This interactive resource details the rise in average summer temperatures for many American cities, providing a graph of the data over time.
Students are able to choose a state and city, then download the graph.
Teaching Tips
Positives
The graphs can be downloaded in English and Spanish.
The data is available from several cities in each state, making this resource engaging for students and providing local information.
Additional Prerequisites
Students should be comfortable reading line graphs.
Differentiation
This resource would work equally well in science classes working on the effects of climate change on urban envionrments or social studies classes working on how geography and climate are related.
Cross-curricular connections can be made in health classes discussing how to stay healthy amidst rising temperatures.
This resource would be a great data tool for reporting how the climate is changing in different ways in various cities, which could be applied to engineering or civics classes.
Students can download a graph to add to a document where they describe what they learned from the graph and what this warming could mean for that city.
Scientist Notes
This resource underscores summer temperatures above normal values in US cities from 1970-2021. Over 94% of 246 US cities are now experiencing temperature anomalies during summer periods. This resource is insightful and ideal 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.
College, Career, and Civic Life (C3) Standards
Dimension 2: Geography
D2.Geo.10.6-8 Analyze the ways in which cultural and environmental characteristics vary among various regions of the world.
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.
