fishing for neutrinos

Temperature Lesson Plan

Investigation:
Temperature - Location - Weather - Seasons

Objectives:
Realize that temperature generally decreases as you move away from the equator
Collect weather data for your locality, and for places that are south of your location
Recognize that seasons are opposite in the northern and southern hemispheres
Materials:
  1. Access to e-mail
  2. Student access to e-mail (optional)
  3. Map of North America
  4. Map of South America (optional)
  5. Globe
  6. Flashlight
  7. Thermometer with Fahrenheit and Celsius scales
  8. VCR / TV combo with a video segment of the local weather from the morning's local news program, and a video segment of a national news weather forecast for the same time period.
Activities:
  1. View the videos of the local and national news.
  2. Have students record local temperatures and those of inland cities on the chalk board as the video plays. Notice that the temperatures forecast for the local area will be closer to one another than those in areas that are spread across the country.
  3. Have students place post-it notes on the map with the temperatures for each location on the map.
  4. Now analyze the temperatures posted on the map for patterns that may be present. The temperatures in North America should generally decrease as you move Northward and generally decrease as you head south.
  5. Access the Weather Underground Service at the University of Michigan or the Weather Machine through the WWW at http://www.atmos.uiuc.edu/weather/weather.html to retrieve the high and low temperatures for the day in some of the cities that you chose. (optional replacement for the video segment)
  6. Access the Universidad de Santiago de Chile gopher and obtain temperatures for cities in South America (path = Servicios Nationales/Informe diario direccion meterologica de Chile. Temperatures listed will be in degrees Celsius. This would be an excellent time to discuss conversion between Celsius and Fahrenheit scales.
  7. Take out your thermometer which has both Celsius and Fahrenheit scales on it and let it come up to room temperature. Read the thermometer on both scales and discuss the conversion formulas that allow us to convert from one to the other.
  8. Write down the standard temperatures on both scales: freezing point of water, boiling point of water, and room temperature.
  9. Look for patterns in the data that you were able to collect from the Chilean gopher. Discover patterns within the data. Does the data demonstrate that distance moved away from the equator will result in a lowering of temperature?
  10. Collect weather data in your locality for one week. Access the Antarctic Telecommunications Project journal entry that addresses South Pole seasons.
  11. Discuss the fact that it takes the earth three hundred and sixty - five days to make a complete revolution around the sun. Discuss the fact that the polar regions experience extended periods of light and darkness because of their orientation as the earth revolves about the sun. Place a small piece of masking tape at each pole on the globe. Have one of the class members act as the sun (holding a light source aimed at the globe in a darkened room), while another class member holds the globe spinning it on it's axis while he/she walks (slowly) around the person holding the light source (sun). This demonstration should allow the students to see why we have night and day as the earth spins on it's axis. As the earth rotates about the sun it's orientation on it's own axis changes. When one of the polar regions is closer to the sun's heat it experiences (relative) summer. The opposing Pole is then angled away from the sun and experiences winter. In addition to the change of season the poles experience extended periods of light and darkness due to the earth's orientation relative to the sun.

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