Social Studies-Investigating Climate Teachers often face a problem of helping students connect what they know in mathematics with another content area like social studies. Students need assistance seeing how math concepts such as means, trends, and variation can be applied to a topic like climate. This integrated lesson focuses on analyses of temperature and precipitation data for three different regions of the western United States. We put students in the role of buyers for outdoor recreation stores in these three regions as a way of anchoring their understanding. At the conclusion of these lessons, students are expected to make recommendations on clothing and recreation items suitable for the outdoor store in each location.
Students begin their research by learning some basic ideas about climate.
Encarta contains a definition of climate, maps for locating the cities, articles about the cities and their geography, and a climate chart and table to compare the cities' weather. Once students have completed the basic climate research, they will learn how to use spreadsheets to organize historical climate data into tables and charts to support their buyer's report. They will learn how to study the charts and interpret the data to make outdoor store buying decisions. Finally, we recommend that they make a presentation on their recommendations. The following lessons include ideas for teacher-led discussions and how to group students for different activities.