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Students face many challenges that are connected to the scientific enterprise, such as the increasing frequency of extreme weather events (e.g., prolonged periods of drought, record temperatures, severe precipitation episodes). Recent scientific consensus has attributed increases in such events to the current climate crisis caused by human activities. The potential relation between extreme weather and current climate change characterizes why these phenomena may be complex, and understanding both the distinctions and relations between weather and climate is essential for reasoning about such phenomena. To help students in this regard, we have designed the Extreme Weather build-a-MEL, where they evaluate the connections between lines of evidence and alternative explanations. The build-a-MEL helps increase students’ agency (i.e., to intentionally make things happen through actions). And with increased agency, students are able to construct knowledge about weather and climate through engagement in scientific practices, with alignment to the Next Generation Science Standards.