This Unit provides the opportunity for students to perform experiments centered around Charles’ Law, the relationship between the temperature and density
of air, and the relationship between the density of air and atmospheric pressure.
Through these experiments, students should become more aware of how changes in the temperature of areas of the atmosphere produce changes in its density. Students should also begin to understand how the rising and sinking of air that results from changes in density can produce changes in atmospheric pressure, and the development of high and low-pressure centers. In addition, students will conduct experiments that simulate the creation of high and low-pressure centers and initiate pressure gradient forces as a way to understand the causes and characteristics of wind.
Through their experiments, students should gain a better understanding of atmospheric events, weather phenomena, and the scientific principles that govern them.
Conceptual Themes addressed in this Unit:
- Properties of Matter
- Systems
- Changes and Reactions
- Concentration
- Force and Pressure