Battle of the hemispheres? In the fourth installment of a five-part series, young oceanographers use the NOAA website to collect temperature data from drifters (buoys), one in the Northern Hemisphere and one in the Southern Hemisphere. Plotting the data on the same set of axes allows for comparison of sea surface temperatures in the Northern and Southern Hemispheres.

Concepts

ocean currents, oceanography, water temperature, data collection, hemispheres

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Additional Tags

science

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Instructional Ideas

• Convert the activity into a long-term project, where each pupil tracks their own drifter

Classroom Considerations

• Lesson builds on prior lesson concerning drifters (buoys)
• Learners need to be able to graph data (line graphs) and convert between Celsius and Fahrenheit temperature scales

Pros

• Resource includes essential questions and focus questions to use with the class
• Using real-world data makes the task realistic and worthwhile

Cons

• No student worksheets other than graph
• Link to website is outdated/broken