What Makes Cities Hot?
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Provided by: My NASA Data|Published on: April 14, 2026
Lesson PlansScientist Reviewed
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Scientist Reviewed This resource has been reviewed by SubjectToClimate's climate scientists and verified for scientific accuracy and up-to-date information. Learn about our review process →
Synopsis
- In this hands-on experiment, students learn why different materials experience differences in surface temperatures by comparing how materials such as pavement, buildings, and vegetation absorb heat and contribute to the urban heat island effect.
- Students will learn how to conduct a science experiment, make observations, and draw conclusions from those observations.
Subjects: Science
Authors: My NASA Data
Region: Global
Languages: English
Teaching Materials
Positives
- Students will enjoy going outside to take data.
- The student worksheets are simple and clearly outline what students should do.
Prerequisites
- Teachers will need to prepare and gather materials ahead of time, including thermometers, colored construction paper, aluminum foil, sand, sponges, clipboards, and printed data sheets and data tables for students.
- Teachers should plan to do this activity on a warm, sunny day, though the resource does give suggestions for implementation on other days.
Differentiation & Implementation
- After discussing the urban heat island effect, students can use what they learned about how different materials heat up to design a solution that would cool down urban areas.
- Teachers can make connections to climate change and how rising temperatures will make cities even hotter. Teachers can transition into a conversation about the importance of mitigating climate change as much as possible.
- To support writing skills, teachers can have students use their worksheets to turn their raw claim, evidence, and reasoning into a polished short paragraph.
- This video can help drive home some of the points discussed and discovered in the activity.
Scientist Notes
Teaching Tips
Standards
Resource Type and Format
About the Partner Provider
My NASA Data
NASA offers petabytes of global Earth science data collected from satellites, but accessing these data in a traditional (or virtual) science classroom can be tricky. Since 2004, My NASA Data has supported students and teachers of grades 3-12 in analyzing and interpreting NASA mission data.
Scientist Reviewed
This resource has been reviewed by SubjectToClimate's climate scientists and verified for scientific accuracy and up-to-date information. Our review process ensures that every resource in our library reflects the current state of climate science.
Learn about our review process →
