Seasons

Overview: The overarching goal of Earth as a System is Essential: Seasons and the Seas (EaSiE) is to transform the traditional middle school study of terrestrial seasons and weather into an exploration of the dynamic interactions between Earth’s land, water, atmosphere, and the living world. In prior Weather and Climate lessons, local air temperature measurements were collected daily and applied to develop working definitions of weather and climate. Additional Data and Graphing lessons provided opportunities to examine temporal and spatial weather data, and investigate questions about atmospheric weather patterns.

The prerequisite lesson series, Weather & Climate and Data & Graphing can be found here.

Seasons in the Gulf of Maine: Sea Surface Temperature applies the understandings of weather and climate to investigate seasonality in the Gulf of Maine. Monthly sea surface temperature climatologies are examined for patterns and trends over the course of a year. Monthly chlorophyll climatologies are then analyzed, and connections between the sea surface temperature and chlorophyll patterns are explored.

Seasons in the Gulf of Maine: Thermoclines extends patterns related to seasonal changes observed on the sea surface to explore a third dimension: seasonal changes with depth in the Gulf of Maine region.

This lesson supports the big idea: Just as on land, there are seasonal changes in the Gulf of Maine.

Note: This lesson series is intended to serve as a relevant context for the teaching and learning of weather-related ideas in middle school. It is not designed to replace a comprehensive curriculum, but rather enrich and integrate authentic Earth systems science content into instructional units using NOAA resources.