This interactive map allows students to explore historical climate data for the state of New Jersey.
Students can select any month, back to January of 1997, to locate data on mean temperature, mean minimum, mean maximum, extreme minimum, extreme maximum, precipitation, and snow.
Teaching Tips
Positives
This interactive resource gives students an abundance of information to work with in an easy-to-understand way.
This resource is an especially great tool for struggling readers, as they can work with the information without being bogged down by text.
Additional Prerequisites
Students should understand the terms mean, maximum, and minimum.
A general understanding of the geography of New Jersey might be helpful but is not necessary.
Differentiation
Social Studies classes could use this resource to explore and discuss the ways geography and climate intersect.
After introducing the data in the resource, have students choose a month and year (e.g., when they were born, when they started school, or when they went on vacation) and have them explore the maps. Conduct a class conversation about what students noticed and wondered about the maps.
As an extension, have students compare and contrast two of the same months over several years. What do they notice? What is or is not surprising?
This resource depicts monthly climatic data in New Jersey and can be presented in a map form to ease interpretation. The dataset is accurate and the 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.
HS-ESS2-4 Use a model to describe how variations in the flow of energy into and out of Earth’s systems result in changes in climate.
ESS3: Earth and Human Activity
MS-ESS3-4 Construct an argument supported by evidence for how increases in human population and per-capita consumption of natural resources impact Earth's systems.
College, Career, and Civic Life (C3) Standards
Dimension 2: Geography
D2.Geo.2.6-8 Use maps, satellite images, photographs, and other representations to explain relationships between the locations of places and regions, and changes in their environmental characteristics.
