🍎 Teacher guide

Standards links (NYSSLS)

New York State P-12 Science Learning Standards, listed by code family only. Check the exact performance expectation numbers in NYSED's NYSSLS document before you cite them.

• K-ESS2 and K-ESS3 (Pre-K to 2): weather patterns, severe weather preparation → Water cycle, Station, Daily Challenge.
• 3-ESS2 and 3-ESS3 (Grade 3): weather data, reducing weather hazards → Station, Thunderstorm, Tornado, Hurricane safety.
• 5-ESS2 (Grade 5): Earth's systems interact (water, air) → Water cycle.
• MS-ESS2 (Grades 6 to 8): water cycle, air masses and weather, circulation → Water cycle, Fronts, Winter, Forecast.
• MS-ESS3 (Grades 6 to 8): natural hazards and forecasting → Thunderstorm, Tornado, Hurricane, Forecast.
• HS-ESS2 and HS-ESS3 (Grades 9 to 12): Earth systems, hazards and models → Forecast (ensembles, cone), Hurricane (Sandy replay).

Grade 6 has no New York State science test; science is tested in grade 8.

Class routines that work

1. Warm-up (5 min): project the Forecast Challenge of the Day in smart-board mode. Students vote, then reveal.
2. Explore (15 min): one 3D page per lesson. Pause the 3D, ask 'What will happen next?', then press play.
3. Real data (10 min): the Sandy replay uses real NOAA records. Ask students to find when it became post-tropical.
4. Safety (5 min): end every storm lesson by saying the safety rule out loud together.
5. Check (5 min): each page has a short quiz. Goal: 100%. Students send their result with the course's Send to my teacher code if you use one.

Privacy

No accounts, no tracking, no live data requests. Stars and scores stay only on the student's device. Students can only share with a grown-up or teacher; there is no social sharing for students.

Sources and credits (all opened Nov 14, 2026)

• National Weather Service: Lightning safety (weather.gov/safety/lightning-safety) and lightning outdoors (weather.gov/safety/lightning-outdoors) · When Thunder Roars, Go Indoors; no safe place outside; wait 30 minutes after the last thunder.
• National Weather Service Norman: Enhanced Fujita scale (weather.gov/oun/efscale) · EF0 to EF5 wind ranges, damage surveys, in use since Feb 1, 2007.
• National Weather Service: During a tornado (weather.gov/safety/tornado-during) · Where to shelter.
• National Weather Service Sterling: Warnings defined (weather.gov/lwx/warningsdefined) and thunderstorm watch/warning (weather.gov/safety/thunderstorm-ww) · Severe thunderstorm criteria; watch vs. warning.
• National Weather Service Louisville: Basic fronts (weather.gov/lmk/basic-fronts) · Wind around highs and lows.
• National Weather Service: Wind chill (weather.gov/safety/cold-wind-chill-chart) · Wind chill formula and limits.
• National Weather Service: Lake-effect snow (weather.gov/safety/winter-lake-effect-snow) and NWS Buffalo Lake Effect Summary, Jan 8-10, 2015 · How lake-effect forms; New York example.
• National Weather Service: Upper air (radiosonde) fact sheet (weather.gov/upperair/factsheet) · 92 stations, launches near 00 and 12 UTC, above 35 km.
• National Hurricane Center: Saffir-Simpson scale (nhc.noaa.gov/aboutsshws.php), glossary (nhc.noaa.gov/aboutgloss.shtml), storm surge (nhc.noaa.gov/surge), cone (nhc.noaa.gov/aboutcone.shtml) · Categories, definitions, surge, the cone.
• National Hurricane Center: Tropical Cyclone Report, Hurricane Sandy (AL182012) · Landfall near Brigantine, NJ, 2330 UTC Oct 29, 2012; 14.06 ft storm tide at The Battery.
• NOAA HURDAT2 best track for Sandy (AL182012), copied from NOAA's open PaHM repository (github.com/noaa-ocs-modeling/PaHM, CC0) · The replay track.
• NOAA National Severe Storms Laboratory: Severe Weather 101 (thunderstorms, hail, lightning, tornadoes) · Storm ingredients, stages, hail, lightning.
• National Weather Service SkyWarn spotter guide: Supercells (weather.gov/spotterguide/supercell1) · Vortex tube lifted by the updraft.
• NOAA JetStream: Ten basic clouds, air masses, weather maps (noaa.gov/jetstream) · Cloud types, air masses, front symbols.
• NOAA Ocean/AOML Hurricane Research Division: hurricane structure (aoml.noaa.gov/hrd) · Eye, eyewall, rainbands, rotation.
• NOAA: Nor'easter (nesdis.noaa.gov) and water cycle (noaa.gov/education) · Nor'easter facts; water cycle steps.
• NOAA SciJinks: How reliable are weather forecasts? (scijinks.gov/forecast-reliability) · 5-day about 90%, 7-day about 80%, 10-day about half.
• Natural Earth 1:110m country outlines (public domain), already on this site · The Sandy replay map.

All 3D scenes, maps and practice data are our own code. No outside images. U.S. government works are in the public domain.