Storm Lab teaching notes

About these lessons

Four lessons of about forty-five minutes each, for ages eleven to fourteen. Students mix the ingredients forecasters check every morning, watch a storm grow or fail to grow, send a tornado across a small town and rate it from the damage, then decide how the town should get ready for the next one. Each lesson has one idea, ends with something the student did and can explain, and only uses what the lessons before it taught.

You do not need to have used Storm Lab before. Everything you are asked to say or point at is written here, in the words that are on the screen. Every step in this guide has been walked through in the lab with real clicks, and is walked through again whenever the lab changes.

How to read this guide

Each lesson is a row of short parts, and each part has the same five headings:

1. Say what to tell the class, in a sentence or two. Use your own words if you like.
2. Students do the steps, in order. Read them out or put them on the board.
3. On their screens what you should see when you walk round. If a screen does not look like this, that student needs you.
4. If it goes wrong what usually goes wrong at this step, and the way out.
5. Ask a question for the room. The point is the talking, so take two or three answers and do not give yours.

The four lessons

Before the first lesson

• Every student needs Storm Lab open in a browser, with a mouse or a trackpad. It runs on a Chromebook. Nothing is installed.
• Work is kept as the student goes. There is no save button to forget.
• The lab shows °F and mph, or °C and km/h. The two buttons at the top switch between them. This guide gives words, not numbers, wherever it can, so either is fine.
• Try lesson 1 yourself first. It takes ten minutes, and you will have met every button the class will meet.

The screen. These are the names this guide uses, and they are the words on the screen.

Lesson 1: The ingredients

Lesson 1: The ingredients: Play first (0 to 5)

1. Say This is Storm Lab. Forecasters check the same few things every morning to decide whether there will be storms. Today you find out what they are.
2. Students do Open Storm Lab. Under Start from a real kind of day, press Summer afternoon, then Make the storm. Watch the sky. Then press Spring day on the plains and Make the storm again.
3. On their screens A small bubble rises from the ground, a cloud starts where it reaches a dashed line, and the cloud grows into a tall storm with a flat top. Under the sky, one line says what it made: An ordinary thunderstorm for the summer afternoon, and a bigger storm for the spring day.
4. If it goes wrong Nothing happens after Make the storm: the storm takes about four seconds to grow. Wait for it before pressing anything else.
5. Ask The two days made different storms. What was different about the two days? Look at the words next to the sliders.

Lesson 1: The ingredients: Read the checklist (5 to 15)

1. Say After every storm the lab shows a checklist called The ingredients. A green dot means that ingredient is there. Let us find out what each one means.
2. Students do Press Desert heat, then Make the storm. Read what the lab says under the title, and look at the checklist. Then press The cap holds and Make the storm, and read again.
3. On their screens For the desert: No cloud, and the reason, that the air near the ground is too dry. The first line of the checklist, Moisture, has a red dot. For the cap: The cap held, with a red dot next to The push is strong enough to break through the cap.
4. If it goes wrong No checklist: the storm was not run, or a slider was moved after it. Moving any slider clears the answer, so press Make the storm again.
5. Ask The desert day is very hot. Why does hot air alone not make a storm? (Write moisture, instability and lift on the board as the answers come.)

Lesson 1: The ingredients: Make a storm from a cool gray day (15 to 35)

1. Say Here is a day with no storm at all. Your job is to make a thunderstorm out of it. You may move any slider, but you have to be able to say why each change helped.
2. Students do Press Cool gray day, then Make the storm, and read why nothing happened. Then change the sliders and press Make the storm after each try. Write down each change and what it made.
3. On their screens At first: Small clouds, no storm, a row of small flat clouds, and under What would make a storm a suggestion of two changes together. Most students find that they need something to push the air up, under What pushes the air up, such as sun heating the ground, and also air that gets colder faster going up: How fast it gets colder going up moved to quickly. Then the sky grows a storm, and the line under the sky says A cluster of thunderstorms.
4. If it goes wrong A student who has moved everything and still has no storm: press Cool gray day to start again, and change one thing at a time. A student who finds the answer at once by pressing Try it: that is allowed, but ask them which ingredient each of the two changes gave the storm.
5. Ask Was there one change that was enough on its own? Why did the sun have to be there before the cold air high up could help?

Lesson 1: The ingredients: Show and ask (35 to 45)

1. Say Show your partner your storm, and the list of changes you wrote down.
2. Students do Compare lists in pairs. Find one change your partner made that you did not.
3. Ask Forecasters cannot change the weather. They can only look at it. Which of the things you changed could a forecaster measure in the morning?

By the end, each student can say:

• I can name the three things a thunderstorm needs.
• I turned a day with no storm into a thunderstorm.
• I can say which ingredient each of my changes gave the storm.

