Topic: Permanent and seasonal winds

Target group

First‑grade student of high school / technical school, basic programme

General requirements

I. Geographical knowledge

3 . Understanding the diversity of the geographical environment, major phenomena and geographic processes as well as their conditions and consequences.

Specific requirements

III. Atmosphere: climatic factors, distribution of air temperature, atmospheric pressure and precipitation, general atmospheric circulation, synoptic map, climatic zones and types of climates.

Student:

3) explains the mechanism of atmospheric circulation and distribution of atmospheric precipitation on Earth.

General aim of education

The student learns how permanent winds are created and periodically changing winds

Key competences

• communication in foreign languages;

• digital competence;

• learning to learn.

Criteria for success
The student will learn:

• you will explain the terms: trade, antipaths, monsoons, western winds, eastern winds;

• discuss the mechanism of the circulation of the trade‑off;

• discuss the mechanism of the formation of winter and summer monsoons, western winds and eastern winds;

• you will tell differences between winter and summer monsoon.

Methods/techniques

• expository

  • talk.

• activating

  • discussion.

• exposing

  • exposition.

• programmed

  • with computer;

  • with e‑textbook.

• practical

  • exercices concerned.

Forms of work

• individual activity;

• activity in pairs;

• activity in groups;

• collective activity.

Teaching aids

• e‑textbook;

• interactive whiteboard, tablets/computers;

• multimedia resources included in the „Winds fixed” lesson. Winds periodically changeable „in the e‑textbook.

Lesson plan overview

Before classes

• Students get acquainted with the content of the abstract. They prepare to work on the lesson in such a way to be able to summarize the material read in their own words and solve the tasks themselves.

Introduction

• The teacher determines the purpose of the lesson, informing the students about its planned course.

• The teacher writes the topic of the lesson on the blackboard or interactive whiteboard. Students write it in notebooks.

Realization

• Independent student work with an e‑textbook. Students will learn the lesson „Winds fixed. Winds periodically changing „and look for definitions of the following terms: trade winds, antipaths, monsoons. After recording the definitions, the students check whether they can characterize these types of winds properly, by performing an interactive exercise consisting in matching the correct descriptions to a given type of wind.

• The teacher presents the pupils with an illustration of 5 lessons in the e‑textbook and then launches a multimedia material presenting the creation of trade fairs. The teacher adds his comments and allows students to ask questions.

• The teacher divides the class into four groups, and each of them into smaller subgroups (maximum 4 people). Working in subgroups, one part of the class uses the available sources and illustrations to analyze the mechanism of formation of the winter monsoon, and the second part of the class - in terms of the mechanism of formation of the summer monsoon. In turn, the third group examines the mechanisms of the formation of the eastern winds, and the task of the fourth group is the western winds..

• Students exchange insights and conclusions drawn from the case analysis and consider the effects of the monsoon occurrence. The teacher complements their statements and straightens them if they are wrong.

Summary

• Summary of the lesson during which the systematization and consolidation of the acquired messages takes place and the notes are supplemented.

The following terms and recordings will be used during this lesson

Terms

Texts and recordings

Permanent and seasonal winds

Differences in atmospheric pressure and land level are very common on Earth. There are also winds everywhere. They may be permanent, seasonal, or local. Permanent winds are those resulting from global air circulation. Trade winds – permanent winds in the intertropical zone, blowing from the tropical highs to the equatorial zone of silence, with a deviation caused by the rotational motion of the Earth. Under the influence of the Coriolis force, on the northern hemisphere they blow from the north‑east, and on the southern hemisphere from the south‑east. Antitrades – winds blowing from the equator to the tropics, but at an altitude of a few or a dozen or so kilometers. Under the influence of the Coriolis force, on the northern hemisphere they blow from the south‑west, and on the southern hemisphere from the north‑west. It should be added that, according to the latest descriptions of general atmospheric circulation, the term ‘antitrades’ is no longer used to describe the air that disperses from above the equator towards higher latitudes.

Trade‑wind circulation is shown in the figure below.

Also permanent are the westerly winds, which blow from the tropics towards the polar circles on both hemispheres, as well as the easterly winds that blow from both poles to the polar circles.

Monsoon is a seasonal wind. It is created mainly due to changes in the seasons and the accompanying differences in the intensity of heating the surfaces of lands and oceans. In summer, large continents (especially Asia) warm up much more than the neighboring oceans (especially the Indian and Pacific Oceans). It is much warmer over the land. The air rises and produces a powerful area of low barometric pressure, while over the colder ocean an area of high barometric pressure forms. The wind called summer monsoon blows from the ocean and brings rainfall. In winter, it is the land that is colder, because it loses heat faster than the oceans, so a dry winter monsoon blows from the land towards the ocean.