{"id":1508,"date":"2025-04-22T09:49:46","date_gmt":"2025-04-22T13:49:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/horizon-research.com\/sbpscience\/?page_id=1508"},"modified":"2025-05-21T23:46:43","modified_gmt":"2025-05-22T03:46:43","slug":"cocorahs-apr","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/horizon-research.com\/sbpscience\/cocorahs\/cocorahs-apr\/","title":{"rendered":"CoCoRaHS, 8: April"},"content":{"rendered":"

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8: April<\/h2>\n

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Students explore the causes and impacts of a notable weather event<\/strong><\/h4>\n

Purpose<\/strong>
Students will use CoCoRaHS reporting features to identify a recent, notable, local precipitation event and try to connect it with a larger weather event. Alternatively, students will use a newsworthy precipitation event (not local) and trace its impacts on a particular location. <\/span><\/p>\n

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\"\"<\/p>\n

Have students first locate their station in the <\/span>CoCoRaHS Data Explorer<\/span><\/a>. Then, using the Precipitation Calendar for their station, have students find a day or consecutive days with unusually large precipitation of any type. After finding the precipitation event, students will use the <\/span>CoCoRaHS Interactive Map<\/span><\/a> and <\/span>Condition Monitoring Report<\/span><\/a> to explore precipitation patterns and conditions in the nation and in their region prior to and following the local event. Students will use what they learn from CoCoRaHS reporting tools and other resources (e.g., National Weather Service) to make and support a claim about whether their local event was part of a larger event.<\/span><\/p>\n

Alternatively, if no local significant precipitation events have happened since the school year began, have students start with a newsworthy event elsewhere in the nation, for example, a hurricane, snowstorm, or flood. Instead of using their own station, have students first research the event to learn the date(s) and location(s) where it was most prominent. Then, have them use the <\/span>CoCoRaHS Interactive Map<\/span><\/a>, <\/span>CoCoRaHS Data Explorer<\/span><\/a>, and <\/span>Condition Monitoring Report<\/span><\/a> to describe the impacts of the event on a particular location.<\/span><\/p>\n

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Standards + Practices<\/h4>\n

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Science<\/span><\/h4>\n

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DCI: <\/strong>ESS2.C The Roles of Water in Earth’s Surface Processes
ESS2.D Weather and Climate<\/p>\n

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CCC:<\/strong> Cause and Effect<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

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SP7: <\/strong>Engaging in argument from evidence
Students will make claims about a weather event and support their claims with evidence. A Claim Evidence Reasoning approach is provided to help students construct their arguments.<\/em><\/p>\n

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Mathematics<\/span><\/h4>\n

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Statistics & Probability: Summarizing Numerical Data Sets<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

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MP1:<\/strong> Make sense of problems and persevere in solving them
<\/span>MP2:<\/strong> Reason abstractly and quantitatively
<\/span>MP3:<\/strong> Construct viable arguments and critique the reasoning of others.<\/span><\/p>\n

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Resources + Supports<\/h4>\n

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Two Approaches to This Month\u2019s Activity<\/a><\/p>\n

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Using a Claim-Evidence-Reasoning Approach to Construct an Argument<\/a><\/p>\n

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Writing Prompts<\/a><\/p>\n

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Local Connections<\/a><\/p>\n

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Culminating Activities Preview<\/a><\/p>\n

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Two Approaches to This Month\u2019s Activity<\/b><\/h2>\n

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Alternative 1: Ms. Clark\u2019s students connect their data to a larger weather system<\/b><\/p>\n

