Article Summaries

Title:  Upcoming hurricane season likely strong, but not like reocrd 2005;  USA Today
Summary:  The upcoming hurricane season of 2006 is predicted to be stronger than average.  This may seem alarming, however stronger than average does not mean worse than last year.  The 2005 hurricane season was an above average year in itself.  Recently, 25 countries met to discuss hurricane preparedness and have decided to place weather satellites into the earth’s atmosphere and buoys into the oceans along the East Coast of the US.  Experts feel that a better understanding of hurricanes will allow us to be better prepared for the 10-20 year active hurricane period ahead.
http://www.usatoday.com/weather/hurricane/2006-03-30-hurricane-forecast_x.htm?csp=34

Instructional Objective:  Identify and describe the atmopsheric and hydrospheric conditions associated with the formation and development of hurricanes, tornados, and thunderstorms. 

How will I incorporate this information into my unit:  It is important for students to link what they are learning to the real world.  This article allows them to take an event that has most likely had some effect on them and reflect on how it relates to what they are learning.  Also, students can see how an understanding the the cause and effect relationships related to the formation of hurricanes may be able to change their future in some way.  Students would read this article and be asked to provide feedback on what they thought.

Title:  Puzzling Activity at Mount St. Helens;  By Peggy Anderson;  Associated Press
Summary:  After 8 years of quiet, new lava domes, earthquakes, rockfalls, and plumes of ash are being observed on Mt St Helens.  This volcano, the youngest and most restless volcano in the Cascade range, was the site of the devastating 1980 eruption that killed 57 people and blew away one third of the cone shaped mountain.  The new lava dome, which currently measures 7,600 ft in height, could eventually restore Mt St Helens former cone shape.  We may only have to wait a couple thousand years, a very short time geologically speaking.
http://www.livescience.com/forcesofnature/ap_050722_mount_st_helens.html

Instructional Objective:  Recognize and explain how major geologic events are a result of the movement of Earth's crustal plates.

How will I incorporate this information into my unit:  Once students have completed the internet activity described in the students activities portion of this project, It will be time to discuss one of the cascade range volcanoes in detail.  Certainly there can't be a better volcanic eruption than the 1980 eruption of Mount St. Helens to capture the interest of students.  This article outlines the current activity occuring at Mount St. Helens and will provide students with an understanding of some of the tools scientists use to study and predict volcanoes and volcanic eruptions.

Title:  The discovery of 2003 UB313, the 10th planet
Summary:  Lila, Lilah, Xena, 2033UB313.  These are all labels people have given the newly discovered tenth planet.  This extremely distant planet/Kuiper belt object, is about 2400 Km across with an icy surface of methane and a rocky core.  The planet is in the part of its orbit where it is farthest from the sun which means its atmosphere is frozen solid.  How is this planet studied from such a vast distance?  Is it really a planet?  When will a final name be decided upon?  This article does an excellent job of explaining these items and more in a clear, easy to understand manner.
http://www.gps.caltech.edu/~mbrown/planetlila/

Instructional Objective:  Recognize that objects of our solar system are interrelated.

How will I incorporate this information into my unit:  This article will fit nicely inot my solar system unit prior to the solar system research project described in the student activities section of this project.  What I like best about this article is it answers the number one question students ask when we start studying astronomy and are learning  about objects that a very far away.  How do we know this information? As students read through this article I would have them keep a list of the different techniques that scientists have used to study this most distant planet.  This article does a great job of explaining many of these techniques in a manner that an eighth grader can understand.