Tornadoes Teaching Box

Tornadoes, also called twisters, are rare and powerful weather events in which columns of air rotate dangerously fast. In this teaching box are resources to help students learn why and where tornadoes happen and how these weather events impact people’s lives.

Teaching Boxes are collections of classroom-ready and standards-aligned activities, content, and multimedia that build student understanding of science, technology, engineering, and math.

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Overview

UCAR Center for Science Education Teaching Boxes are themed collections of classroom-ready educational resources to build student understanding of science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM). Resources highlighted within teaching boxes are from various science education programs and all have been vetted by the UCAR Center for Science Education team.

Topic: Tornadoes
Level: Middle and high school
How to use this resource: Each tab correlates with a part of the scope and sequence for this topic and includes links to hands-on activities, background content, and multimedia resources. Select resources within each tab that are best suited for your students to meet the learning goals. (There are often more resources linked within each section than you will need.)

How do they happen?

Goal: Students learn how tornadoes form and the atmospheric conditions that are conducive to tornadoes.

Activity: Students compare and contrast the types of tornadoes and how they form.

Standards:

NGSS Performance Expectations: MS-ESS2-5
NGSS Science and Engineering Practices: Analyzing and Interpreting Data, Using Models, Constructing Explanations
NGSS Disciplinary Core Idea: MS-ESS3.B: Natural Hazards
NGSS Crosscutting Concepts: Cause and Effect, Patterns, Systems and System Models
CC.ELA/Literacy WHST.6-8.2. Write informative/explanatory texts to examine a topic and convey ideas, concepts, and information through the selection, organization, and analysis of relevant content

Where do they happen?

Goal: Students will understand where tornadoes happen.

Activity: Students explore tornado data, including an interactive Story Map from Esri.

Standards:

NGSS Performance Expectations: MS-ESS3-2, HS-ESS3-1.
NGSS Science and Engineering Practices: Analyzing and Interpreting Data (MS); Using Models, Constructing Explanations and Designing Solutions (HS)
NGSS Disciplinary Core Idea: ESS3.B
NGSS Crosscutting Concepts: Patterns (MS), Cause and Effect (HS)
CC.ELA/Literacy WHST.6-8.2. Write informative/explanatory texts to examine a topic and convey ideas, concepts, and information through the selection, organization, and analysis of relevant content
CC.ELA/Literacy WHST.6-8.8. Gather relevant information from multiple print and digital sources
CC.ELA/Literacy WHST.6-8.7. Conduct short research projects to answer a question
CC.ELA/Literacy RST.11-12.7 Integrate and evaluate multiple sources of information presented in diverse formats and media to address a question or solve a problem
CC.ELA/Literacy RST.9-12.2 Write informative/explanatory texts, including the narration of historical events

How do they affect people?

Goal: Students will learn how tornadoes impact communities and develop a safety plan.

Activity: Students explore the impacts tornadoes have on communities, including an interactive Story Map from Esri, and develop a Public Service Announcement safety plan for tornadoes.

Standards:

NGSS Performance Expectations: MS-ESS3-2, HS-ESS3-1, HS-ETS1-3
NGSS Science and Engineering Practices: Analyzing and Interpreting data (MS), Constructing explanations and desiging solutions (HS)
NGSS Disciplinary Core Ideas: ESS3.B, ETS1.B, ETS1.C
NGSS Crosscutting Concepts: Patterns (MS), Cause and Effect (HS)
CC ELA/Literacy RST.6-8.7 Integrate qualitative or technical information expressed in words in a text with a version of that information expressed visually
CC ELA/LiteracyWHST.9-12.2 Write informative/explanatory texts

How do they happen?

Goal: Students learn how tornadoes form and the atmospheric conditions that are conducive to tornadoes.

Engage students by asking questions.

Ask students to recall a tornado they have seen (either on television, movies, or in person). What do they remember? For those who have experienced a tornado in person, what types of feelings are associated with the experience? In small groups, ask students to discuss one or more questions they have about how tornadoes form.
Tornado Image Gallery: The images in this presentation can be used in many different ways. Note: Photo credits and captions are included in the notes page of the slideshow
- Have students write down adjectives as they view images (shapes, colors, backgrounds).
- Have students write down the similarities and differences in the formation of each tornado. What do they notice in the beginning, middle, and end stages of a tornado? Ask students if they observe the formation of the vortex in the images, especially in the series of tornados.
- Possible extensions for this resource: Have students sort and group images based on appearance or formation stage. (Read How Tornadoes Form to learn about stages.)