Using the Precipitation Calendar for their station (found in the <\/span>CoCoRaHS Data Explorer<\/span><\/a>), Ms. Clark reviewed all the observations recorded by her students this school year. She easily identified three significant precipitation events in their data and believed her students would be able to as well. At the beginning of the class period, she gave them a challenge: \u201cYou\u2019ve been collecting and reporting precipitation data all year. Today, let\u2019s see if we can find a time when we had an unusual amount of precipitation. You\u2019ll be working in your groups, and you need to be ready to convince the other groups that you\u2019ve found a big precipitation event.\u201d Ms. Clark reminds students how to access <\/span>CoCoRaHS Data Explorer<\/span><\/a> and Precipitation Calendar for their small group. Students organize themselves in their small groups and get to work. After about five minutes, one group shouts out, \u201cWe\u2019ve found it!\u201d Ms. Clark encourages them to keep looking at their data and reminds them that they need to be able to convince everyone else that they\u2019ve found something unusual. While they\u2019re looking, she circulates and asks groups to try out their argument on her, asking them questions she thinks other students might ask but without telling them if they\u2019re right or wrong. She tells one group, \u201cIt\u2019s not up to me to decide if you\u2019re right. You have to convince everyone with your data.\u201d After about 15 minutes, all groups believe they\u2019ve found an event in their data. She asks each group to give the date(s) of their event without any other information. It quickly becomes clear that they identified the same three events she did: a period of several consecutive days with light rain, two consecutive days with moderate rain, and one day with especially heavy rain. After each group reports, she asks, \u201cSo which event is the MOST unusual?\u201d A lively but orderly debate follows, but the students can\u2019t agree. Ms. Clark says, \u201cMaybe that\u2019s because they\u2019re all unusual, just in different ways. Can we all agree on that?\u201d The students seem satisfied, so she asks them to pick one event for the whole class to investigate further. They ultimately choose an event on February 12th and 13th because it had the most total precipitation across the event (1.50\u201d one day, 1.15\u201d the next). Additionally, the group that nominated this event also found a condition monitoring report dated February 16th from a station close by. The report helped convince everyone that the event was unusual. One of the students read the report to the class: \u201c<\/span>The 2.72″ received this week over several days brings us to 3.74″ for this month–above normal.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Ms. Clark says, \u201cOkay, great! Now I want you to work in your groups for the rest of the class period to figure out whether this was an isolated event that affected only us, or whether it was part of a bigger event that affected other people around us.\u201d She encourages them to start with the <\/span>CoCoRaHS Interactive Map<\/span><\/a>, suggesting they explore the days before and after the event.\u00a0 She tells them they can use any other web-based resources they want to and reminds them that they need to be able to support their claim with evidence from their research. With five minutes to go in the period, students are still working. She tells them to quickly summarize in writing what their group has found so they can pick up where they left off the next day. Students enter the class the following day and get back to work. Ms. Clark circulates and asks groups to tell her what they\u2019re finding. With 30 minutes to go in the period, she tells them to spend a few minutes preparing a two-minute summary of what they found. One group\u2019s findings are summarized here<\/a><\/span>.<\/span><\/p>\n

After all the groups have presented, Ms. Clark praises their work, saying \u201cWow! You all found a lot about that event that I didn\u2019t. So what do you think? Was our event part of something bigger?\u201d All the students agree that it was. Ms. Clark wraps up, saying \u201cTomorrow, we\u2019re going to think about everything we learned during our weather and climate unit in January and see if we can use what we learned to understand that event even better.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

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Alternative 2: Ms. Clark\u2019s students trace the impacts of a large storm on a single location<\/b><\/p>\n

Near the beginning of the school year, Hurricane Helene hit the southern United States. Ms. Clark talked about it with her students at the time because she anticipated discussing it more during their weather unit later in the year. By April, students still hadn\u2019t recorded any unusual amounts of precipitation in their own rain gauge, so she decided to have them research the impacts of Helene. She began by putting students in their small groups and asking them to look at a national view of the <\/span>CoCoRaHS Interactive Map<\/span><\/a> for September 25\u201329. (For convenience, screen shots of the maps are linked here<\/a><\/span>. The students are surprised at how much rain fell in the mountains of North Carolina and Tennessee. One of the students says, \u201cI heard on the news that Asheville, NC got hit really bad.\u201d Other students had heard the same thing, so Ms. Clark asks them to spend a few more minutes researching Helene\u2019s impacts on Asheville, then asks them what they learned. Students excitedly share what they learned. \u201cThey didn\u2019t have electricity for weeks!\u201d \u201cOr water.\u201d \u201cOr cell phone service!\u201d \u201cI read that kids missed more than a month of school.\u201d In a more somber tone, one student adds, \u201cYeah, and a lot of people died in the flooding.\u201d Ms. Clark asks, \u201cWhy do you think it was so bad in Asheville?\u201d Several students share their ideas, but no one is sure.<\/span><\/p>\n

