Students who demonstrate understanding can: Develop and use a model to describe how unequal heating and rotation of the Earth cause patterns of atmospheric and oceanic circulation that determine regional climates.
Clarification statement: Emphasis is on how patterns vary by latitude, altitude, and geographic land distribution. Emphasis of atmospheric circulation is on the sunlight-driven latitudinal banding, the Coriolis effect, and resulting prevailing winds; emphasis of ocean circulation is on the transfer of heat by the global ocean convection cycle, which is constrained by the Coriolis effect and the outlines of continents. Examples of models can be diagrams, maps and globes, or digital representations.
Assessment boundary: Assessment does not include the dynamics of the Coriolis effect.
Official wording from the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS Lead States, 2013). NGSS is a registered trademark of WestEd. Neither WestEd nor the lead states and partners that developed the NGSS were involved in the production of this page, and they do not endorse it. View on nextgenscience.org
London sits farther north than most of the US-Canada border, yet its winters are milder than those in Minneapolis. Explaining puzzles like that is the heart of this expectation. Students model how the sun heats Earth unevenly, more strongly near the equator than near the poles, and how that uneven heating, combined with Earth's spin, sets the atmosphere and oceans in motion in patterns that shape the climate of each region.
Warm air rises near the equator and sinks around 30 degrees north and south, creating bands of rising and sinking air with wet and dry climates. Because Earth rotates, moving air and water are deflected (the Coriolis effect), which produces prevailing winds such as the trade winds and westerlies. Ocean currents carry enormous amounts of heat from the tropics toward the poles, and their paths are steered by the rotation of Earth and the shapes of continents. Latitude, altitude, and where land and water sit all influence the result.
Students use diagrams, maps, globes or digital tools as models. They describe what the Coriolis effect does, not the physics of why.
The equator is not meaningfully closer to the sun. It is warmer because sunlight strikes it more directly, concentrating energy on a smaller area.
Winds drive surface currents, but differences in temperature and saltiness drive deep circulation, and continents steer the flow.
Altitude, ocean currents, mountains and distance from the sea can matter as much as latitude, as cool tropical mountain towns show.
A single cold week says little about climate, which describes the typical pattern of weather over decades.
Western Europe has milder winters than eastern Canada at the same latitude. Use a model of ocean and atmospheric circulation to explain why.
Answer: A warm Atlantic current and westerly winds blowing in from the ocean carry heat to western Europe, while eastern Canada gets air from a cold continent and a cold current.
Shine a flashlight straight down and then at a low angle onto graph paper to show how the same energy spreads over more squares near the poles. A globe or map with current arrows and wind belts lets students trace heat transport. Comparing climate graphs for cities at the same latitude, one coastal and one inland or one high and one low, gives real data to explain.
Assessment items often ask students to use a map of currents or wind belts to explain the climate of a given city.
Original questions written for this standard. Choose an option or type your answer, then press Check. Every question has a worked explanation.
Answer: B) Sunlight strikes it more directly
Direct sunlight concentrates energy on a smaller area, while slanting sunlight near the poles spreads it out.
Answer: C) Earth's rotation
Earth's rotation deflects moving air and water; this is called the Coriolis effect.
Answer: D) Temperature usually decreases with altitude
Air gets cooler with altitude, so high places can be cold even in the tropics.
Answer: heat (also accepted: thermal energy, warm water, energy)
Ocean currents transport heat, warming coastal regions far from the equator.
Answer: B) The ocean heats and cools more slowly than land
Water warms and cools slowly, so it moderates temperatures in nearby coastal areas.
Answer: trade winds (also accepted: the trade winds, trades)
The trade winds blow toward the equator in the tropics and are curved by Earth's rotation.
Develop a model using an example to describe ways the geosphere, biosphere, hydrosphere, and/or atmosphere interact.
Use a model to describe how variations in the flow of energy into and out of Earth's systems result in changes in climate.
A full lesson with slides, activities and an exit ticket on global circulation and regional climates, pitched to grades 6-8 and editable in PowerPoint or Google Slides.
Make a lesson βA printable, differentiated worksheet on MS-ESS2-6 with an answer key, ready in about a minute.
Make a worksheet βTurn global circulation and regional climates into a quiz students answer online that marks itself, with a class summary for you.
Build a test βNo. The dynamics of the Coriolis effect are excluded; students describe how rotation deflects winds and currents.
Latitude, altitude and the distribution of land, plus sunlight-driven banding of air, prevailing winds and ocean heat transport.