“HELPING TEACHERS MAKE SENSE OF DATA SO THAT THEIR STUDENTS CAN MAKE SENSE OF PHENOMENA”

OFFERINGS (AT THE PRESENT TIME, WILL BE EXPANDED):

PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT WORKSHOPS in WEATHER, CLIMATE, the WATER CYCLE and OTHER EARTH SCIENCE TOPICS for TEACHERS in GRADES 3-6. THESE WILL INCLUDE INSTRUCTIONAL MATERIALS.

NOTICE and WONDER….

One cannot help but notice and wonder about something like this unusual sheared mammatus cloud.

But like all clouds it is a phenomenon indicating the incredible things that are going on in our atmosphere.

What secrets do YOU think this cloud is trying to tell us?

Photo Taken in Stillwater, MN, Fall 2019. Copyright Amy Lilienfeld/Circle of Illumination Science Education

But clouds are just one element of the highly complex atmospheric phenomena we call “weather” and “climate”. Although operating at vastly different temporal (time) and spatial scales both of these are comprised of the same individual elements: air temperature, atmospheric pressure, humidity and wind. Each of these is constantly changing as well as often interacting with each other.

Dew is common in the mornings during summer and fall.

Photo Copyright Amy Lilienfeld 2017.

But the catastrophes that took place in the Southeast U.S. in the latter part of September and first week or so of October 2024, i.e., the occurrence of Hurricanes Helene and Milton, creates a greater sense of urgency for not only understanding the dynamics of weather but also its relationship to climate and climate change.

The primary mission of Circle of Illumination Science Education is to provide training to teachers in Grades 3-6 in the use of these tools as well as to provide high quality instructional materials.

(But IMPORTANT NOTICE: Although this is an e-commerce web site the shop has not yet been set up for sale of instructional materials as these materials are still being developed. Districts who want to schedule workshops will be billed through invoices.)

Fortunately… for those of us teaching weather, climate and other earth-science topics there is a wealth of data in a variety of forms online— as well as satellite imagery —with which we can make sense of these complex phenomena.