Ms. Clark says it might help them understand the impacts if they focused on one station\u2019s readings during the storm. She asks them to use the <\/span>CoCoRaHS Interactive Map<\/span><\/a> to find a station in or near Asheville that submitted a report for all five days during September 25-29. She warns them it might be hard because people might not have been able to submit reports without electricity or cell phone service. Her students respond well to the challenge and eagerly get to work. After about 10 minutes, each group has found at least one station with complete data. Rather than asking the whole class to choose one station to focus on, she lets each group use the one they found, reasoning that the next part of the activity will be more interesting if students research different stations.<\/span><\/p>\n

Ms. Clark says, \u201cOkay, now that you\u2019ve found a station, I want you to use the <\/span>CoCoRaHS Interactive Map<\/span><\/a> to learn what you can about the rainfall at that station during the storm. After about 10 minutes, she asks the groups to share what they\u2019ve learned so far. One group reports, \u201cOur station got 14.81 inches of rain over the five days, and 8.36 inches of it was on just one day.\u201d Another group says, \u201cOurs was close to that but a little less.\u201d Ms. Clark asks, \u201cIs that a lot of rain?\u201d The students say it seems like a lot, but they\u2019re not sure what is normal. With the class period ending, Ms. Clark says, \u201cTomorrow, we\u2019ll keep using the <\/span>CoCoRaHS Data Explorer<\/span><\/a> to try to figure out if the amount of rain was unusual. Be sure to write down your station\u2019s number so you can find it again tomorrow.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

The next day, Ms. Clark shows students how to find their station in the <\/span>CoCoRaHS Data Explorer<\/span><\/a>. She encourages them to look at data for their station in previous years and to use what they learn to support a claim about whether the amount of rain during Helene was unusual. As students begin exploring, they are at first overwhelmed by the amount of information available. Ms. Clark lets them struggle, confident that each group will eventually find useful information, even if they don\u2019t all find the same information. Sure enough, after a few minutes, students have found their way around the Data Explorer and are looking at their station\u2019s historical data. Ms. Clark circulates and answers questions students have about different terms they come across, but for the most part, they are able to figure them out on their own.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

With about 15 minutes to go in the class period, the students show no signs of slowing down, and Ms. Clark has to call them back together to share what they learned. As she predicted, each group shares different information, but each one is able to support a claim that the amount of rain was unusual. For example, one group describes what they learned in the \u201cPrecipitation Summary\u201d section of the Data Explorer, which compares their station\u2019s reading to the 30-year averages. Another shows a graph from the \u201cYear-Over-Year\u201d section.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Ms. Clark asks, \u201cSo why do you think Helene affected Asheville so badly?\u201d One student shares, \u201cI think it was just so much more rain than they were used to that they weren\u2019t prepared for it.\u201d Another student says, \u201cYeah, I read somewhere that it was the worst flood in a thousand years.\u201d Still another says, \u201cAnd it probably didn\u2019t help that they\u2019re in the mountains.\u201d Ms. Clark wraps up saying, \u201cWow, that\u2019s a lot to think about. Tomorrow, we\u2019re going to talk about how cities try to prepare for floods, and we\u2019ll think about how the terrain affects flooding. Great work today!\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

[\/et_pb_text][\/et_pb_column][\/et_pb_row][\/et_pb_section][et_pb_section fb_built=”1″ admin_label=”Objectives” module_id=”narrative” _builder_version=”4.21.0″ background_enable_color=”off” custom_padding=”35px|||||” border_width_top=”8px” border_color_top=”#89CEA4″ global_colors_info=”{}”][et_pb_row column_structure=”1_4,3_4″ use_custom_gutter=”on” gutter_width=”1″ make_equal=”on” admin_label=”Module Heading with Icon” _builder_version=”4.16″ custom_padding=”||1px|||” locked=”off” global_colors_info=”{}”][et_pb_column type=”1_4″ _builder_version=”4.16″ custom_padding=”|||” custom_css_main_element=”width: 18%!important;” global_colors_info=”{}” custom_padding__hover=”|||”][et_pb_image src=”https:\/\/horizon-research.com\/sbpscience\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/02\/Asset-26.png” title_text=”Asset 26″ show_bottom_space=”off” align=”center” _builder_version=”4.27.0″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”][\/et_pb_image][\/et_pb_column][et_pb_column type=”3_4″ _builder_version=”4.16″ custom_padding=”|||” global_colors_info=”{}” custom_padding__hover=”|||”][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.27.0″ _module_preset=”default” header_font=”EB Garamond||||||||” header_text_align=”left” header_text_color=”#454545″ header_font_size=”42px” header_line_height=”2.2em” header_3_font=”|700|||||||” header_3_text_color=”#454545″ header_3_font_size=”26px” header_line_height_tablet=”1.2em” header_line_height_phone=”1.2em” header_line_height_last_edited=”on|tablet” global_colors_info=”{}”]<\/p>\n

