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Overview:
Climographs are a graphic way of displaying climate information; specifically, average temperature and precipitation. They are a valuable tool in studying climate, but also can be used to infer connections between climate and human conditions. In this lesson, students learn about how to read, analyze, and construct climographs. They also practice matching climographs to locations in the United States and in Africa, and discerning climate patterns and making some predictions about their effects on humans in different places in Africa.
Connections to the Curriculum:
Geography, science, data analysis
Connections to the National Geography Standards:
Standard 7: "The Physical Processes That Shape the Patterns of Earth’s Surface"
Standard 15: "How Physical Systems Affect Human Systems"
Time:
Four to six hours
Materials Required:
Objectives:
Students will
- learn how to read and understand a climograph;
- learn how to construct a climograph;
- construct climographs for places in the United States and Africa;
- associate climographs with places in the United States;
- associate climographs with places in Africa; and
- detect patterns between climate patterns and human conditions in certain locations in Africa.
Geographic Skills:
Acquiring Geographic Information
Organizing Geographic Information
Answering Geographic Questions
Analyzing Geographic Information
S u g g e s t e d P r o c e d u r e
Opening:
Guiding Question: What can temperature and precipitation information tell us about the way people live in different locations?
Review with students the difference between weather and climate. Explain that weather is the state of the atmosphere, at any given moment in time, with regard to temperature, atmospheric pressure, wind, humidity, precipitation, and cloudiness, while climate is the average of weather conditions for a given location over a period of time. Ask students how their lives are affected by the climate of the place where they live. What specific things are strongly influenced by the climate? Answers should include things such as the clothing they wear, the vegetation and animal life of the area, recreation opportunities, etc.
Review with students the elements that make up climate—temperature, humidity, precipitation, pressure and winds. See Climographs: Key Vocabulary (PDF, Adobe Reader required). Remind them that climate is also influenced by other things such as latitude, ocean currents, elevation, vegetation cover, etc. Students should recognize that there are different types of climates, and that the concept of climate is fairly complex. In this lesson, they will learn a fairly simple way to characterize different climates and then identify different climates in the United States and in Africa.
Development:
Distribute to students a copy of the climograph for Minneapolis (PDF, Adobe Reader required). (Note to Teacher: students should examine the climograph without the data tables below it to help them make sense of the visual format of the graph. If this is too confusing for students, feel free to have them examine the data tables provided.) Explain that they are looking at a climograph. Climographs were developed to make it easier to characterize the climate of specific places. A climograph graphically depicts two different sets of information: average temperature and average precipitation data for a location. The precipitation information is shown as a bar for each month, and the temperature information is shown as a line connecting twelve points (one for each month). Have students identify the scale used on each axis of the climograph. Then ask them to interpret the graph.
- What is the warmest month of the year in Minneapolis? (Answer: July)
- What is the wettest month of the year in Minneapolis? (Answer: June)
- What does the temperature chart tell you about the growing season in Minneapolis? (Answer: It is limited primarily to May through September because average temperatures drop below freezing from November through March, and there could still be frost in April and October.)
- Is it as long as where you live? (Answers will vary)
- Does it start and end at the same time as where you live? (Answers will vary)
- In which months is the average temperature in Minneapolis below freezing? (Answer: November through April)
- Do you think that Minneapolis gets many blizzards with more than ten inches of snow at one time? (Answer: not likely)
- Which do you think sells better in Minneapolis—long underwear or bathing suits? (Answer: long underwear)
After the students have familiarized themselves with how to read the climograph of Minneapolis, divide the class into five groups. Give each group one of the unnamed U.S. cities climographs along with the worksheet titled What Can You Say About the Climate of These Cities? ( PDF). Have students answer the questions based on the climograph assigned to their group, including trying to guess the city, or general location, the climograph is based on. When each group has finished, have the groups report on their findings and their hypothesis of which city the climograph represents. Use labels on a map to keep track of student guesses about the cities. Encourage discussion and critique of student conclusions. When each group has made its presentation, reveal the identity of the actual cities.
