This interactive map and graph allows students to compare regional temperature changes across different latitudes over time.
Students can use the map to visualize the changes and draw conclusions about why they vary based on geographic location and year.
Teaching Tips
Positives
This interactive map is a great way to visualize data and climactic changes.
Students can adjust the map settings to their region to see how their area and those in the same latitude have been affected by changes in temperature.
Additional Prerequisites
Move the slider at the top of the screen left or right to change the year.
To change the location, shift the bar on the map up or down by clicking and dragging the bar.
Before using the map, students should be familiar with terms like temperature, average, seasons, and circulation.
The graph and part of the text may not be visible on your screen.
This resource requires access to the Internet.
Differentiation
Challenge students to consider why some areas experience a greater temperature rise than others.
As a follow-up activity, have students research the effects of increasing temperatures on a specific city, country, or region.
This resource can also be used in math or statistics classes during lessons about data visualization, graphing departures from an average value, or data analysis.
Science and geography classes can discuss why some regions have experienced more warming than others or why the warming occurred. This connects to topics such as albedo, the greenhouse effect, the specific heat of water, and the uneven heating of the Earth from the Sun.
Use this interactive tool to introduce students to other types of climate-related data and maps.
Scientist Notes
This is an interactive map that depicts climate conditions at different latitudes and compares the average temperature values from 1900-2000 with regional records. This provides insights on the regions that are mostly impacted by temperature changes. This resource is suitable and is recommended for teaching.
Standards
Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS)
ESS3: Earth and Human Activity
HS-ESS3-5 Analyze geoscience data and the results from global climate models to make an evidence-based forecast of the current rate of global or regional climate change and associated future impacts to Earth systems.
ETS1: Engineering Design
HS-ETS1-1 Analyze a major global challenge to specify qualitative and quantitative criteria and constraints for solutions that account for societal needs and wants.
College, Career, and Civic Life (C3) Standards
Dimension 2: Geography
D2.Geo.1.9-12 Use geospatial and related technologies to create maps to display and explain the spatial patterns of cultural and environmental characteristics.
Common Core English Language Arts Standards (CCSS.ELA)
Speaking & Listening (K-12)
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.SL.11-12.2 Integrate multiple sources of information presented in diverse formats and media (e.g., visually, quantitatively, orally) in order to make informed decisions and solve problems, evaluating the credibility and accuracy of each source and noting any discrepancies among the data.
Common Core Math Standards (CCSS.MATH)
Statistics & Probability: Interpreting Categorical & Quantitative Data (9-12)
CCSS.MATH.CONTENT.HSS.ID.A.1 Represent data with plots on the real number line (dot plots, histograms, and box plots).
