Categories
Climate Change Science Teaching

Climate Change in Physics

We have created a set of resources designed to allow physics teachers to demonstrate how the core physics taught links to current climate change research and action. For each topic, an expert in the field has recorded a short film which could be shown at the end of the lesson or topic. For some topics, practical activities or worksheets are also included:

Adapting the National Grid

We have a large and growing proportion of our electricity from renewables, and the amount of electricity generated varies depending on the weather. In this film, Jade Kimpton from the National Grid shows how the flow of electricity in the National Grid is getting more complex. 

Key words: renewable and non-renewable energy, greenhouse gasses, fossil fuels, gravitational potential and kinetic store of energy.

Associated activity: UK energy mix

Clouds: Uncertainty in Climate Projections

Clouds reflect the Sun’s light, cooling the planet, but they can also act a bit like greenhouse gases, warming the planet. In this film, Dan Grosvenor from the University of Leeds shows how different types of cloud have a different climate effect.

Key words: transmit, scatter, reflect, dispersion, refraction, electromagnetic radiation

Associated Activity: Light levels and cloud colour

Atmospheric Pressure

The Jet streams are bands of fast winds high in the atmosphere which are driven by pressure differences. Stormy weather follows the jet stream. In this film, Tim Woollings from the University of Oxford shows how, as the lower atmosphere gets warmer, we need to understand how the patterns of pressure and the jet stream change and what effect that will have on storms in the UK.

Key words: Atmospheric pressure, weight, force

Associated activity: Using PhyPhox to investigate atmospheric pressure

 

Optimising Flight Times

Cathie Wells from the University of Reading is helping aircraft conserve fuel which reduces greenhouse gas emissions by making use of high resolution forecasts of three dimensional wind speeds in the atmosphere.

Key Words: speed, distance, time, velocity, greenhouse gas

Associated Activity: Optimising flight times

States of Matter – Reducing Aircraft Contrails

Contrails occur when water vapour from jet engines condenses – only when the temperature and humidity conditions of the air is right. Contrails act like greenhouse gases. Marc Stettler from Imperial College, London is interested in guiding aircraft to fly where conditions are right, reducing contrail formation.

Key words: gas, liquid, solid, evaporate, condense, sublimate, deposit, humidity, latent heat

 

Categories
Climate Change CPD Research Schools Teaching

Panel Discussion: Climate Literacy in 2022 School Leavers

Join experts from the worlds of education policy and climate science to explore the findings of a climate literacy survey conducted earlier this year on the Royal Meteorological Society’s behalf by Ipsos MORI as part of their Young Person’s Omnibus survey.

The questions asked in the survey were developed by the Royal Meteorological Society, in conjunction with many of their members, including authors of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change report, to ensure that they give a fair assessment of climate literacy. The questions will remain relevant in years to come as we hope to repeat the survey annually to assess the impact of interventions on climate change education in schools.

The ongoing results of the survey will inform the work of the Royal Meteorological Society, supporting teachers of all subjects to make use of the opportunities within the current curricula and exam specifications to teach climate change.

This free 50-minute virtual event will include an overview of the findings of the survey, panel discussion and Q&A.

The panel will include:

  • Prof Andrew Charlton-Perez, Head of School of Mathematical, Physical and Computational Sciences, University of Reading and Professor of Meteorology
  • Dr Sylvia Knight, Head of Education, Royal Meteorological Society
  • Dr Pippa Bailey, Head of Climate Change and Sustainability Practice, Ipsos MORI
  • Carl Ward, Chief Executive, City Learning Trust and Chair of the Foundation for Education Development 

 

Categories
Teaching

Teach Award Finalist

Teach Award finalist

We are delighted that our Weather and Climate: a Teachers’ Guide has been selected as a finalist of the teach secondary awards 2022

Categories
CPD Extreme weather Weather

5 Weather Websites to Keep an Eye on

Here are 5 (ish) websites which anyone teaching about weather may find useful: 

 

