Watching the Land Temperature Bell Curve Heat Up (1950-2020)
Videos
Grades6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12Earth and Space Sciences, Mathematics
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Provided by NASA
What it is
- This brief video is an animation of land temperature anomaly distributions through time from 1950 to 2020.
- Students will see that in the seventy-year period, hotter days have increased and colder days have decreased in regularity.
Teaching tips
Positives
- The data clearly displays an increase in warmer than normal temperatures on land over time.
- There is a link in the description to download the video and learn more about the methodology.
Additional Prerequisites
- Students should know how to read a bell curve.
- Students should know the terms normal distribution and anomaly.
Differentiation
- Students can compare the data to this video on global warming data and this video on Greenland ice loss data.
- A lesson related to this topic is Is Your City Getting Warmer?: Data Analysis in Google Sheets.
- This other lesson can help students understand the differences between weather and climate.
- Students can also do this activity where they analyze air temperature graphs.
From the scientist review
This resource visualizes the increase in land temperature since the 1950's, with more hotter days and fewer colder days. This resource is recommended for teaching.
How we review resourcesReady to use it?
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