The Web is a wonderful resource for gathering weather data. For this portion of your investigation, you will research average temperature ranges over twelve months for a variety of American cities and for Antarctica.
To conduct your investigation, work as scientists do—predict what you may discover, make observations, and record what you see. Look for patterns. Afterwards, offer hypotheses to explain those patterns. Don't worry if your hypotheses are sketchy right now; any testable hypothesis is a valid starting point. When scientists test their hypothesis and discover that their observations and data do not match their hypothesis, they redefine their investigation by improving the test and gathering more data, or refining the original hypothesis based on the new data before testing again. In your investigation, you can return to the Web sites if you need to observe more details. Then revise your hypothesis or develop a new one based on each new round of observations.
Bring your journal to the computer and go to the NOAA Climate page at:
http://www.noaa.gov/climate.html
Click on "Climate Archives and Statistical Tables," then on "U.S. Monthly Mean Temperatures and Precipitation Tables." From here, select any month of the year and get the average temperature for any city you choose. Examine the average temperatures for three to five cities; if you are working with a group, each of you can pick a different city to investigate. You can pick the town nearest yours as one of the towns, but make sure that the cities you chose span the latitude of the U.S.; in other words, that there are some in the northern states, some in the middle states, and some in the southern states. Longitudinal position doesn't matter here; you are investigating seasonal changes! (Why isn't longitude really a factor in seasonal changes?)
Record the average temperatures over the last twelve months for each city in your journal. Then use that data to create a graph. This will help you see patterns more easily.
After examining the data for the American cities you chose, check out the average monthly temperatures in Antarctica at the Museum's Antarctica resources Web site:
http://www.amnh.org/education/resources/rfl/web/antarctica/weather/
Choose two stations—one on or near the coast and one that is inland—and record average monthly temperatures for both for a twelve-month period. Use the data to create a graph. Compare your graphs. What patterns do you see?
Use the questions below to guide your journal notes and include drawings in your journal to illustrate your ideas. If you're working with a team, discuss your observations with your teammates. Remember to record in your own journal your observations about temperature patterns in the U.S. and in Antarctica, and consider how they change with latitude.
- What patterns do you notice in the temperature graphs for the American cities? Consider yearly changes or lack of changes as you offer explanations for those patterns.
- What patterns do you notice in the temperature graphs for Antarctic weather? Again, offer explanations based on yearly changes or lack of changes.
- Compare inland to coastal temperatures in Antarctica. Offer hypotheses to explain why the temperatures differ.