Wind Farms of the Future

Overview

In this virtual workshop, we will review strategies for how to facilitate the Wind Farms of the Future Data Puzzle in your middle and high school science classrooms. Participants will engage with the teaching materials (teacher guide, slide deck, student worksheet, and answer key) from both the teacher and student perspective and upon completion, be prepared to implement the Data Puzzle in their classroom.

Participants seeking a 3-hour PD certificate from the University of Colorado Boulder for completing the Wind Farms of the Future virtual PD should submit their answers to the questions/tasks below using this Google Form.

Please email jonathan.griffith@colorado.edu when you have submitted your Form.

What are Data Puzzles?

Data Puzzles combine classroom-friendly datasets with the research-backed instructional practices of Ambitious Science Teaching to help students make sense of the natural world. If this is your first time learning about Data Puzzles we encourage you to read through our Instructional Framework page on the Data Puzzles website so that you can understand how the Ambitious Science Teaching instructional practices are integrated into these sensemaking lessons.

About the Wind Farms of the Future Data Puzzle

The rise in atmospheric carbon dioxide, the result of humans burning fossil fuels, is causing the rise in global temperatures. To stop or slow this trend, we must transition to renewable energy (e.g., wind, solar). But where should these renewables be constructed? Dr. Julie Lundquist, an atmospheric scientist at the University of Colorado Boulder, studies wind and the energy that can be produced by wind turbines (map right shows the location of wind farms in the United States, from Vox). Understanding wind patterns related to surface roughness and wind speeds (parameters featured in this Data Puzzle) across the United States allows scientists, engineers, and technicians to identify ideal locations for constructing wind turbines and help the United States and countries around the world meet their goals for reducing carbon dioxide emissions.

Map showing distribution of wind turbines in the US

Instructional Overview

Grade level	Middle and High School
Instructional time	~120 minutes
Investigative question	Where in the United States (lands and/or waters) should new wind turbines be constructed to generate the most energy?
Science ideas	Wind Renewable energy (wind) Climate change
NGSS connections	Disciplinary Core Ideas ESS3.D: Global Climate Change ETS1.B: Developing Possible Solutions Science and Engineering Practices Analyzing and interpreting data Constructing explanations Crosscutting Concepts Patterns Energy and Matter

Pre-workshop tasks

The Data Puzzle includes three main components, it is important to understand the differences between the materials. BEFORE you dive into the virtual workshop, please complete the following tasks:

Open the teacher guide. Note that the teacher provides some short facilitation tips and some additional materials you can use to differentiate the curriculum.
Flip through the slide deck. Note that the opening scenario is only on the slides, not on the student worksheet.
Print the student worksheet. Note that the student worksheet has the background reading and space for students’ models.

Part 1: Eliciting Students’ Ideas

Overview Video

The goal of this first Data Puzzle practice is to elicit student resources (ideas, experiences, and language) about an opening scenario (e.g., prompt, image, demo, video) that encourages students to think about a science idea in the context of their own life before they explore this same science idea in the context of the Data Puzzle. Note that Part 1 (Opening Scenario) does not appear on the student worksheet. Instead it is meant to be facilitated before the student worksheet is distributed to students (see slides and teacher guide).

The following video is an overview of the Eliciting Students’ Ideas practice in the context of the Wind Farms of the Future Data Puzzle and includes facilitation strategies and discourse moves.

Why it’s important

Student resources (ideas, experiences, and language) serve as the foundation upon which new science ideas can be reconstructed and reorganized. Revealing these resources expands the range of ideas available to the entire class and allows teachers to adapt further instruction to help connect student resources to new and abstract science ideas. Find more information about the Eliciting Students’ Ideas practice here.

Now that you understand the goal of the Eliciting Students’ Ideas practice and have heard some tips about how to facilitate the opening scenario, it’s time for you to think about how you might implement this practice in your own classroom by reflecting on the opening scenario and “Stop and Think” questions below.

Stop and Think

How do you think your students will respond to this opening scenario prompt?
Would you have students engage with the opening scenario as a warm up prompt they respond to in their notebooks? Think-pair-share? Small group white boarding activity?
When facilitating a discussion about this opening scenario prompt, what key ideas might you listen for and mark to be used as a resource later in the Data Puzzle?

Connecting student resources to the Data Puzzle

After bringing out student resources about the opening scenario, it’s important to help students make connections between the opening scenario and the science investigation they are about to engage with in the Data Puzzle. Embedded in the slide deck are specific discussion prompts to help students make these connections and slides (see below) that introduce the Data Puzzle featured scientist, atmospheric scientist Julie Lundquist, who studies wind patterns to determine where wind turbines should be constructed in order to produce the most energy.

Stop and Think

How can you support your students in making the connection between their experiences with high wind speeds and the importance of understanding wind patterns in determining where to construct wind farms?

It's time to learn more about the featured scientists’ research by engaging with the interactive reading as part of the next practice, “Identifying Important Science Ideas."

Part 2: Identifying Important Science Ideas

Overview Video

In this practice, students engage with an interactive reading that we call the “puzzle plot”. The goal of this practice is to have students explore new science ideas they’ll need to explain a question the featured scientist(s) are investigating .

