RSI Clouds gives your students the ability to explore the factors that cause and control the growth of cumulus clouds. With this program, your students can:
System Requirements Windows-based microcomputers:
Apple microcomputers:
The Teacher's Guide for Clouds is a PDF file than can be read with Adobe Acrobat. The version available here omits the answers to the questions posed within it; the Teacher's Guide you receive with the software will contain the answers. Clicking on the link below will open the Teacher's Guide for viewing (if your browser is so configured). To save the file, right click on the link and choose the Save Target As... option. |
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Design
cumulus clouds -- that is, create clouds of different heights and distances from the ground -- by changing
the temperature and relative humidity of the air near the Earth's surface. They can also modify the temperature
of the air at higher levels in the atmosphere to see how warm layers aloft can limit cloud growth.
Watch the cloud they've designed grow as a numerical model "creates" the
cloud. Students can select between a variety of ways of observing the cloud and its properties; they can
look at the cloud's inside temperature, where in the cloud water is liquid or ice, what winds are present in the
cloud, and other factors.
Explore
the concepts underlying what they see happening on the map through a series of interactive explanation screens.
Save the settings they used to create the cloud and comments about it in a private,
password-protected logbook. The logbook allows students to reuse saved configurations, eliminating the time
and effort required to reconfigure the settings.