Explore through hands-on tornado activities.

Twister in a Jar: This simple model demonstrates how a vortex forms. After students have tried the activity, discuss aspects of the model that are useful in explaining how a tornado forms and aspects that might not be accurate. Remind students that all models are wrong, but some models are useful. Discuss whether this model is useful for explaining how tornadoes form.
Make a Tornado!: In this hands-on activity, students model the atmospheric conditions that cause a vortex to form.

Explain how tornadoes form and the types of tornadoes through videos, online reading, and an in-class presentation.

Tornadoes - Oh My!: Walk students through this tornado presentation or engage your students to be the presenters having each student present one or two slides.
How Tornadoes Form: This short reading provides a step-by-step description of how tornadoes form. Engage students to create trivia questions based on this article that they will ask other students.
Tornadoes 101: This National Geographic video (2:55) demonstrates how tornadoes form.
The Enhanced Fujita Scale rates the strength of tornadoes in the United States and Canada based on damage caused by wind estimates (not measurements).
Tornado Strength: This article provides an overview of the strength of tornadoes.

Elaborate student learning by having them compare and contrast tornadoes.

Have students compare and contrast images from the Tornado Image Gallery using the Tornado Compare and Contrast Activity Worksheet or the Advanced Tornado Compare and Contrast Worksheet in which students determine their own criteria for grouping similarities, give each group of criteria a title, and then compare and contrast. After completing the worksheet, have students discuss their results in pairs. Consider putting the pairs in quads to continue the discussion. Ask students: Did they all have the same observations and agree on the same analysis? Probably not! Remind students that scientists go through similar practices of analyzing and interpreting data, constructing explanations, engaging in arguments for evidence (NGSS Practices).

Extend student learning by guiding them to put all of the pieces together.

Weather Detective: This activity from Scholastic asks students to be weather detectives by putting together facts to solve a mystery. (Students can complete the activity online or can print the supplemental resources).

Evaluate student understanding of how tornadoes form.

Have students create a PowerPoint or Prezi about how tornadoes form. (Extension: Encourage students to reflect on the science practices that they completed in the compare and contrast elaborate activity for documented evidence of NGSS Practices. Have them explain how they analyzed and interpreted data, constructed explanations, and engaged in arguments for evidence with classmates.) Students answers should refer to models of tornado formation, discussion of the limitations of models, and identification of the stages of tornado formation.
Compile the questions students wrote while reading about tornadoes (during "Explain" above). Divide students into small groups and answer the questions. Student answers should demonstrate mastery of the science content.

Performance Expectations and Standards:

NGSS Performance Expectations: MS-ESS2-5
NGSS Science and Engineering Practices: Analyzing and Interpreting Data, Using Models, Constructing Explanations
NGSS Disciplinary Core Idea: MS-ESS3.B: Natural Hazards
NGSS Crosscutting Concepts: Cause and Effect, Patterns, Systems and System Models
CC.ELA/Literacy WHST.6-8.2. Write informative/explanatory texts to examine a topic and convey ideas, concepts, and information through the selection, organization, and analysis of relevant content

Where do they happen?

Goal: Students will understand where tornadoes happen.

Engage students with class conversations and visuals of tornado distributions.

Have students watch or read about tornadoes in the news.
- Tornadoes Touch Down in Midwest Again; SD Town Mauled, ABC News video
- Multiple Funnels Touch Down, Damaging Nebraska Town, NBC News video
- Massive Spring Storms Bring Tornadoes to Colorado, Minnesota, Time Magazine

Explain the geography of tornadoes in depth through online reading and in-class discussion.

Ask students to recall the images of tornadoes they have seen (either in from the first section of this teaching box, from personal experience, or tornadoes images from news media). Have students describe the landscape where these tornadoes occured (i.e. flat plains, grasslands). Ask students where in the United States landscapes like this are located. Most tornadoes occur in the Great Plains of the central United States because its an ideal environment for the formation of severe thunderstorms which cause tornadoes. Follow this introduction with a reading or video such as:
- Tornado Alley, a reading from NOAA, explains that storms are caused when dry cold air moving south from Canada meets warm moist air traveling north from the Gulf of Mexico.
- Tornado Tracks, a video from IDV Solutions, is a stunning visual presentation of the tornadoes in the United States from 1950 - 2011. Ask students to identify the areas that have the most and least tornadoes. Ask students what geographic features they notice that may influence where tornadoes happen.

