Assessment task — Sensational seasons: Suggested websites for research
Teacher note: Assessment task
This list of websites and their contents would be helpful in guiding students towards relevant information when answering the assessment task.
Have students conduct internet searches for information, using keywords such as:
- climate trends Australia [or region]
- seasons and climate trends Australia [or region]
- farming practices and seasons
- growing seasons Australia [or region]
- climate change and farming practices Australia [or region].
Websites
- Climate and past weather (Australian Government, Bureau of Meteorology)
Weather and climate: provides access to a range of statistics, historical weather observations, climatology maps and other Australian climate data.
Discusses:
- seasonal outlooks: rainfall and temperature
- weather and climate data
- maps
- climate change
- extremes of climate.
Using the BOM database:
- From the BOM homepage, scroll down and click on ‘Climate and past weather’.
- Click on ‘Weather and climate data’, which will take you to ‘Climate data online’.
- Choose the type of data you want to search for, e.g. rainfall, temperature, daily, monthly.
- Enter in a location, e.g. Tin Can Bay, and click ‘Find’.
- Select year.
- Click ‘Get data’.
Maps available:
- Changes in mean climate:
- trend maps
- time series
- average maps
- data portal.
- Changes in climate extremes:
- trend maps
- timeseries.
- Climate averages map(Australian Government, Bureau of Meteorology)
- 3 Atmosphere | 2 Climate | 2.1 State and trends of Australia’s climate (Australian Government, Department of the Environment)
- Shows state and trends of Australia’s climate as at 2011.
- Includes images and data of temperature, rainfall and climate research.
- State of the climate - 2012 (CSIRO)
- Downloadable report.
- Data: maps and graphs.
Discusses:
- temperature
- oceans
- greenhouse gases
- sources of carbon dioxide
- global warming
- future changes.
- Australian weather and seasons – a variety of climates (Australian Government)
Discusses:
- all different kinds of weather:
- Australia’s tropical areas
- Australia’s dry regions
- Australia’s temperate regions.
- living with Australian weather:
- drought
- bushfires
- cyclones.
- Australian farms and farming communities (Australian Government, Department of the Environment, Water, Heritage and the Arts)
Discusses:
- the history of farming in Australia:
- farming in the 1800s
- farming in the 1900s
- farming in Australia today:
- economic importance of farming in Australia
- types of farming in Australia
- drought and other impacts of the Australian climate
- the cultural importance of farming in Australia: agricultural shows
- importance of technology in Australian farming
- life on an Australian farm in the 21stcentury.
- Australia - Climate of our continent (Australian Government, Bureau of Meteorology)
- Australia’s farming future (Australian Government, Department of Agriculture)
Online reports and discussion papers
- A farmer’s guide to climate change in Queensland (Queensland Farmers’ Federation)
Discusses:
- projected future climate data and changes: rainfall, temperatures, solar radiation, shifting seasons
- energy efficiency of intensive agricultural industries (e.g. sugar, cotton, dairy and chicken industries)
- farm-management systems and the development of industry action plans.
- Climate Change impacts in Qld. (Australian Government, Department of the Environment)
Discusses:
- potential impacts and costs
- coastal zone
- water supply
- extreme events
- heatwaves and human health
- natural environments
- agriculture.
- Rainfall trends on the continent of Australia - Evaluating the evidence from the past century (Airborne Research Australia)
- Australian farming seasons (Ag Workforce)
Discusses:
- winter crops (cereals, grains, legumes and canola)
- summer crops (sorghum, sunflowers, soybeans)
- cotton season.
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SuggestedWebsites