Teaching Overview
Learning Points
- Tornadoes are violent storms, made up of rotating columns of air that extend down to the ground.
- Tetsuya "Ted" Fujita was a meteorologist who studied tornadoes, and came up with the Fujita scale for measuring their intensity.
- The Fujita scale starts at F0 tornadoes that cause light damage at most, up to F5 tornadoes that can lift and destroy whole buildings.
Curriculum Keywords
- tornado
- meteorologist
- weather
Spark a Discussion
- What is Asian American, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander Heritage Month?
- Who was Tetsuya "Ted" Fujita?
- What are tornadoes, and how are they categorized using the Fujita scale?
More From Twig Science Reporter
Watch This Episode in Spanish
Use this version of the episode in Spanish to support the teaching of bilingual classes.
Credits
- Hanna Holborn Gray Special Collections Research Center, University of Chicago Library
Discover More About Topics Covered in This Week's Episode
Classroom Resources
Use these resources to get the most out of the episode and engage your class in topical science!
Video Viewing Guide
This graphic organizer supports your students to capture their thoughts and questions as they watch the episode.
Access the GuideMake Your Own Science Episode
This simple guide helps your students to create their very own science episodes.
Access the GuideLanguage and Literacy Activities
This guide gives you ideas for how the episode can be used to support language and literacy activities.
Access the GuideTwig Science: A Complete Pre-K–8 Program for the NGSS
Immersive Investigations With High-Quality Multimedia
- Investigating, designing, building, and understanding phenomena
- Hands-on, digital, video, and print investigations
- Synchronous/asynchronous distance learning
