Understanding Earth's Atmosphere and Ocean: AOS Investigation Kit
This all-inclusive educational kit provides 10 investigations including more than 25 activities that explore basic topics in meteorology and oceanography, detailed below. Completing these inquiry-based investigations allow you to observe properties of the ocean and atmosphere first hand. They can be used as a supplement to any of the AMS courses or alone as a classroom aid or study tool.
Lesson 1: Air Pressure Systems
Kit Materials: The Hand-Twist Model & Podcast
- "The Hand Twist Model: High and Low Pressure Systems"
Lesson 2: Air Pressure Systems continued
Kit Materials: Pressure Blocks, Contouring Plastic Strips & Podcast
- "What is Pressure?"
- "Atmospheric Pressure Changes with Height"
- "Constant Air Pressure Surfaces"
- "Ocean Surface Currents"
- "Meanders and Ocean Rings"
Lesson 3: Pressure-Temperature Relationships & Make a Cloud!
Kit Materials: Temperature Strip
- "Air Pressure and Temperature Relationships"
- "Making Clouds Appear and Disappear"
Lesson 4: Dew Point, Humidity & Supercooled Water
Kit Materials: 4 Thermometers
- "Wet Bulb Temperature"
- "Dewpoint and Relative Humidity"
- "Supercooling Water"
Lesson 5: ¡El Niño! - ¡La Niña!
Kit Materials: ¡El Niño! - ¡La Niña! Slider
- "The Tropical Pacific During Neutral Conditions"
- "The Tropical Pacific During ¡El Niño!"
- "The Tropical Pacific During ¡La Niña!"
Lesson 6: Ocean Wave Characteristics
Kit Materials: Wave Analyzer Slide Chart
Lesson 7: Ocean Characteristics
Kit Materials: Inflatable World Globe, Tide Model Bulge Pages
- "Exploring Locations on Earth"
- "Wind Driven Ocean Circulations and Gyres"
- "Tides"
- "Upwelling and Ocean Productivity"
- "Plate Tectonics"
- "Tsunamis"
Lesson 8: Surface Weather: Pressure Gradient Force & Coriolis Effect
Kit Materials: Coriolis Effect Card Stock Page
Lesson 9: Understanding Radar
Kit Materials: Radar Cardstock Page
- "Constructing a Radar Screen"
- "Interpreting a Radar Display"
Lesson 10: The Stories Clouds Tell
Kit Materials: “The Stories Clouds Tell” book
- "What is a Cloud?"
- "Types of Clouds"