Science Lesson Plans

Teacher’s Name: Lemmy Ayerhart

Course: Science
Topic: Tornadoes, what they are and how they form/ rain gauges
Length of Class: 60min
Curricular Outcomes: Students analyze climate and connect it to weather conditions
and agricultural practices.
Materials: Thermometers, Worksheets
Objectives:
At the end of the lesson students will be able to:
1) Understand what tornadoes are
2) how tornadoes form and the necessary conditions
3) understand basic tornado safety procedures relating to
4) produce and interpret the information provided by pop bottle rain gauges

Activities Time Allowed

PREREQUISITE SKILLS/CONCEPTS • have an idea of 30min
what a tornado is, know what rain is

Before Lesson:
-have drawing on the board
-have bottles ready
-have safety exacto knives
-permanent markes
-scissors
-tape
rulers

Start Activity:
-execute the “tornado plan”
-ask students if they or any of their family have ever seen a
tornado
https://www.weatherwizkids.com/weather-tornado.htm

-possibly mention the tornadoes that hit alberta in the past

year like the one by Didsbury
-show the birth of a tornado video
Watch The Birth of a Tornado | National Geographic
-explain we will be going through the tornado website together
work through the tornado site explaining:
- what tornadoes are
 - how they form
- why they form
- where they form
- tornado safety
(Wrap up at by 2:25)
Rain Gauge Experiment 30min
-(slide 1)
-explain how measuring rain can tell us about weather within and
between certain seasons and years
-helps us understand how weather changes and cycles over time
and is useful in agricultural practices
- “how can we measure rainfall?”
-(Slide 2)
-explain what a rain gauge is and how it works

Begin Rain Gauge Construction

-(Slide 3)
-hand out bottles to students
-Do a quick demonstration of how to cut the bottle
-hand out knives and have students cut the tops of the bottles off
-then collect knives
-tell students to go outside and scoop a bit of gravel into their
bottles with me as a weight
-have students return to class
-show students how to tape the bottle top onto the bottle
-hand out tape
-have students tape their bottles
-then show students how to mark their bottles using a ruler
and sharpie
-have students do this
-wander to make sure everyone is marking the measurements
properly
(wrap up by 2:45)
-have students dispose of any garbage from the experiment
-put any borrowed supplies back
-then tell students to bring them home and fill with water to the
zero mark and set outside on a rainy day and write down the
amount of rain the next morning to share with the class another
day