Earth.nullschool.net for current and past atmospheric and oceanic conditions

Met Office weather warnings

Met Office synoptic charts

Blitzortung for live, global lightning 

NASA for live, global rainfall 

NetWeather for radar images, will it snow and some satellite images

Zoom Earth for satellite images

Categories
Climate Climate Change Weather

Weather, Climate and Climate Change

This is probably one of our favourite short explainer type videos that we use when delivering teacher CPD and when talking to students. It uses the analogy of a dog and its owner to represent the relationship between weather and climate, and can be really helpful!   You can find classroom resources and further support materials for teachers in our Weather and Climate: a Teachers’ Guide chapter on weather and climate.
Categories
Fieldwork

Ideas for National Fieldwork Week

Here are some ideas for National Fieldwork Week which runs from 6-10 June 2022 – suitable for primary, secondary, geography, science and maths lessons. If you use some of them with your class, why not share them @RMetS #MetLink or use it as evidence for a MetMark

Use the PhyPhox app to explore atmospheric pressure variations around your school buildings – for example in a stairwell. Or use it to see how pressure changes over time. 

PhyPhox app
dark clouds

Use a lightmeter app and a greyscale colour chart to test the hypothesis that “When the clouds are darker, more of the Sun’s light has been scattered and so less light reaches the ground

Does your school have an indoor microclimate? Does it link to how comfortable students find different classrooms? Or even to behaviour

classroom
school microclimate

Where would you put …. an old favourite; use this resource or this lesson plan as the basis for your own fieldwork. 

Contrails and climate change – the clouds, contrails, that aircraft leave behind have almost as much impact on the climate as the fossil fuel the aircraft consumes. How many contrails can you see? How long are they? This old OPAL resource is a good start. 

Aircraft and contrails

Measuring raindrops… How big is a raindrop? Collect data and analyse mode, mean and median, range, interquartile range and standard deviation

raindrops
Categories
Climate Change Primary Science Teaching

Post SATs Year 6 Weather and Climate Day

We have pulled together a set of Weather and Climate Change resources which could be used with a year 6 class after their SATs exams. Designed as a progressive set of engaging and interactive resources, they introduce skills and knowledge which will help prepare students for secondary school.

The resources can be used in independent lessons, or as part of a whole or half weather and climate themed day.

 

Categories
Climate CPD Teaching Weather

Resource Wins GA Silver Award

Rob Gamesby collects GA silver award

We were delighted that our Weather and Climate Teachers’ Guide/ scheme of work for 11-14 geography was awarded a ‘silver’ by the Geographical Association at their conference in April.

“This excellent – and free – resource, accompanied by differentiated PowerPoints, is well-structured, informative, and fits some complex weather and climate topics into a digestible format. The judges felt it is an accessible resource that provides support for subject specialist and non-specialist teachers alike. They liked the examples that the authors used and the way it makes connections from one lesson to another, building the learning along the way.”

Photo credit: Geographical Association/Shaun Flannery 2022

Categories
Secondary Weather

Tropical Continental Air Mass and Saharan Dust

This morning, skies were orange/ beige across much of England as a Tropical continental (Tc) air mass brought Saharan dust. 

Saharan Dust on Windscreen

Image credit: Geoff Jenkins

Read more about why the air was carrying so much dust, and see some stunning photos from Spain and France here. The further the air travelled, the more dust was deposited and the less dust remained in the air – so the most vivid skies were in the south. 

Read our guide to air masses for background information or show our YouTube explainer

weather chart 16th March 2022

How can you tell that there is Tc air from this weather chart (midnight on 16th March 2022)? 

The air approximately follows the isobars, shown as thin lines on this chart. To work out which way, you need to look at the pressure systems and remember that air goes clockwise around anticyclones (H) and anticlockwise around cyclones (L). 

Considering either the 962mbar Low or the 1033mbar High shows you that the air is coming from the south (a southerly wind) across England.

Following the isobar marked 1020 back, you can see that the air has come over Spain from Africa. This is a Tropical continental air mass.

Behind the occluded front, for much of Ireland, the wind coming from the west. The 1020mbar Low is a bit misleading, but you can see that the air coming up from the south diverts to curve round it in an anticlockwise flow. 

Tc weather chart
Categories
Research Science Secondary

Resources for Mars Day

Mars not dusty

14th March 2022 is Mars Day

Establishing the radiation or energy budget of the Earth has been crucial to understanding climate change, but what do the radiation budgets of Mars and other planets in our solar system look like? Read about it in this article from Physics Review or this one from Science in School

You can find the energy budget images for all the planets mentioned here