Unit - PopulationsLife ScienceLesson 4

Colorado’s Temperature and Precipitation

Past to Present (~1900 to 2012)

Teacher Notes

Purpose:

This lesson designed to allow students to synthesize the information they collected in the previous lesson with their classmates to try and come up with a picture of climate trends for the Colorado Mountains. This Activity adds in precipitation data.

Time: 1 – Class period

Materials:

1 set for each student: Printouts of the data (charts from the Climate trends website) for the locations they researched.

Lesson Overview:

Students will use the worksheet to help guide them in a group synthesis of the location they researched as well as their group mates.

Assign each group one student who researched each of the following locations.

Fort Collins

Hayden

Dillon

Grand Lake

Montrose

Climax

Part 1 – Students complete an individual analysis of their location

Part 2 – Students analyze precipitation data for their location.

Part 3 – Students come together in student groups (each student in the group represents a different location)

Name: ______

You have researched temperature information about a particular place in the Colorado Mountains. Now it is time to think about what that information means. So, today your teacher will hand out printed graphs of the same temperature charts that you looked at in the computer lab.

Part 1 – Webquest synthesis

Today we will analyze the information and also look at some new information. You will also get some precipitation data from the same location that you researched the temperatures.

Your job is to get a “picture” of what is going on. To do this you will look at trends. A trend is something that happens over time. For example if you see that temperatures are increasing from the past then the trend is that it is getting warmer. If you see the temperatures are becoming lower than in the past then the trend is that it is getting colder.

Let’s start filling in some information to help you out.

The station you researched: ______

On your chart the past is to the left and last year is on the right.

What is the year on the far left side of the graph? ______

What was the approximate temperature that year? ______

The information on the right is for the year 2011.

What was the approximate temperature for 2011? ______

How does the temperature from the past compare to 2011? Circle your answers below.

It is Higher / Lower / Same So this means it is: Warmer / Colder / Same

So overall the station you studied is becoming? Warmer / Colder / Same

Now look at the next page that has 4 graphs on it. These are the graphs you looked at in our last lesson.

Maximum temperatures are from the daytime when we receive most of our heat from the sun.

What is the year on the far left side of the “x” axis? ______

What was the approximate maximum temperature that year? ______

The year at the right side of the “x” axis is for the year 2011.

What was the approximate maximum temperature for 2011? ______

How does the temperature from the past compare to 2011? Circle your answer below.

It is Higher / Lower / Same So this means it is: Warmer / Colder / Same

Minimum temperatures are from the night time when we don’t receive heat from the sun.

What is the year on the far left side of the graph? ______

What was the approximate minimum temperature that year? ______

The information on the right is for the year 2011.

What was the approximate minimum temperature for 2011? ______

How does the temperature from the past compare to 2011? Circle your answer below.

It is Higher / Lower / Same So this means it is: Warmer / Colder / Same

What are the days becoming? Warmer / Colder / Same

What are the nights becoming? Warmer / Colder / Same

Now let’s look at summer vs winter.

Summer is the season when we have longer days and is the warmest season.

What is the year on the far left side of the graph? ______

What was the approximate average temperature that year? ______

The information on the right is for the year 2011.

What was the approximate average temperature for 2011? ______

How does the temperature from the past compare to 2011?

It is Higher / Lower / Same So this means it is: Warmer / Colder / Same

Winter is the season when we have shorter days and is the coldest season.

What is the year on the far left side of the graph? ______

What was the approximate average temperature that year? ______

The information on the right is for the year 2011.

What was the approximate average temperature for last year? ______

How does the temperature from the past compare to last year?

It is Higher / Lower / Same So this means it is: Warmer / Colder / Same

What are the summers becoming? Warmer / Colder / Same

What are the winters becoming? Warmer / Colder / Same

Part 2 – Precipitation Charts and analysis.

Are you ready to look at the precipitation data?

Your teacher has given you a bar graph that shows the precipitation for the station you have been studying. Take a look at the chart and answer the questions below.

  1. What information is on the “x” axis? ______
  1. What information is on the “y” axis? ______
  1. How many years does the chart cover? ______

Hint: Subtract the number on the left from the number on the right.

Since we are looking at two very specific populations in the forest we want to focus on information that pertains either to the pine beetle or the lodgepole pine. We know that the lodgepole pine needs a specific amount of water every year. They need between 18 and 25 inches of precipitation to be healthy. So we are going to look at the years that the lodgepole pine receives the required amount of water.

  1. How many years (count each bar) did your location receive greater than 18 inches of precipitation? ______
  1. Since the year 1996 how many years has your location received greater than 18 inches of precipitation? ______
  1. Since the year 1996 how many years has your location received less than 15 inches of precipitation? ______
  1. How much precipitation has your location received so far this year (2012)? ______

Activity 3Page 1

Unit - PopulationsLife ScienceLesson 4

Your group will take some of the information each of you researched for a particular location in Colorado on the chart below. This chart will help you identify trends about temperature and precipitation and will help identify a trend for the Colorado Mountains and whether or not our forests are getting what they need to be healthy.

Team Member’s Name / Location Name / Highest Average Temperature and Year / Lowest Average Temperature
And Year / Range of Temperature / What is the Average Temperature doing over time? / What is the Summer Average Temperature doing over time? / What is the Winter Average Temperature doing over time? / Based on precipitation are the trees in your location healthy or stressed?
/ / /
/ / /
/ / /
/ / /
/ / /
/ / /
/ / /

Based on the information above and looking at all of the trends answer the following questions:

  1. For all of the stations what is the overall trend for the average temperature over time? ______
  1. For all of the stations what is the overall trend for the average summer temperature over time? ______
  1. For all of the stations what is the overall trend for the average winter temperature over time? ______

Activity 3Page 1