Elaborate and extend student understanding of tornado occurance through data analysis.

Where do tornadoes happen? Exploring through data analysis: This presentation engages students to learn about the geography of tornadoes.
Get the Picture - Severe Weather: This activity prompts students to analyze graphs and charts of tornado data in order to identify statements as true or false.

Extension for indpendent or small group study.

Oakfield, WI Case Study: This activity from the University of Wisconsin-Madison's Cooperate Institute for Meteorological Satellite Studies guides students to learn about a tornado by making a contour map and analyzing satellite images and Doppler radar. (Note: This advanced activity can take one to three class periods.)

Evaluate learning by having students interpret tornado data or through writing.

The Twister Dashboard Investigation guides students to interpret tornado data by exploring Esri's ArcGIS-based Story Map Twister Dashboard.
Have students construct a written response to one of the following prompts:
- Where would you recommend scientists set up weather stations to monitor for conditions that could produce a tornado? Have students use at least three sources to justify their answer. (Student answers should include data of tornado frequency, specific locations based on geography, and expectations for having additional data.)
- Where should the National Weather Service target public safety campaigns? Write a recommendation to the National Weather Service and use at least three sources to justify your answer. (Student answers should include specific geographic regions, plan to gather additional data, recommendations for communication strategy)

Performance Expectations and Standards:

NGSS Performance Expectations: MS-ESS3-2, HS-ESS3-1.
NGSS Science and Engineering Practices: Analyzing and Interpreting Data (MS); Using Models, Constructing Explanations and Designing Solutions (HS)
NGSS Disciplinary Core Idea: ESS3.B
NGSS Crosscutting Concepts: Patterns (MS), Cause and Effect (HS)
CC.ELA/Literacy WHST.6-8.2. Write informative/explanatory texts to examine a topic and convey ideas, concepts, and information through the selection, organization, and analysis of relevant content
CC.ELA/Literacy WHST.6-8.8. Gather relevant information from multiple print and digital sources
CC.ELA/Literacy WHST.6-8.7. Conduct short research projects to answer a question
CC.ELA/Literacy RST.11-12.7 Integrate and evaluate muptiple sources of information presented in diverse formats and media to address a question or solve a problem
CC.ELA/Literacy RST.9-12.2 Write informative/explanatory texts, including the narration of historical events

How do tornadoes affect people?

Goal: Students will learn how tornadoes impact communities and develop a safety plan.

Engage students with a first-person narrative written by a tornado researcher.

In Eight Emotions While Tracking One Giant Supercell, SOARS Protogé Logan Dawson blogs about his first encounter with a supercell thunderstorm through the MPEX Field Campaign. Logan discusses how he felt while trying to get out of harm's way.
- In class, discuss Logan's blog. What excited him about what he is studying? Was there anything that surprised students about his blog? Why was he concerned about his safety?
- In small groups, have students tell a story about when they experienced one or more of these emotions during a weather event. Everyone should try to pick a different emotion. What were some of the most prevalent emotions in the class? Have students consider why some emotions were more recounted than others.

Explore: Guide students to explore the impacts of tornadoes through literature and media.

Eye of the Storm: (middle school) In this work of young adult fiction, a girl explores her metereologist father's secret work: creating monster storms. Have students read the story and then discuss the characters' safety concerns.
Weather in the News: Students investigate how weather events are covered in the news and the Joplin Case Study in the activity focuses on tornadoes.

Explain: Have students present the impacts of tornadoes through a case study.

Return from Catastrophe: A Year After the Tornado: This activity guides students to investigate Esri's interactive Story Map about Moore, Oklahoma to understand how the community was affected by a tornado and how they are recovering.
Tornado Damage!: This activity from TeachEngineering (Activity Step 5) guides students to assess tornado damage and understand how engineers can design for potential tornadoes.

Elaborate: Guide students to develop a safety plan for their home, school, and/or community.

