Air Pressure Curriculum

Acknowledgements

This module was created by Belinda Basca and Tina Grotzer with assistance from many talented individuals. David Perkins provided insight into the nature of the causalities involved. Dorothy MacGillivray contributed to the design and substance of the module. Rebecca Lincoln provided invaluable editing and advice on content. Melanie Pincus assisted in analyzing the data that we collected on teaching the concepts in these lessons. Sarah Mittlefehldt and Rebecca Lincoln helped to test the lessons with students and Regina Ritscher helped to analyze students' interviews to assess their understanding. Sun Kim and Becky DeVito assisted with editing and assembling aspects of the design. Carlos Vasco, Professor Emeritus of Mathematics, at the National University of Colombia at Bogata, and Joseph Snir, Physics Education Professor at the University of Haifa, Israel, advised us on matters of science and we thank them for their patience with our many questions and their good humor in finding ways to explain complex concepts so that students could grasp them. Bruce Campbell also helped with a number of science-related puzzles. Any errors or omissions are the sole responsibility of the authors. We are immensely grateful to Nora Sabelli, Ken Whang, and Elizabeth Vanderputten at the National Science Foundation for their support and guidance. The teachers in the Burlington, MA Public Schools, specifically Rich Carroll, Lucy Morris, Valorie Tobias, and David Thibault worked with us to test the concepts with their students. We are very grateful to them for their patience and insight. We thank the administration, particularly Dr. Bill Conners and Mr. Richard Connors, for supporting our work. We also thank the many students who shared their thinking with us over the past six years.

Explanation of Photo

Hurricanes are caused by a combination of atmospheric factors. One of the most important is an air pressure gradient: an area of low pressure at the center of a storm draws air from areas of higher pressure towards it, creating strong and destructive winds. (Photo Credit: National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration/Department of Commerce.)

This work was supported by the National Science Foundation, Grant No. REC-9725502 and No. REC-0106988, to Tina Grotzer and David Perkins, Co-Principal Investigators. Any opinions, findings, conclusions or recommendations expressed here are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation.