Global Temperatures

The lab activity described here was created by Columbia University Earth and Environmental Science Faculty (more info) . This Starting Point page was organized by Robert MacKay (more info) , Clark College (more info) .

This activity received a gold star rating from a Panel Peer Review

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This resource received a gold-star rating from a Panel Peer Review

These materials were reviewed using face-to-face NSF-style review panel of geoscience and geoscience education experts to review groups of resources addressing a single theme. Panelists wrote reviews that addressed the criteria:

scientific accuracy and currency
usability and
pedagogical effectiveness

Reviewers rated the resources:

Accept
Accept with minor revisions
Accept with major revisions, or
Reject.

They also singled out those resources they considered particularly exemplary, which are given a gold star rating.

Following the panel meetings, the conveners wrote summaries of the panel discussion for each resource; these were transmitted to the creator, along with anonymous versions of the reviews. Relatively few resources were accepted as is. In most cases, the majority of the resources were either designated as 1) Reject or 2) Accept with major revisions. Resources were most often rejected for their lack of completeness to be used in a classroom or they contained scientific inaccuracies.

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

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.