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ctivities
Introduction:
At this point students have already learned quite a bit about weather patterns. They
know what a cold front is, as well as the variables that will change as a front passes. In
this activity that knowledge will be used to:
- Identify satellite features associated with a cold fro n t ,
- Identify surface data trends associated with the passing of a cold fro n t ,
- Track the movement of a cold front, and
- P redict the arrival of the cold fro n t.
Student instructions are on page 268 and can be copied and distributed to the class.
Students are expected to turn in a written re p o rt that includes the following sections:
- Title page - names of group members and dates of study
- I n t roduction - summary of what you know about cold fronts (include citations) and
a statement about the objective of your re p o rt
- Materials and methods
- D a t a
- I n f o rmation collected from the satellite images including the position of a cold fro n t
- P redicted velocity of the fro n t
- Table of surface data
- Graphs demonstrating ground data tre n d s
- D i s c u s s i o n
- C i t a t i o n s
- Pull up the day’s satellite image of your location.
- Using the satellite image, indicate the position of the cold front. Also, note the types
of clouds you see and their positions relative to the cold front (are they on the
leading edge? trailing edge? middle?).
- Step #2 should be repeated for 2 or 3 images in order to get a good idea of the
movement associated with this front.
- Based on the images you have analyzed thus far, calculate the average velocity of
the cold front. There are a number of ways to do this. Students should decide on a
method, then show all their steps to illustrate how they have chosen to pro c e e d.
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