View the "Precipitation Towers" Interactive StoryMap

View the "Around the World with GPM" Interactive Storymap
 

Download Lesson Plan Files:

• Precipitation Towers Across the United States (.pdf)
• Precipitation Towers Around the Globe (.pdf)
• Student Capture Sheet (.pdf)
• Presentation (.ppt)
• Optional: 3D Printer File to Create Bases for Precipitation Towers  (.stl)

This lesson guides students to explore precipitation patterns in different locations by using cubes to make graphs of precipitation data. There are basic and intermediate versions requiring different levels of math skill (rounding decimals as well as analysis tools such as mean and range). After the students build the towers and make observations of the patterns of precipitation in their particular location, they can have a discussion as a class or in smaller groups to compare patterns in different locations, as well as thinking about other data that might be useful in analyzing the weather, as well as the impacts of having too much or too little precipitation. Extensions include various videos and animated datasets to prompt more observations and discussion. Instructions are also given for teachers to access data to create templates for their own locations.