best characteristics of each that can be combined into a new solution to better meet the criteria for success. | Students compare test results for straps, bolts and both, and combine the best parts into a plan that keeps every house standing. |
Checked October 2026 against: NGSS MS-ESS3-2, NGSS MS-ETS1-3.