Lesson 2: The lid

Lesson 2: The lid: Back to the lid (0 to 5)

1. Say Last time one day said The cap held. The lab says it had plenty of fuel. Today we find out why it still made no storm.
2. Students do Press The cap holds, then Make the storm. Watch the bubble.
3. On their screens The bubble rises and stops at a warm-colored band in the sky: that band is the lid. Under the sky, The cap held.
4. If it goes wrong A different answer: a slider moved before the run. Press The cap holds again, then Make the storm.
5. Ask The bubble stopped. What stopped it?

Lesson 2: The lid: Three ways through (5 to 25)

1. Say Under What would make a storm the lab lists changes that would each make a storm on their own. The lab worked them out by trying each slider, one at a time. Try every one, and find out why it works.
2. Students do Under What would make a storm, press Try it on the first line. Watch the storm, and write down the change and what it made. Press Undo to get the lid back. Do the same for each line.
3. On their screens Three lines. One makes the air near the ground damper, one weakens the cap, and one lifts the air with wind blowing up a hillside. Each Try it grows a storm, and Undo brings back The cap held with the same three lines.
4. If it goes wrong Undo does not bring the lid back: press The cap holds and Make the storm again. The three lines come back.
5. Ask Damper air broke the lid, and the lid did not change. How can more water in the air help a bubble get through a warm layer?

Lesson 2: The lid: The sky from the side (25 to 35)

1. Say Forecasters see the lid on a chart made from a weather balloon. The lab can show you that chart.
2. Students do Press The cap holds and Make the storm. Tick All at the top. Find the chart to the right of the sky, and its three lines: air, dew point and rising bubble.
3. On their screens The sliders now show numbers. On the chart, a blue patch low down, where the bubble is colder than the air around it, and a big red patch higher up, where it is warmer. The blue patch is the lid. The red patch is the fuel.
4. If it goes wrong No chart: the window is narrow. Make the browser wider, or skip the chart and use the words under the title.
5. Ask The red patch is much bigger than the blue one. Why does the small blue patch still win?

Lesson 2: The lid: Ask (35 to 45)

1. Students do Untick All. Read the orange line under The cap held out loud.
2. Ask The lab says that when the cap breaks late in the day, the storms are often violent. Why would a storm that was held down all afternoon be worse when it finally goes?

By the end, each student can say:

• I can say what the cap is and why it stops storms.
• I broke the same cap three different ways.
• I can explain why damper air helps a bubble get through.

Lesson 3: Wind that changes with height

Lesson 3: Wind that changes with height: Only the wind changes (0 to 15)

1. Say Today we leave the heat and the damp alone. Only the wind changes, and we see what the wind alone does to a storm.
2. Students do Press Summer afternoon, then Make the storm. Then, under Wind, move Wind high up to about 35 mph (55 km/h) and press Make the storm. Then move it to about 60 mph (100 km/h), move Wind turning near the ground all the way to turns a lot, and press Make the storm again.
3. On their screens Three storms in a row: An ordinary thunderstorm standing straight up, then A cluster of thunderstorms, then A supercell, leaning, with a ring round its middle that shows it turning. After the supercell, a new section appears: Tornado ingredients, five bars.
4. If it goes wrong The storm does not change: the slider was moved, but Make the storm was not pressed again. Moving a slider clears the old answer and waits.
5. Ask The ordinary storm rains itself out in about an hour. Why does tilting a storm let it last longer?

Lesson 3: Wind that changes with height: A tornado, and the town (15 to 25)

1. Say Not every supercell makes a tornado. Forecasters multiply five numbers together to say how likely it is. Look at the five bars: if any one is at zero, the answer is zero.
2. Students do Read the five bars under Tornado ingredients. Press Run it again until the line under the sky says A supercell with a tornado. Then press Send it across the town.
3. On their screens The same day can make a tornado on one run and not on the next. The lab says so in the line under the title: A tornado touches down, with its rating and its path. After Send it across the town, the town seen from above, the path crossing it, and under The town after the tornado a count of what happened to the buildings.
4. If it goes wrong No tornado after five runs: the tornado ingredients are low. Press Spring day on the plains and Make the storm; that day makes a tornado on most runs.
5. Ask The same ingredients, and sometimes a tornado and sometimes not. What does that mean for a forecaster who has to decide in the morning?