Next, ask students to hypothesize what the climograph of where they live would look like. (Note to Teacher: if your class is in Minneapolis or one of the other cities for which climographs are provided, you may want to use a different climograph to start the lesson, or ask students to speculate on the climograph of another city.) Have the same five groups attempt to sketch such a climograph without finding actual data. Emphasize that they should think about the shape of the temperature and precipitation curves, and how they should reflect weather patterns. It will probably be more difficult for them to guess the absolute numbers for precipitation and temperature, but they should make their best guess or estimate. Have the groups examine and compare results.
Ask students what data they would need to make an actual climograph of where they live (or another place.) Where do they think they could find this data? Explain that they can find it at the World Climate website. Have students use this site to create their own climographs and an accompanying chart of data for the community where they live. (They can do this in either Fahrenheit or Celsius, and either inches or metric units.) Students can construct the climographs by hand, with or without the aid of graph paper, or they can use a program such as Excel to prepare the graph. (See Creating a Climograph in Excel [PDF]), for instructions for preparing a climograph using Excel). When students have completed the climograph, discuss how the data reflects the lifestyle, clothing, recreation, etc. in their community.
Now that students know how to gather data for a climograph and how to construct climographs for places in the United States, ask them what they already know about the climate of different places in Africa. Use a map of Africa or of the World to identify places students name. Then explain that they will be creating climographs for places in Africa so the class as a whole can get more information about the climate of Africa. Again working with five groups, distribute copies of Climographs of Places in Africa (PDF) to each group. (Note to Teacher: feel free to shorten or alter the assignment lists in any way you see fit. This list is designed to provide information about the major climate areas, but the assignment can be completed with a shorter list.) The groups should work cooperatively to complete a climograph and answer questions about the location.
When the students have finished their climographs, have them locate the places assigned to them on a wall map of Africa or the world and describe the climate to the class. When all of the locations have been placed on the map, ask the students if they see any patterns in the arrangement of the points on the map. What biomes do they think they might find in the places indicated on the map? What other comments or ideas does the map generate for them?
Climographs are used to classify climate around the world. Share with students the Köppen Climate Classification (PDF), which classifies climates based on the annual and monthly averages of temperature and precipitation into five categories: Tropical Moist (A), Dry (B), Moist Mid-latitude with Mild Winters (C), Moist Mid-latitude with Cold Winters (D), and Polar. Within each category, there are additional sub-categories, although this lesson is mostly concerned with sub-categories of Tropical Moist (A) and Dry (B). Thus some Tropical Moist climates are very wet (tropical rain forest—Af), while others have dry seasons (tropical savanna—Aw). Ask students to use the data they have gathered about African places to identify the climate type of each place.
Now that students have classified the climate of the places in Africa, go back to the map and again have them look for patterns. Use colors to indicate different climate types (e.g. dark green for rain forest, light green for tropical savanna, etc.) Can the students construct a version of the map of Africa that shows the different climate types across the continent? After they have made an effort to do so, show them the African Climate Zones, or have them look at the weather overlays at the Map Machine.
Looking just at the African Climate Zones, can the students identify where the Sahara Desert is? Based on the Climate Zones, where do students think would be the most desirable places to live in Africa? Where would be the least desirable places to live? Where would students expect to find the greatest variety of animals? Where would they expect to find the least variety? Where would tropical diseases be the biggest threat? Where do they imagine it is easiest to grow food in Africa? Based on this map, where do they think the areas of greatest population are? Least population?
Closing:
Conduct a class discussion on the following topics:
What would you pack if they were visiting different parts of Africa? Would it be easier to pack if they were going from east to west (or vice versa) or if they were going from north to south (or vice versa)? Why? (Students should consider the predominant climates when answering. East/west travel would have less change in climate, while north/south could potentially have more changes.)
