Wind, Air Pressure and El Niño-A Reading Activity


Rationale/Objectives/Purpose:
To give students practice with feedback in reading comprehension.
Time Required:
Safety Issues:
None.
Materials:
Print-out of the reading.
Reading:
La Niña
It had been happening for centuries.  Every year around Christmas in Peru, fishermen noticed that their fishing catches have decreased.  They also noticed that the coastal waters they fished tended to warm up at this time as well, which would explain the bad fish catches (colder water from deeper in the ocean has more nutrients for the fish to eat). The fishermen started calling this yearly event "el nino" in honor of the birth of baby Jesus. In Spanish, el niño means "male child."

 
It eventually became clear that this natural phenomenon actually affected a much larger area of the Pacific Ocean, and the stronger, more prolonged warming of the waters occurred about every 2 to 7 years.  The name for the warming event, "El Niño," stuck and that's what we still call it today.  During an El Niño event, the trade winds die down or even reverse in direction.  This causes a pool of warm water to pile up near South America, which brings more rain in this portion of the eastern Pacific.
Luckily for the fisherman, the reverse of this phenomenon also occurs.  It is called a La Niña, which means "female child" in Spanish.  In La Niña, the trade winds blow stronger than normal and the eastern Pacific gets cooler than normal.  Colder water has more nutrients in it, which makes the fish much happier because there's plenty for them to eat.  The stronger trade winds move warm surface water further west than normal, causing more rain to fall in the western Pacific.
Click here to find out more about La Niña.
Procedure:
Students read the handout and answer assessment questions
Assessment:
QUESTIONS:
  1. Which event causes better fishing in Peru?___________________.
  2. How often does El Niño occur?__________________.
  3. Does "la hermana" mean brother or sister?________________.