Lesson 3: Wind that changes with height: The damage survey (25 to 40)

1. Say Nobody measures a tornado's wind directly. After it has gone, a survey team walks the path and rates it from what it did to buildings that were built in known ways. You are the survey team.
2. Students do Press Survey the damage. Tap a damaged building in the town. Read Up close you see, and in the list under Which line in the damage table matches? tap the matching line. Do this for three buildings, the most damaged you can find. Then press Finish the survey.
3. On their screens For each building, the wind that damage takes, like The table says that takes about 152 mph, and its rating. The line Buildings surveyed counts up, with the rating so far. After Finish the survey, the lab compares the survey with the tornado's real strongest wind, for example Your rating matches.
4. If it goes wrong Tapping a building does nothing: it was not damaged, or it was a tree or a power pole. Tap a building that looks broken. A rating that came out too low: the buildings surveyed were at the edge of the path. Survey ones in the middle.
5. Ask The table gives a weak house and a well-built house different wind speeds for the same damage. Why would a survey team want to know how a house was built before they rate the tornado?

Lesson 3: Wind that changes with height: Ask (40 to 45)

1. Ask A tornado crosses only open fields and hits nothing. What rating can a survey team give it, and why?

By the end, each student can say:

• I turned an ordinary storm into a supercell by changing only the wind.
• I can say what the five tornado ingredients are for.
• I rated a tornado from the damage, and can say why the buildings I picked matter.

Lesson 4: Getting a town ready

Lesson 4: Getting a town ready: Before this lesson

Each student needs the storm from lesson 3. If a student's lab was reset, press Spring day on the plains, then Make the storm, then Run it again until there is a tornado, and Send it across the town.

Lesson 4: Getting a town ready: Spend the money (0 to 15)

1. Say The town has some money to make its buildings stronger. It is not enough for everything. You decide where it goes, then we send the same storm again and see what it saved.
2. Students do Open the Town bench and press Strengthen. Read the list under Strengthen every one at once and its prices. Choose, and watch Money for strengthening go down. Then press Send the storm.
3. On their screens A yellow dot on each strengthened building. After the storm, a line that compares: Last time with this storm, and how many buildings lost walls or roof, against This time.
4. If it goes wrong The lab says The money ran out: there was not enough for every building, so some got it and the rest did not. Press Undo and choose again. Put the town back starts again with all the money.
5. Ask Straps on every house and bolts on every house together cost almost all the money. Are they worth more than tie-downs on the mobile homes? How would you decide?

Lesson 4: Getting a town ready: The siren came too late (15 to 25)

1. Say The town has a tornado siren. Someone has to decide, in advance, exactly when it sounds. That is a rule, and today you write it.
2. Students do Open the Warn bench. Read the rule that is already there. Press Try them on this storm.
3. On their screens A timeline of the storm, minute by minute: when rotation was first seen on radar, when the tornado reached the town, and when the siren sounded. With the first rule, the lab says The siren came too late.
4. If it goes wrong The siren was in time: this student's tornado touched down far from the town. That is fine. Ask them to find the line that says how far out the storm was first seen.
5. Ask The rule waits until a tornado is on the ground. What could the town see earlier than that?

Lesson 4: Getting a town ready: A season of storms (25 to 40)

1. Say One storm is not enough to judge a rule. Here is a whole season, the same season for everyone. Write rules that warn for as many tornadoes as you can, with as few false alarms as you can.
2. Students do Press Try them on a season and read the table. Then press + Add a rule and pick when the rotation is closer than. Click the blue number in the new rule to change the distance. Press Try them on a season again after each change. To remove a rule, press the × at its end.
3. On their screens A table with two columns, Your rules and Weather Service, and three rows: Tornadoes warned for, Average warning and Sirens that were false alarms. A rule on rotation warns for more tornadoes, with more minutes of warning, and more false alarms.
4. If it goes wrong A rule that sounds for every storm: the distance is too big. Make it smaller. Rules are checked from the top, and the first one that is true sounds the siren.
5. Ask The Weather Service warns for about three tornadoes in four, and about three warnings in four are false alarms. Would you rather miss a tornado, or have the siren sound for nothing? What happens to a town that hears a lot of false alarms?

Lesson 4: Getting a town ready: Ask (40 to 45)

1. Ask You made two kinds of choice today: how the town builds, and when it warns. Which one would you spend the next dollar on, and why?

By the end, each student can say:

• I strengthened the town within its money and saw what it saved.
• I can explain why straps and bolts work better together.
• I wrote siren rules, tested them on a season, and can say what my rules traded away.

Where to go next

Storm Lab has two more benches on the Storm tab: Hurricane, where warm ocean water is the fuel and the town is on a coast, and Winter storm, where layers of warm and cold air decide between snow, sleet and freezing rain. The Forecast bench asks students to write the forecaster's rules for a whole month of mornings, and the Town bench has a building code tested on four storms. Each of these can be a lesson in the same shape as the four here.

More help

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