This interactive resource displays a graph of the average winter temperature over time, offering a number of cities to choose from in each state in America.
Students can create graphs in English or Spanish and the data on the graphs goes back to 1970.
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 graphs.
Students would benefit from understanding how to calculate the average temperatures shown in the graph.
Differentiation
Cross-curricular 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.
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.
Try using this resource to predict what the average winter temperature will be near your school in five, ten, and twenty years.
Scientist Notes
This resource shows temperature shifts of various U.S. cities using average daily temperatures in the winter season. As projected, shorter winter periods could have adverse impacts on human health and agricultural production. There are no misconceptions in the datasets and 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.
