Global Temperatures
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This activity has been selected for inclusion in the CLEAN collection.
This activity has been extensively reviewed for inclusion in the Climate Literacy and Energy Awareness Network's collection of educational resources. For information the process and the collection, see http://cleanet.org/clean/about/selected_by_CLEAN.
This page first made public: Apr 12, 2006
This material is replicated on a number of sites as part of the SERC Pedagogic Service Project
Summary
Students analyze the global temperature record from 1867 to the present. Long-term trends and shorter-term fluctuations are both evaluated. The data is examined for evidence of the impact of natural and anthropogenic climate forcing mechanisms on the global surface temperature variability
Learning Goals
Introduce students to:
- Natural climate variability (volcanoes, El Nino);
- Climate trends;
- Climate predictability;
- Regional climate variations.
- Teach students how to describe and interpret graphical information.
- Explore the significance of global climate change patterns to a student's local region.
- Introduce students to the difficulties encountered in trying to extrapolate recent temperature trends into the future, and the need for models to make reasoned predictions of temperature change.
Image from NASA 2002 surface temperature summation (more info)
Context for Use
This activity can be used as a homework assignment or lab activity in an introductory geoscience course with climate change content. Instructors can also use the global average temperature data and graphs for interactive lecture or other graphical analysis activities.
Teaching Materials
All material available at Globally-Averaged Temperature Lab
Included are:
- Data in tab delimited format;
- Lab instructions and questions;
- Link to how to describe graphs;
- Link to how to write-up lab reports of this type;
- Images of:
- 2001 annual temperature anomaly relative to 1951 to 1980 mean;
- 1991 annual temperature anomaly relative to 1951 to 1980 mean;
- Regional trends in temperature for 1910-1945, 1946-1975, 1976-2000, and 1901-2000.
Teaching Notes and Tips
The activity assumes that students have seen how atmospheric CO2 concentrations have varied over the past century. See resources below for a image appropriate for a pre-lab discussion.
A great feature of this lab activity is that many of the questions ask students to think about how their region fits into the overall scheme of things. This activity was written for students at Barnard College and Columbia University (both in New York City) but students could easily answer the location specific questions for their local region.
Excel tip. Several times during this activity students are asked to plot graphs for different year of data. An easy way to change data ranges is to click right on the data point of the graph and then edit the series shown in the formula bar. For example,
When clicking on the data points of the first plot of this activity changing
SERIES(,avtemp.tsv!$O$7:$O$141,avtemp.tsv!$Q$7:$Q$141,1)
to
SERIES(,avtemp.tsv!$O$130:$O$141,avtemp.tsv!$Q$130:$Q$141,1)
makes it very easy to change the plot from all years to the years 1990 to 2001.
Assessment
Online teaching materials contain student activities that can help promote student learning. These activities can also be used to help assess student understanding of key idea and concepts.
References and Resources
- The Globally-Averaged Temperature Lab provides good documentation for references and additional reading.
Other relevant links include:
click to enlarge. 
