Mathematics Grade Prototype Curriculum Guide

Follow-up/extension

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  Have students pretend they are TV reporters reporting on a storm. Instruct them to write a script that describes the storm, weather conditions associated with the storm, and destruction caused by the storm, but not to name the storm type. Then allow each student to read his/her reports to the class, and challenge the audience to guess the type of storm being described.
  
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  Have students make a poster presenting safety rules to observe during each type of storm.
  

Resources

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  Connections: Connecting Books to the Virginia SOLs. Fairfax County Public Schools and The College of William and Mary. http://www.fcps.edu/cpsapps/connections. Presents a database of more than 1,000 works of children’s literature and their connection to the Virginia Standards of Learning.
  
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  Live Streaming Local Weather. Weatherbug. http://www.weatherbug.com/aws/index.asp.
  
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  National Severe Storms Laboratory. http://www.nssl.noaa.gov/.
  
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  Outstanding Science Trade Books for Students K–12. National Science Teachers Association (NSTA). http://www.nsta.org/ostbc.
  
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  Search for Literature: Literature for Science and Mathematics. California Department of Education. http://www.cde.ca.gov/ci/sc/ll/ap/searchlist.asp. Offers a searchable database.
  
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  Weather Education. National Weather Service. http://www.nws.noaa.gov/om/edures.htm.
  
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  “Wind Speed.” Activities Integrating Math and Science (AIMS). http://www.aimsedu.org/Activities/weather1/justAGust.pdf.
  

Storm Chart

Name: Date:

Storm Type	Associated Weather Conditions	When Storms Occur
Thunderstorm	Heavy rain, strong wind, flashes of lightning, rolls of thunder	When a warm, moist air mass near the ground is covered by a mass of cold air. Severe thunderstorms have winds of 58 mph or greater.
Hurricanes (tropical storms over the Atlantic Ocean)	Heavy rain, strong whirling winds, high tides, and huge waves	When a warm, low-pressure weather system is surrounded by cooler air. Winds exceed 75 mph.
Tornadoes (funnel-shaped cloud)	Strong, whirling winds in a funnel-shaped cloud	When a warm, moist air mass near the ground is covered by a mass of cold air and creates a strong, rotating column of air that reaches from a cumulonimbus cloud to the ground.

Sample Released SOL Test Items

If this device were placed outside, it could be used to show —

Organizing Topic — Investigating Motion

Standards of Learning

4.1 The student will plan and conduct investigations in which

a) distinctions are made among observations, conclusions, inferences, and predictions;

b) hypotheses are formulated based on cause-and-effect relationships;

c) variables that must be held constant in an experimental situation are defined;

d) appropriate instruments are selected to measure linear distance, volume, mass, and temperature;

e) appropriate metric measures are used to collect, record, and report data;

f) data are displayed using bar and basic line graphs;

g) numerical data that are contradictory or unusual in experimental results are recognized; and

h) predictions are made based on data from picture graphs, bar graphs, and basic line graphs.

4.2 The student will investigate and understand characteristics and interaction of moving objects. Key concepts include

a) motion is described by an object’s direction and speed;

b) forces cause changes in motion;

c) friction is a force that opposes motion; and

d) moving objects have kinetic energy.

Essential Understandings, Correlation to Textbooks and

Knowledge, and Skills Other Instructional Materials

The students should be able to

describe the position of an object;

collect and display in a table and line graph time and position data for a moving object;

explain that speed is a measure of motion;

interpret data to determine if the speed of an object is increasing, decreasing, or remaining the same;

identify the forces that cause an object’s motion;

describe the direction of an object’s motion: up, down, forward, backward;

infer that objects have kinetic energy.

Where Am I?

Organizing Topic Investigating Motion

Overview Students determine what it means to find an object’s position, and they describe the direction of an object’s motion as up, down, forward, or backward.

Related Standards of Learning 4.1; 4.2a