Teachers
| Active Inquiry Questions |
Key Concept
Events such as El Niño and La Niña can have dramatic effects on weather patterns, marine life, and economic resources around the world. These events are related to oceanic Sea Surface Temperature (SST), atmospheric winds, and upwelling.
Synopsis
Students will use satellite data from the NOAA/NESDIS website and other related sites to answer inquiry-based questions relating to El Niño and La Niña events. SST satellite imagery can be used to help predict these events in future years to prepare regions for unusual climatic patterns.Background Scenario
Flooding rains and warm weather in Peru wipe out the anchovy harvest. Torrential downpours and mud slides besiege southern California while the Northeast United States has fewer hurricanes and a mild winter. Droughts strike Indonesia, Africa, and Australia--all within the period of the same few months. Could all these events possibly be related?The entire phenomenon of El Niño (warm) and La Niña (cold) episodes are extremes of what is often referred to as the ENSO (El Niño Southern Oscillation) cycle. ENSO is a natural part of our climate system arising from interactions between the ocean and the atmosphere. The cycle has an average period of about four years, although the period has varied between two and seven years in the historical record. This cycle encompasses changes in ocean surface and subsurface temperatures, tropical rainfall, atmospheric winds and air pressure. During El Niño episodes the equatorial sea surface temperatures (SSTs) are abnormally warm from the date line eastward to the South American coast. However, there is a strong annual cycle in the actual SSTs across the eastern equatorial Pacific, such that SSTs are sufficiently warm (approximately 28 degrees C or 82 degrees F) to support persistent tropical rainfall and convective activity in this region for only part of the year.
Visit the Background Scenario page for a more in depth discussion.
Goals and Objectives
In this lesson, the students will:
- Develop questions and identify concepts that guide scientific investigations,
- Design and conduct scientific investigation,
- Use technology to improve investigations and communications,
- Analyze images, maps and charts to predict and understand climatic events.
Science Process Skills
Observing, predicting, interpreting, manipulating, graphing, communicatingConcept Connections
Heat exchange, climate, economics, nutrients, local and global weather
Vocabulary
thermocline, euphotic, trophic, ENSO, trade winds, upwelling, downwelling, anomaly
Materials
Computer, Internet Access, pen or pencil
Background Power PointGrade Level: grades 9-12
Key Question
Flooding in Peru, droughts in Africa, hurricanes in the U.S. Is El Niño to blame?Teacher Preparation
Begin the lesson by asking the Key Question. The students’ answers will help you become familiar with their knowledge of El Niño. The PowerPoint presentation is provided to give the students the necessary background information to complete this lesson.Begin the inquiry by generating student questions relating to the El Nino and sea surface temperatures data provided in the PowerPoint presentation. As the students generate questions, record those questions on the board.
Once the students have all the necessary background information, you may begin asking them the "Active Inquiry Questions". Guide the students with this series of questions, provided on the student page, to get them started on the inquiry part of the lesson. These questions are designed to guide your students through their study of the El Niño data. Their inquiries and subsequent findings will lead them to more complex questions that they can record for further investigation. Your goal is to help the students generate questions that can later be used in a hypothesis for research. Also available is a Guidelines for a Good Research Question link. This link will help students become familiar with the process of creating a good scientific question that can be answered using the data provided by the NOAA/NESDIS website.
Once the students have generated enough questions, split them up into groups of three or four. Each group is assigned a different question to investigate. Lead each group through the Researching a Hypothesis link to help guide them in researching a hypothesis. It should take a 90-minute class period to provide background, generate questions, look at data, assign groups, and go over methodology. The following day, the students can use the class time to investigate their hypotheses and present their results. It is important that you not feel like you have to have all the answers. Remember this is inquiry – let the students teach you!
Activity Inquiry Questions
Here are a few examples the teacher can give the students to get them started. Following each question is a link to data that will help answer the question. All external links open in a new window. The maps below show experimental NOAA/NESDIS data and should be interpreted with caution.1. Observe the most recent 2-month SST animation. What regions throughout the oceans appear to be warmer or colder than normal?
http://coralreefwatch.noaa.gov/satellite/current/sst_anomaly_2m.html2. Now look at the most recent 6-month SST animation. Do you notice any regions that may have warmer or colder SST’s occurring over time? Do these differences relate to seasonal changes?
http://coralreefwatch.noaa.gov/satellite/current/sst_anomaly_6m.html3. Observe the change in SST off of the west coast of South America near Peru and Ecuador. What changes do you notice in SST's over a 4-month period? Is there any evidence that may show an El Niño or La Niña event occurring?
http://coralreefwatch.noaa.gov/satellite/current/sst_anomaly_4m.html4. Look at the data of the months for May 1997 through to March 1998. What do you see happening to the SST's over this 10-month period? Is there any evidence that may show an El Niño or La Niña event occurring here too?
http://www.osdpd.noaa.gov/PSB/EPS/SST/al_climo.html5. Using the same data, can you find any other anomalies? Can you find any other El Niño or La Niña events? If so, where and when do these events occur?
http://www.osdpd.noaa.gov/PSB/EPS/SST/al_climo.htmlMore Questions To Think About
1. Observe the current daily and nighttime SST anomaly charts. Do you notice any differences between SST at different times of the day. Why or why not?
http://www.osdpd.noaa.gov/PSB/EPS/SST/climo.html2.Compare the current Coral Reef Hotspots with the current daily SST anomaly charts. Are there any correlations between the location of hotspots and SST?
Experimental Coral Bleaching Hotspots
http://www.osdpd.noaa.gov/PSB/EPS/SST/climohot.htmlExperimental Daily SST Anomaly charts
http://www.osdpd.noaa.gov/PSB/EPS/SST/climo.html3. Look at the various SST images during El Niño years. Which regions do you think could potentially be coral reef bleaching hotspots?
http://www.osdpd.noaa.gov/PSB/EPS/SST/al_climo.html
