LessonThreePlan Final
LessonThreePlan Final
LessonThreePlan Final
Driving Question:
How do you read and analyze weather data, and how can that be used
to understand climate of a particular region and to find how climate is Goal:
changing? For students to be able to interpret
Sub-questions: and analyze climate data in the
Where do weather observations come from? What and where are form of charts and graphs and be
the NWS-COOP and SNOTEL stations in the San Juans? able to recognize climate averages
What are climate trends and how can they be identified from and anomalies.
climate data?
Learning Objectives:
Students will become aware of different agencies involved in weather and climate observations
through an interactive lecture.
Students will understand where historical climate data comes from, as well as problems associated
with these data.
Students will interactively learn where to find reliable climate data and use online tools to interpret
data for a particular region.
Colorado State Standards & 9R Dashboards for Earth Systems Science - High School:
Earth Sciences Standard #4: Climate is the result of energy transfer among interactions of the
atmosphere, hydrosphere, geosphere, and biosphere
HSS 4b: Analyze and Interpret data on Earth’s Climate.
HSS‐4e. Analyze the evidence and assumptions regarding climate change (DOK 1‐3) (E)
HSS 4f: Interpret evidence from weather stations, buoys, satellites, radars, ice and ocean
sediment cores, tree rings, cave deposits, native knowledge, and other sources in relation to climate
change.
Prior Knowledge Required:
Students must be aware of what factors control climate.
They should be able to connect this with material from the previous lesson which
described how climate is a function of latitude, longitude, elevation, distance from the
ocean and the large scale atmospheric and oceanic circulation.
Ability to understand time series plots.
Understanding of averages, slopes, and variability or errors.
Students may not realize the important difference between weather (short term
conditions- weeks to months) and climate (long term conditions – decades to
centuries).
Background Information:
SNOTEL background information at:
http://www.stevenswater.com/articles/snotel.aspx
National Weather Service: http://www.weather.gov
Local Tree ring study:
http://www.mountainstudies.org/sites/default/files/pdf/education/Animas_treering_br
ochure_RevC.pdf
Paleoclimatology proxy data information:
http://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/paleo/globalwarming/proxydata.html
Other weather station data: http://data.giss.nasa.gov/gistemp/station_data/
Create your own time series website:
http://www.cefa.dri.edu/Westmap/Westmap_home.php?page=mapplot.php
Colorado State University Climate Trend Graphs: http://climatetrends.colostate.edu/
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Lesson 3 (1.25-1.5 hours)
1. Information on weather stations. Where does weather data come from? What are
some good sources? PowerPoint is available explaining weather station data, and to
be easily shown to students or used to assist teacher. (30 minutes)
NOAA National Weather Service (http://www.weather.gov/)
Brief history
Length of observation
Long-term mean-define climotology (information on climographs,
which are one of the ways to plot climatology of a place (e.g. see this
climograph for Minneapolis:
http://education.nationalgeographic.com/archive/xpeditions/lessons/1
5/g912/pgafrica4.html?ar_a=1
SNOTEL
Brief history and why these sites were established. (SNOTEL sites
were primarily put up to help with stream flow predictions by
monitoring Snow Water Equivalencies at high elevation sites, as well
as have weather station components. These became functional since
the 1980s)
Bring up:
(http://www.wcc.nrcs.usda.gov/snotel/Colorado/colorado.html) and
look at SNOTEL sites around Durango and ask students to identify
which stations could be useful in making stream flow predictions for
the Animas River in Durango.
How was climate data acquired before weather stations?
Go over proxy data and paleoclimatology and define both terms.
Go over historic data, corals, tree rings, and ice cores. Develop pros
and cons for each.
Show graphs from local study and explain the importance of tree rings
in water management.
(http://www.mountainstudies.org/sites/default/files/pdf/education/Animas_tr
eering_brochure_RevC.pdf)
Problems with station and proxy data:
Problems with instrumentation not working well (e.g. snow deposits
on instruments)
Changes in station location
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Changes around the station resulting in inconsistent results (e.g.
urbanization, changes in vegetation and shading)
Problems with collecting data (e.g. human errors, missing data)
Uncertainty with proxy data- sometimes more than one factor could
be responsible in producing a particular proxy signal (e.g. tree ring
width in some regions could be affected by both temperature and
precipitation.
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Weather Station Data: When do minimum and maximum temperatures
occur?
Navigate to the Cochetopa Creek station at 8000 ft; compare the average
maximum summer temperature and the average maximum winter
temperature. What trends do you see?
Show the RAW data link and identify high and low temperatures.
3. Wrap up and discuss homework: Fill out the Climate Data Analysis and
Interpretation sheet for homework attached in homework section which is an
extension of the graph interpretation activity. (10 min.)