Desert regions are hotter for multiple reasons; the lack of vegetation causes the sun's heat to go straight into the surface and the lack of moisture means none of the heat is being transferred into evaporation. This concept, and other concepts related to the differences in weather, makes up the second lesson in the series of 21. Scholars graph climate change using NASA data to analyze the temperature changes over the course of seasons, years, and varying surface types.

Concepts

nasa, climate change, temperature, parameters, satellite data

Show More Show Less

Additional Tags

science

Show More Show Less

Instructional Ideas

• Allow time for exploring some other data sets on the My NASA Data portal

Classroom Considerations

• Requires prior knowledge of creating Excel spreadsheets, using Excel data to make graphs, and the difference between weather and climate
• If pupils are struggling with using the technologies, offer extra assistance — they will need to know how to use each going forward

Pros

• Aligns to the National Science Education Standards, National Education Technology Standards, National Council of Teachers of Mathematics Education Standards, Climate Literacy Principles, and Energy Literacy Principles
• Includes cross-curricular connections to technology, science, and math
• Uses real data sets rather than made up examples

Cons

• None

Common Core

RST.9-10.3 RST.9-10.7 RST.9-10.9 RST.11-12.3 RST.11-12.7 RST.11-12.9