MS-ESS2-5
The standard
Collect data to provide evidence for how the motions and complex interactions of air masses results in changes in weather conditions.
Next Generation Science Standards
What this standard means
Students need to gather and use weather data to explain why conditions change at one place over time. They should connect temperature, air pressure, humidity, precipitation, and wind to the movement of air masses from high pressure toward low pressure. They also need to explain what happens when different air masses meet.
Mastery looks like using a table, map, or simple lab data to make a claim about a coming weather change, with evidence. Students often get stuck treating weather facts as separate items. They may also think forecasts are exact, instead of predictions with a range of possible outcomes.
Ways to teach it
- Use two clear containers of warm and cold colored water with a divider, then remove it and have students sketch the interaction.
- Ask students to write a forecast claim using pressure, wind, temperature, and humidity data from the same location over three days.
- Give students a simple weather map and ask them to circle where conditions are most likely to change by tomorrow and explain why.
- Have students compare a local 5-day forecast with actual weather each day and note which predictions were certain and which were ranges.
Plan a lesson for MS-ESS2-5
Generate a complete lesson plan aligned to this standard, with objectives, activities, and materials. Free, no account needed.
Related standards
- K-ESS2-1
Use and share observations of local weather conditions to describe patterns over time.
- 3-ESS2-2
Obtain and combine information to describe climates in different regions of the world.
- 3-ESS2-1
Represent data in tables and graphical displays to describe typical weather conditions expected during a particular season.
- 4-ESS2-1
Make observations and/or measurements to provide evidence of the effects of weathering or the rate of erosion by water, ice, wind, or vegetation.