Summary
Students will learn to use weather data to plan outdoor activities.
Materials
Background for Teachers
Utah’s weather is never boring! Our state has just experienced a six
year drought, and recently several weather disasters, including severe
flooding in the St. George region. While the whole state is temperate in
nature, we have eight different USDA plant hardiness zones. There are
technically four climatic regions; Desert, Steppe (Semiarid), Humid
Continental-Hot Summer, and Undifferentiated Highlands. This indicates
great variation in annual high and low temperatures across the state.
Because weather mainly moves from west to east in the United States,
the presence of the Sierra Nevada Mountains on the border of California
and Nevada helps to create the desert environments of the Great Basin.
Planning outdoor activities can be a challenge in Utah. While
precipitation may not be a problem in many months, the potential for
high summer temperatures and freezing winters in many Utah regions
makes “comfortable” outdoor days limited. We do not experience
the
frigid, wet cold of the central United States, or constant extreme heat of
more southern states.
Weather is just one subject area where it is important to use data
charts and graphs. Being able to interpret data from graphic organizers
can be crucial to everyday life, like planning outdoor recreation. Data
appears frequently in newspapers, magazines, brochures, and on Web
pages as charts and graphs. The following activity allows students to use
data for real-life purposes.
Intended Learning Outcomes
5. Make mathematical connections.
6. Represent mathematical situations.
Instructional Procedures
Invitation to Learn
Show the overhead of The Man in the Bathtub. Ask the students if
they can tell a story about the water level in the bathtub by reading the
graph. Have them share ideas with the class or as partners. Encourage
them to use the XY coordinate plane.
Instructional Procedures
This activity requires advanced preparation. Teacher will need to
copy the Waterdrop Glyphs and Temperature Glyphs onto cardstock,
cut out individual squares, and laminate.
- Provide each student with a copy
of the Utah Weather Data handout. A copy of a simple Utah map
would also be helpful. Place students in pairs.
- Ask students to look at
the data and share anything they notice.
Responses may include: It looks like there is more precipitation in
the Wasatch Mountains. It’s hotter in St. George. Tell the students
that they will be helping to organize the data in a way that is
easier to read.
- Review the background information with the students. You
may
wish to emphasize that this activity will allow them to see the
differences in temperature and precipitation in the northern and
southern parts of the state. You may also wish to discuss
comfortable temperatures for being outside to picnic.
- Students create a
graph for a given table on the data sheet with
their partner. Review the kinds of graphs that they have used or
worked with and discuss possible formats for the weather graphs.
Let them know that at the end of the lesson they will be making a
decision about what month would be the best month to plan a picnic in both
regions of Utah. They will need to write why these
months are ideal.
- Give students graph paper to make their graphs on.
- Once the graphs are
complete, display them in a central location.
Ask them to describe how these graphs might be sorted. You may
choose to write these suggestions on a chalk or white board. Ask
the students if looking at an individual graph gives them all the
information they need to decide which month is best for picnicking in the
north and in the south. Tell them that they will
be creating another graph in a future lesson that puts all the
information together.
During another session, tell the students that they will be working as
a class to display all the data on one big graph—a bar graph using
pictographs.
- Display the “picnic cloth” on the board. Explain
that graphs are
used to make data “pop-out” in a more usable way. After the data
has been displayed, partners will work together to choose the best
month for a picnic in both regions.
- Show the students the Waterdrop and Temperature
Glyphs and
explain that each waterdrop represents 2” of rain, and each
thermometer represents 5˚ Fahrenheit. (You may choose to use
different ratios.) Draw a key on the board. Across the X-axis
(horizontal line), write the months of the year so that a red strip
is for the rain and a white and red strip are for the high and low
temperature averages. Using the information on the Utah
Weather Data handout, choose either the Wasatch or desert data
to begin with.
- Working together as a class, determine how many of each
picture will be needed to complete the first bars for January.
Assign cooperative groups to take two months and complete the
graphs as they determine the number of pictures they will need.
- When the graph is complete, have groups determine which month
is the best picnic month and why. Each individual should record
their response in a journal. Answers will vary. Look for logical
connections to the weather graph. For instance, “July is the best
month in the Wasatch because there won’t be a big chance of rain
and the temperature is warm, but not too hot.” Have groups share
their possibilities. Encourage students to question each other for
clarification.
- Repeat steps 3 and 4 for the other region.
- At the lesson conclusion,
use the Rubric for Picnic Possibilities to
have students score themselves on the activity. You may wish to
add your own scores in another color.
Extensions
- Have students decide
the "worst" month to plan an outdoor
picnic.
- Using the Utah maps, have students locate counties, cities
or
national/state parks that are located either in the southern or
northern regions of Utah.
- Ask students to gather data about the daily high
and/or low
temperatures in a particular Utah city for a one-week period of
time and to create a line graph to show their data.
- Invite students to research
average monthly precipitation and
temperatures for your city or area. Have them create graphs and
list what types of advantages and disadvantages that area may
have if they were trying to ski, hike, or travel.
- Students create displays
about Utah weather using their own ideas
about graphing and charting.
- Students may research other weather phenomena
(e.g., lightning
or high winds) about a given Utah area and create graphs about
this data.
- Students can play the Ant Attack game to practice coordinate
graphing. Remember to have students call the x axis number first.
Materials
Family Connections
- Students can plan an indoor/outdoor
picnic with their family and
predict whether the weather will be best for the indoor or the
outdoor version of their picnic.
- Take home the Ant Attack game and
play with a family member.
Assessment Plan
Bibliography
Research Basis
Heidorn, P.B. (1999). Image Retrieval as Linguistic and Nonlinguistic Visual
Model
Matching. Library Trends, 48(2), 303-325.
The article reviews the research on how people use models of images
in an information retrieval environment. It describes the human use of
images (nonverbal representations) as predating human language and
explains that language evolved out of a need to communicate about the
world. Verbal language is limited in that it is dependant on a shared
experience or shared vocabulary. Some aspects of our mental models are
not easily described using words. For example, our brains perceive millions
of color indexes and we only have relatively few color names.
Some iconic representations are simple and some can be more complex.
Our mental models have many aspects including color and shape. Some
images are content-based, while others are concept-based.
The Institute for the Advancement of Research in Education. (2003). Graphic
Organizers: A
Review of Scientifically Based Research. URL: http://research@inspiration.com
The
report is a complete review of 29 research studies about the
effectiveness of graphic organizers. Studies were carefully selected by
meeting the institute’s criteria for scientifically-based research as
defined by the No Child Left Behind Act. In the section about the use of graphic
organizers for thinking and learning skill, researchers found that students
scored higher on tests, retained and transferred learning, and improved
critical thinking skills, with the use of graphic organizers. In a section
about other classroom work, researches concluded that problem solving,
performance, comprehension and retention of learning were all enhanced
by the use of graphic organizers.