FOSS Next Generation Weather and Water
Grades 6

The Weather and Water Course focuses on Earth’s atmosphere, weather, and water. Understanding weather is more than reading a thermometer and recording measurements. Students learn about atoms and molecules, density, wind, and energy transfer, then investigate phase change, the water cycle, ocean currents, climate change, and meteorology.
Investigation 1: What Is Weather?
Introduce the concept of weather and the tools that meteorologists use to measure and study weather factors.
Investigation 2: Air Pressure and Wind
Investigate the relationship between changing air pressure and wind, and explore a particle model for air pressure.
Investigation 3: Convection
Develop the concept of density on the way to understanding convection as a mechanism for energy transfer.
Investigation 4: Radiation
Compare cities at different latitudes to discover climate differences, then discover how climate is related to the amount of solar energy transferred to Earth.
Investigation 5: Conduction
Explore conduction to round out understanding of energy transfer and apply the understanding with an engineering challenge to insulate a model house.
Investigation 6: Air Flow
Apply the concept of energy transfer by convection, radiation, and conduction to develop a model of global wind patterns.
Investigation 7: Water in the Air
Focus on the wet part of weather by investigating phase change to understand cloud formation and precipitation.
Investigation 8: The Water Planet
Learn that the water cycle is complex and involves water everywhere in the global environment.
Investigation 9: Climate over Time
Refine the distinction between weather and climate, and consider evidence for climate change.
Investigation 10: Meteorology
Pull together all the physical science concepts students learned in the course to explain weather.