This interactive resource provides a downloadable graph of a location's average fall temperatures since 1970.
Students can videw the graphs in English or Spanish and the data is available for many American cities.
Teaching Tips
Positives
This resource is easy to navigate and can be utilized in a wide range of grade levels.
Students will enjoy looking at locations where they live or have visited, and will learn about how the climate is changing around them.
Additional Prerequisites
Students should be able to read graphs.
Students would benefit from understanding how to calculate average temperatures.
Differentiation
Connections can be made in math classes focusing on graphs and data, in social studies classes considering how different places are experiencing climate change, and in health classes that are learning about how our changing climate is impacting the health of various populations.
Younger students would benefit from working through the data presented in a graph together as a class, while older students could likely draw conclusions independently.
As an extension, have students use the data in this resource to predict the average fall temperature for the next several fall seasons.
Scientist Notes
This graph presents average temperature over time during the fall season, from 1970. Students can navigate to see the variability in different U.S. cities. This resource is recommended for teaching.
Standards
Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS)
ESS2: Earth's Systems
MS-ESS2-5 Collect data to provide evidence for how the motions and complex interactions of air masses results in changes in weather conditions.
ESS3: Earth and Human Activity
MS-ESS3-5 Ask questions to clarify evidence of the factors that have caused the rise in global temperatures over the past century.
Common Core Math Standards (CCSS.MATH)
Functions: Interpreting Functions (9-12)
CCSS.MATH.CONTENT.HSF.IF.B.6 Calculate and interpret the average rate of change of a function (presented symbolically or as a table) over a specified interval. Estimate the rate of change from a graph.
