Temperature Graphs - overview
Students are given several graphs of the average maximum and minimum monthly temperatures for various cities and challenged to match the graph to the cities. The resulting discussion brings out personal knowledge, links to Geography, communication skills, thinking and reasoning, as well as the skill of reading scales. The supportive computer software then allows students to challenge themselves on many other graphs as well as an extension project of researching data for regional or global cities.
Mathematics Content Outcomes\Links To Official Curriculum Documents
- Statistical inference – interpreting graphical data
- Reading Scales
- Thinking, reasoning and communication
- Interdisciplinary context
Lesson Stages
- Small group challenge to match graphs to cities provided on a worksheet.
- Whole class discussion to agree on results
- Using software to generate similar challenges
- Project to research extra data for new cities and generation of new worksheet challenges.
- Extensions into other measures such as rainfall, population growth, rates of deforestation
Issues or Discussion Points
- How a recognisable closed text task has been altered into a group investigation
- The potential of well-chosen software to extend and enrich the learning
Straw Vote
Please rate each of the following features (out of 10) as to its contribution to the overall quality of the learning experience.
| 1. | The context of ‘real’ cities | [ ] |
| 2. | Interdisciplinary links eg to Geography | [ ] |
| 3. | Opportunity to use personal knowledge | [ ] |
| 4. | The small group challenge involving reasoning and communication | [ ] |
| 5. | The role of the computer challenges | [ ] |
| 6. | Mixed ability in choice of cities and difficulty level | [ ] |
| 7. | Extension opportunities eg researching other cities, other contexts | [ ] |
| 8. | Openness - suits many grade levels? | [ ] |
This lesson is documented as Lesson 83, including the software simulation, within the Maths300 project www.maths300.esa.edu.au