In this Warm-up, students think about different factors that influence outside temperature in North America. Some are geographical (latitude, desert or sea climate, elevation), others are time of year, cloud cover, time of day, etc. This is a chance to make connections with some science concepts.
It is not important that students come up with an exhaustive list. They should just get the idea that there are many factors so that they are open to the idea that we’ll have to make some choices for our model and clearly define any variables we want to consider. Making these choices is part of the modeling cycle (MP4).
Arrange students in groups of 3–4. Tell students that they are starting an investigation on how to predict outside temperature, and that these will be their groups throughout these investigations. Check that students understand the example given in the activity statement: as the time of day changes, the temperature often changes in a predictable way. They will brainstorm other factors that also influence the temperature.
Use Collect and Display to create a shared reference that captures students’ developing mathematical language. Collect the language students use to brainstorm factors that influence the temperature outside. Display words and phrases such as “time of year,” “elevation,” “storms,” “season,” and “climate change.”
What factors or variables can influence the outside temperature in North America?
Make a list of different factors.
Write a sentence for each factor describing how changing it could change the temperature.
Example: One factor is time of day. Often, after sunrise, the temperature increases, reaches a peak in the early afternoon, and then decreases.
Sample response:
Direct students' attention to the reference created using Collect and Display. Ask students to share their factors and explanations. Invite students to borrow language from the display as needed and update the reference to include additional phrases as they respond.
Invite students to share some of the factors they have come up with. Note that many of them are geographical. Point out that making a model that takes into consideration many or even all of these factors is very complex (weather forecasting is really difficult!). In mathematical modeling, we often start by fixing or disregarding (or randomizing) all but one of the factors. In the next activity, we want to pick just one—latitude—and investigate how just changing the latitude changes the temperature.
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In this Warm-up, students think about different factors that influence outside temperature in North America. Some are geographical (latitude, desert or sea climate, elevation), others are time of year, cloud cover, time of day, etc. This is a chance to make connections with some science concepts.
It is not important that students come up with an exhaustive list. They should just get the idea that there are many factors so that they are open to the idea that we’ll have to make some choices for our model and clearly define any variables we want to consider. Making these choices is part of the modeling cycle (MP4).
Arrange students in groups of 3–4. Tell students that they are starting an investigation on how to predict outside temperature, and that these will be their groups throughout these investigations. Check that students understand the example given in the activity statement: as the time of day changes, the temperature often changes in a predictable way. They will brainstorm other factors that also influence the temperature.
Use Collect and Display to create a shared reference that captures students’ developing mathematical language. Collect the language students use to brainstorm factors that influence the temperature outside. Display words and phrases such as “time of year,” “elevation,” “storms,” “season,” and “climate change.”
What factors or variables can influence the outside temperature in North America?
Make a list of different factors.
Write a sentence for each factor describing how changing it could change the temperature.
Example: One factor is time of day. Often, after sunrise, the temperature increases, reaches a peak in the early afternoon, and then decreases.
Sample response:
Direct students' attention to the reference created using Collect and Display. Ask students to share their factors and explanations. Invite students to borrow language from the display as needed and update the reference to include additional phrases as they respond.
Invite students to share some of the factors they have come up with. Note that many of them are geographical. Point out that making a model that takes into consideration many or even all of these factors is very complex (weather forecasting is really difficult!). In mathematical modeling, we often start by fixing or disregarding (or randomizing) all but one of the factors. In the next activity, we want to pick just one—latitude—and investigate how just changing the latitude changes the temperature.