Remind students that food shortages and drought have often been problems in Africa. While there are many reasons for famine that are not related to climate, how do the climographs help explain what areas of Africa might be prone to drought, which in turn could threaten food supplies? Explain why famine is such a frequent threat in Africa, especially north of the equator. (Students should address the predominant desert climate of the north of Africa, and accompanying shortage of rain, when answering.)
Draw students’ attention to the climographs of locations in southern Africa. Point out that these locations are in the Southern hemisphere, and ask students how these climographs are different from the climographs of locations in the United States or anywhere in the northern hemisphere. (Students should understand that seasons, and therefore weather patterns, apply to different months of the year in the two hemispheres, and therefore the climographs for the locations in the two hemispheres might depict opposite seasonal patterns.)
Suggested Student Assessment:
Use one or both of the following assessments:
1. Have students sketch a climograph (without actual numbers) for one or two of the climate types in the Köppen Climate Classification (PDF), demonstrating their knowledge of the temperature and precipitation patterns of that climate, as well as their skills in constructing a climograph. (A Standardized Climograph Template [PDF] is included in handouts.) Have students prepare a short answer to the question: How does the climograph help in making predictions about the lifestyles of people in the area represented?
2. Have students sketch a climograph for their hometown, using data from the Weatherbase website for the closest city. Have students prepare a short answer to the question: How does the climograph help in making predictions about the lifestyles of people in the your area?
Rubric for both assessments
- Climograph has appropriate scales for temperature and precipitation.—1 point
- Temperature points are accurate within 10 degrees Farenheight.—1 point
- Precipitation amounts are accurate within 2 inches.—1 point
- Shape of temperature curve matches “correct” curve.—2 points
- Shape of precipitation curve matches “correct” curve.—2 points
- Completed climograph is legible and easy to read.—2 points
- Students have offered reasonable consideration to the question.—2 points
10-11 points—Excellent work
8-9 points—Proficient work
6-7 points—Capable work
Less than 6 points—needs additional instruction or extended practice
Extending the Lesson:
Inquiry Extension
Have students consider the latitude of the locations studied in the African climographs. Look for additional locations with the same latitudes as some of the locations already graphed. Do they also have similar climographs? Do places of similar latitude in Africa have similar temperatures, precipitation, and overall climate? Ask students to speculate on why so many of the places with similar latitude have similar climates. Is the same thing true on other continents? There are also some notable exceptions to this latitude principal. What other characteristics of a location contribute to its climate?
Cross-Curricular Extension for Further Explanation
Have students convert the measurements from one of the climographs from inches and Fahrenheit to centimeters and Celsius. (Math)
In the fifteenth century, countries of Western Europeans began exploring the world and colonizing Africa. What features of geography and climate prevented Europeans from visiting Africa before the “Age of Exploration?” Even after Africa was colonized, it did not become a place that attracted European settlement in the same way that North America did. Have students speculate as to why Europeans preferred traveling to North America rather than Africa, even though Africa appears to be closer and more accessible. (History)
Try This at Home
Students can make climographs for the location of a relative who lives someplace else. They might want to call or write to the relative to discuss the climate in the other location, and how it affects their life.
Adaptations
Some students may have difficulty interpreting the climographs because of the amount of information in the graph or because of difficulty reading graphs. For such students, it may be helpful to allow them to construct separate graphs for temperature and for precipitation. Students with limited mathematical skills may find the different vertical scales confusing, or may have difficulty determining an appropriate range for each scale. Pairing such students with others who are more comfortable with the mathematical concepts may be helpful.
While Excel or other spreadsheet and graphing programs produce attractive graphs, some students may be intimidated by using these programs. It may be helpful to give students a Standardized Climograph Template (PDF) for completing climographs by hand, with the precipitation scale running from 0 to 15 inches and the temperature scale running from 0 to 100 degrees Fahrenheit for all climographs. Completing the graphs on graph paper may be easier for some students.
Because much of the lesson is designed to be completed in groups, pairing ELL students with more proficient students should provide support for the ELL students. A vocabulary list with key words such as climate, temperature, precipitation, rainfall, etc. may also be helpful to ELL students.
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