Brief Description

In this lesson, students will investigate the relationship between latitude and temperature and length of day. This is an online project sponsored by CIESE (http://www.k12science.org) that allows students to view and use data collected by schools around the world.  This data is then analyzed to determine a relationship between the above factors.

Standards and Frameworks

Technology Standards

4T-E1: Use telecommunications efficiently and effectively to access remote information and communicate with others in support of facilitated and independent learning.

4T-E3: Collaboratively use telecommunications and online resources.

6SC-E1. Describe and model the motion of earth in relation to the sun, including the concepts of day, night, season and year

Academic

• Students will be able to explain the effect of latitude on ambient temperature and minutes of daylight.
• Students will create and analyze graphs showing the effect of latitude on temperature and minutes of daylight.

• Students will use the Internet as a means for communicating with other students.
• Students will create and analyze graphs showing the effect of latitude on temperature and minutes of daylight.

• Students need to be able to use the Internet, including following links.
• Students need to be able to use a spreadsheet program (such as Microsoft Excel) to create a spreadsheet and line graph.
• In addition to these technology skills, students should also have a basic understanding of the concept of latitude.

Computer or computers with Internet access and a spreadsheet program (such as Microsoft Excel)
Thermometer (Celsius)
Newspapers (optional)

Accommodations for Special Needs

Special education students will either be paired with other students, or will be given appropriate work based on their Individual Education Plans.  English Language Learners will be pair with other students to facilitate the learning process.

Procedures

This project can be found at http://www.k12science.org/curriculum/tempproj/index.html

This project takes place during specific times of the year.  Visit the project homepage to check on availability and to register for the project.

Using the project webpage as a guide, students will record the temperature for 5 consecutive days.  These measurements will be taken between 11 a.m. and 1 p.m., in the shade, and in degrees Celsius.  These measurements will then be averaged to find a mean daily temperature for the five days.  Students will also record the number of minutes of daylight for each of the five days.  This information can be gathered from a newspaper showing time of sunrise and sunset for each day.  The project webpage also supplies an online source for this information (http://aa.usno.navy.mil/data/docs/RS_OneDay.html). This data will be averaged to find the mean number of minutes of daylight for the five days.  This information will be recorded and submitted to the project data page (http://www.k12science.org/curriculum/tempproj/data.html)

Once the data has been collected and submitted, students will visit the project data page to collect data from other sites (http://www.k12science.org/curriculum/tempproj/data.html). They will then choose ten sites that a spaced roughly equally apart.  They will enter the location, latitude, mean temperature, and mean minutes of daylight into a spreadsheet.  Using this spreadsheet, they will create two line graphs: one showing the mean temperature versus latitude and one showing the mean minutes of daylight and latitude.  These graphs will be analyzed to determine in there is a relationship between latitude and temperature and length of day.  Students will be required to write a paragraph about their observations of the relationship between these factors.
 

Students will be assessed in the following ways:

• Graphs will be assessed for completeness and accuracy.  I will be looking for correct data, a title, and axis labels.
• The written paragraph will be assessed based on the analysis the student gives.  I will be looking for logical conclusions and support.