Have students develop a satety plan based on what they learn from one or both of these resources:
- The American Red Cross App has planning checklists, maps, and a tornado warning sirens feature - a good resource for students as they develop their safety plan.
Have students design a tornado-proof building (engineering), describe the tornado-proof features (construct an explanation), and discuss planning goals with a city council (communication on societal impacts) as described in the Discovery Education: Tornado! lesson plan.

Evaluate by having students synthesize their learning in a Tornado Public Service Announcement for their school, community, or region.

Get Weather Ready: During a Tornado Public Service Announcement (PSA) from the U.S. National Weather Service is a good model of a tornado PSA.
Students can write the PSA script and/or record a multimedia PSA and present to their class, school, or community. Student presentations should refer to the impacts of tornadoes on communities, safety concerns, a safety plan for the school or community, and a communication plan for broadcasting the PSA.

Performance Expectations and Standards:

NGSS: Performance Expectations: MS-ESS3-2, HS-ESS3-1, HS-ETS1-3
NGSS: Science and Engineering Practices: Analyzing and Interpreting data (MS), Constructing explanations and desiging solutions (HS)
NGSS: Disciplinary Core Ideas: ESS3.B, ETS1.B, ETS1.C
NGSS: Crosscutting Concepts: Patterns (MS), Cause and Effect (HS)
Common Core ELA/Literacy: RST.6-8.7 Integrate qualitative or technical information expressed in words in a text with a version of that information expressed visually
Common Core ELA/Literacy: WHST.9-12.2 Write informative/explanatory texts

Resources

Resources

These resources can be incorporated as homework, enhancements, or extensions.

Tropical Severe Local Storms COMET Module provides fantastic background for teachers or highly motivated advanced readers.
A Native American Take on Tornadoes: This NPR Protojournalist article offers a history of how the Kiowa people monitored and recorded tornadoes in the early 1900's.
Tornado Glossary: VORTEX2's useful science glossary is a good resource for advanced reading levels.
Tornado Alley full-length Imax movie about tornadoes and the people that chase them might be good homework before launching into the Tornado Teaching Box.
Tornado Education Resource: This NOAA webpage has tons of explanations, resources, and activities for curriculum planning.
TRMM satellite mission: This article shows 3-D precipitation and tornado data gathered in southeastern United States by NASA's TRMM satellite mision. Ask students what we can learn about tornadoes through these 3-D color profiles. What story do the colors of radar reflectivity tell us? Where is the highest concentration of precipitation in the storm? Lowest? Why would a storm at this scale occur in the southeastern United States? Would the 3-D color profiles look different in other geographical areas in the United States? If so, how would they expect a 3-D color profile to look in places such as Kansas? New York? California
Enhanced Fujita-Scale Online Training Modules by the National Weather Service has activities and assessments for highly interested/advanced students.
How do NCAR researchers use computers to study tornadoes? Find out how Dr. Tornado and her colleagues use the massive computers at the NCAR-Wyoming Supercomputing Center to uncover clues about tornadoes.

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Teaching Box Group

How do they happen?

Where do they happen?

How do they affect people?

Goal: Students learn how tornadoes form and the atmospheric conditions that are conducive to tornadoes.

Engage students by asking questions.

Explore through hands-on tornado activities.

Explain how tornadoes form and the types of tornadoes through videos, online reading, and an in-class presentation.

Elaborate student learning by having them compare and contrast tornadoes.

Extend student learning by guiding them to put all of the pieces together.

Evaluate student understanding of how tornadoes form.

Performance Expectations and Standards:

Goal: Students will understand where tornadoes happen.

Engage students with class conversations and visuals of tornado distributions.

Explain the geography of tornadoes in depth through online reading and in-class discussion.

Elaborate and extend student understanding of tornado occurance through data analysis.

Extension for indpendent or small group study.

Evaluate learning by having students interpret tornado data or through writing.

Performance Expectations and Standards:

Goal: Students will learn how tornadoes impact communities and develop a safety plan.

Engage students with a first-person narrative written by a tornado researcher.

Explore: Guide students to explore the impacts of tornadoes through literature and media.

Explain: Have students present the impacts of tornadoes through a case study.

Elaborate: Guide students to develop a safety plan for their home, school, and/or community.

Evaluate by having students synthesize their learning in a Tornado Public Service Announcement for their school, community, or region.

Performance Expectations and Standards:

ResourcesThese resources can be incorporated as homework, enhancements, or extensions.

Resources

These resources can be incorporated as homework, enhancements, or extensions.