OVERVIEW

Activity Overview:

This lesson is part of a larger unit by PhD science that explores weather and climate. This lesson is the beginning of a 3 lesson arc. The students will collect data on the average temperature for a given month. The student will record that data in a graphical format. The class will compile the temperature data into a graphical display for the purpose of noticing changes in average monthly temperatures and making predictions based on those patterns.

Meta description

• Subject Area: Computer Science, Science
• Grade Level : 3-5
• Computer Science Domains:
  • Data Analysis
• Computer Science Principles: +
• Materials:
  • printer, computer for student use, projector for teacher use with a computer connected
• Considerations: +

Lesson Plan

Overview

This lesson is part of a larger unit by PhD science that explores weather and climate. This lesson is the beginning of a 3 lesson arc. The students will collect data on the average temperature for a given month. The student will record that data in a graphical format. The class will compile the temperature data into a graphical display for the purpose of noticing changes in average monthly temperatures and making predictions based on those patterns.

ASSESSMENT PRE/POST-TEST

1. Give students graphing paper (prepared with a scale and labels) and a set of year long temperature data. Have students graph the temperatures to see where graphing skills are at.

2. What is the weather like during the year in your place? How do you know what the weather is probably like?

3. Give the historic data for the same place with follow up questions: 3a. Do you see any patterns in what is happening to the temperature of your place? 3b. Describe the pattern you are seeing in temperatures and if there are any years that don’t fit the pattern.

4. How can we use computers to help us when there are many pieces of data to represent?

OBJECTIVES

1. Graph and analyze year long temperature data to describe weather conditions throughout the year.
2. Analyze historic temperature data to describe patterns in climate for a specific place.
3. Demonstrate understanding that computers help people to analyze large data sets and represent data graphically.

CATCH/HOOK

Shows students the picture of the same tree during different times of the year. Plane Trees Grove Springtime Stock Photo Plane Trees Grove Wintertime Stock Photo What are some similarities and differences that you notice between the two pictures? The trees look like the same tree The background looks the same One pictures shows green leaves on the tree while the other has snow

    Why do you think the trees look different?

The trees changed because the weather changed The pictures were taken at different times of the year One was taken during winter and the other during spring/summer

Agree that they were taken during different times of the year and introduce the guiding question: Guiding question: How does weather change throughout the year and over time? Ask students how they could begin to answer this question.

How could we prove that weather changes throughout the year? We could collect temperatures for the whole year. We could graph the data to organize it

ACTIVITY INSTRUCTIONS

Students will gather data for the average temperature of a single location over the year. They will then graph that data and the whole class will look at the combined data to see any patterns in average temperature during the year. Students will then use computers to graph longer time spans of average temperature and see computer created graphs of historical data for average temperature.

Supplements

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REVIEW

You could look at a different place to see how the averages are different. You could also give a group of average temperature data and see if kids could figure out the location based on the data.

STANDARDS