This interactive resource allows students to generate graphs for many American cities that shows the average Spring temperatures since 1970.
Students can generate graphs in English and Spanish, and each graph shows a best-fit line that illustrates the warming trend in that city or region.
Teaching Tips
Positives
This resource is easy-to-navigate and can be utilized in a wide range of grade and ability 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 plot graphs.
Students would benefit from understanding 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 populations.
This resource would be a great tool for students to explore after learning about average temperatures. Younger students can read the graph for a location near them together as a class, while older students can be assigned different locations to compare and contrast.
To extend learning, have students use the data presented in the graph to predict the days above normal in the next several spring seasons.
Scientist Notes
The graph depicts average spring temperatures and spring days above normal, starting in 1970 for various U.S. cities. This resource is recommended for teaching.
Standards
Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS)
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.