Using a Claim-Evidence-Reasoning Approach to Construct an Argument<\/b><\/h2>\n

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An important science practice is engaging in argument from evidence. This month\u2019s engagement offers opportunities for students to try out the practice. They will analyze a large amount of data and will use what they learn to try to convince their classmates of their claims. The Claim-Evidence-Reasoning\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0(C-E-R) framework can help students construct their argument, and it can provide a helpful connection to literacy as well. The following questions can help students think about each part of the framework. They are publicly available as a rubric from NSTA at this URL: <\/span>https:\/\/static.nsta.org\/connections\/elementaryschool\/201908CERRubric.pdf<\/a><\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

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<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
C-E-R Component and Guiding Questions<\/strong><\/td>\nExamples from the Narrative (Alternative 1) Question: \u201cIs our local event part of a larger system?\u201d<\/strong><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
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Claim<\/span><\/p>\n

Does your claim answer the original question? Is it accurate and complete?<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n<\/td>\n

\u201cWe think it is part of a larger event.\u201d<\/span><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
\n

Evidence<\/span><\/p>\n

Does the student provide appropriate and sufficient data to support the claim?<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n<\/td>\n

\u201cWe looked at the interactive map for the whole US on those two days, plus the two days before and two days after. . . . We noticed a pattern of precipitation starting on Feb. 11 and appearing to move eastward through February 14. Our event falls right in the middle of that window.”<\/span><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
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Reasoning<\/span><\/p>\n

Does the student include a justification that links the claim to the evidence using appropriate scientific principles?\u00a0<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n<\/td>\n

\u201cWe also went to the National Weather Service website and searched for weather news between February 12 and 14. We found this page: <\/span>https:\/\/www.wpc.ncep.noaa.gov\/storm_summaries\/storm8\/stormsum_1.html<\/span><\/a>. It describes a large winter storm that affected much of the east coast. It says the storm is partly due to a low pressure system off the coast and front attached to that system. We learned in our weather unit that fronts are boundaries between different air masses and that precipitation often happens where the air masses meet.\u201d<\/span><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

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Writing Prompts<\/b><\/h3>\n

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By this point in the year, students probably understand that weather is influenced by many factors, some of which are constant (e.g., a mountain range) and some of which are constantly changing (e.g., ocean temperature). Consequently, predicting weather for a particular place and time is complex and uncertain. The NGSS puts it this way:<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWeather and climate are influenced by interactions involving sunlight, the ocean, the atmosphere, ice, landforms, and living things. These interactions vary with latitude, altitude, and local and regional geography, all of which can affect oceanic and atmospheric flow patterns. Because these patterns are so complex, weather can only be predicted probabilistically.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Source: NGSS Lead States. (2013). Next Generation Science Standards: For States, By States, Washington, DC: The National Academies Press.<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

The following writing prompts can be used for helping students make sense of the probabilistic nature of weather forecasting:<\/span><\/p>\n

1.\u00a0 The weather forecast for Seattle, WA tomorrow says there is an 80% chance of rain. In your own words, write what that means.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Teacher note: This resource from the National Weather Service provides a list of ideas to look for in student responses. <\/span><\/i>https:\/\/www.weather.gov\/lmk\/pops<\/span><\/i><\/a>\u00a0<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

2.\u00a0 Why are forecasts given in percentages? In other words, why don\u2019t they say it absolutely will rain or absolutely will NOT rain?<\/span><\/p>\n

Teacher note: Some ideas to look for in student responses:<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n