At this point teachers should distribute the student worksheet to be used for Parts 2,3, and 4.

The following video is an overview of the Identifying Important Sciences Ideas practice in the context of the Wind Farms of the Future Data Puzzle and includes facilitation strategies and discourse moves.

Why it’s important

Many science ideas are abstractions that go beyond the students’ personal experiences and current understandings. These abstract ideas must be presented by teachers (direct instruction) as tools students will reason with as they seek to make sense of the investigative question featured in the Data Puzzle’s interactive reading. Find more information about the Identifying Important Science Ideas practice here.

Now that you understand the goal of the Identifying Important Science Ideas practice and have heard some facilitation strategies, it’s time for you to think about how you might implement this practice in your own classroom by completing a series of tasks and reflecting on the “Stop and Think” questions below.

Interactive Reading

Workshop task

Read and annotate the Puzzle Plot text - see student worksheet

Note that you may want to print and annotate the student worksheet directly if you are planning to submit the worksheet to receive a PD certificate.

Instructions: Open the Student Worksheet and read the Puzzle Plot text, pausing to watch each of the embedded videos. When reading the text, be sure to complete the following tasks (just as your students would do):

Circle the investigative question the scientists are seeking to answer
Underline similarities between the reading and the opening scenario

Stop and Think

How might you engage your students with this interactive reading? Would you have students read the text individually? Or would you, the teacher, read the text aloud to the whole class pausing to watch each of the videos together?
Would you incorporate close reading strategies that you may already use in your classroom?
How can you support students in identifying similarities and making connections between the science ideas presented in the puzzle plot text and the science ideas that were elicited from the opening scenario?

Summarize Student Ideas

Workshop task

Summarize science ideas - see student worksheet

Instructions: After facilitating a discussion to help students make connections between the ideas presented in the text and the student resources elicited during the opening scenario, it’s time to summarize these important science ideas by completing questions #1-3 (included below) on your student worksheet.

Which landscape (forest, grassland, open water) would you expect to have the highest and lowest wind speeds? Why do you think this?
Record the investigative question
Make a prediction (based on evidence from the text) about the investigative question

Stop and Think

Would you have students work individually or in pairs to complete the student worksheet?
What challenges might your students encounter when making a prediction about the investigative question?

It's time to test your prediction for the investigative question by analyzing and interpreting a dataset collected by the featured scientist(s) as part of the “Supporting Ongoing Changes In Thinking" practice.

Part 3: Supporting Students Ongoing Changes in Thinking

Overview Video

The goal of this practice is to provide students with an opportunity to test their initial predictions/understandings for the investigative question against real data.

The following video is an overview of the Supporting Ongoing Changes in Thinking practice in the context of the Wind Farms of the Future Data Puzzle and includes facilitation strategies and discourse moves.

Why it’s important

Students apply their knowledge to analyze and interpret an authentic dataset and understand that their explanations will likely have changed over time in response to new evidence. Find more information about the Supporting Ongoing Changes in Thinking practice here.

Now that you understand the goal of the Supporting Ongoing Changes in Thinking practice and have heard some facilitation strategies, it’s time for you to think about how you might implement this practice in your own classroom by completing a series of tasks and reflecting on the “Stop and Think” questions below.

Introducing the dataset

For this Wind Farms of the Future Data Puzzle, students will use the “Global Wind Atlas” (online interactive) to explore the relationship between surface roughness (referred to as roughness length in the interactive) and wind speeds in the United States. We recommend modeling the use of the interactive with students as a whole class before giving them an opportunity to explore the tool on their own.

Analyzing data is a challenging task for many students, especially when they have not collected the dataset themselves. What do the different colors represent? What are the units for wind speed? Roughness length? It’s important for students to be able to answer these and other questions BEFORE they are asked to identify patterns in a dataset.

Roughness length across the United States

Average wind speed at 100 m altitude across the United States

Top: The top map shows the roughness length across the United States (lands and waters). The color green represents the highest roughness lengths (most surface roughness) and the lighter colors lower roughness lengths. Notice that the United States coastlines have the lowest roughness lengths.

Bottom: The bottom map shows the average wind speed at a height of 100 meters (hub height of many wind turbines) across the United States. Notice the highest wind speeds occur along the United States coastlines and over the Great Lakes.

Stop and Think

How might you introduce the Global Wind Atlas interactive and instruct students to take screen shots to insert into their student worksheets (see graphs below)? Consider using these prompts:
- Select the “Mean Wind Speed” wind layer. What do the different colors represent?
- Select the “Roughness Length” terrain layer. What do the different colors represent?
- How could you use the Global Wind Atlas to learn more about the relationship between wind speeds and surface roughness (roughness length) in the United States?

Workshop Task

Identifying Patterns - see student worksheet

After facilitating a class discussion about the dataset, it’s time to identify patterns in the data and revise your prediction (based on evidence from the graph) for the investigative question by completing questions #4-8 on your student worksheet.

Teacher Tip

We recommend creating a list of Back Pocket Questions (BPQ) that you could use as you move from table to table to help students focus on the task, recall earlier class discussions about a particular science idea, or to challenge students to connect any patterns they’ve identified back to the investigative question. See this practice document (page #4) for example BPQs.