Water: A Tour of Precipitation

Positives

• Students can click the "i" icon to learn more about certain terms or concepts.
• The text does an excellent job of showing how changes in precipitation patterns are affecting people all over the world in different ways.

Additional Prerequisites

• Students should be familiar with England's history of imperialism.

Differentiation

• Students can listen to the narration of the article to engage more learning styles.
  
• World history classes could use this text in a discussion about the modern impacts of historical imperialism and colonialism. Students could consider the following questions:
  • How did climate play a role in England and other Western European countries' ability to seize control in other parts of the world?
  • How are changes in precipitation cycles affecting people in Kinshasa and Punjab differently from people in Iowa and London? Why?
  • Which countries are responsible for the changes in precipitation that have been fueled by climate change?
  • Should the history of imperialism and colonialism factor into today's global response to climate change? If so, how?
• Students could use the maps of precipitation to see how precipitation patterns are likely to change in Kinshasa, London, Iowa, and Punjab under different global warming scenarios.
• Science classes can tie this resource into lessons about humidity, dew points, evaporation, condensation, the water cycle, and biomes.
  
• Other resources on this topic include this video about more intense hurricanes, this interactive textbook lesson on climate zones and biomes, and this lesson on droughts, floods, and water vapor.