Math

Math & Weather - Perfect Together!

Mrs. McGowan's First Grade
Spring Lake, New Jersey

It's been a cold, snowy winter in Spring Lake, New Jersey! We certainly missed the opportunity to find a math problem during our outside recess time. However we did find an interesting problem right in our own "classroom community".

Spring Lake is small town on the Atlantic coast, located between Philadelphia and New York City. It has a beautiful beach, lovely shops, many fun things to do, and a great school - H.W. Mountz Elementary. Of course we think our town is very special!

First graders are often amazed to find out that other places might have the same name. Washington, DC and the state of Washington are on opposite sides of the country. Right here in New Jersey, there's more than one town of Washington. With this in mind, we decided to extend our usual study of weather and record weather conditions in other "Spring Lake" communities as well as our own. Using the Internet, we found four other "Spring Lakes": in North Carolina, Missouri, Minnesota, and Michigan.

The students had previously been introduced to reading a thermometer and were able to locate the temperature readings on the weather website. They wondered how math could be used to learn more about weather. Elizabeth suggested that "...you use math to tell how fast a storm is coming". Other students thought that knowing the temperature helps to decide what to wear or do.

We sent email to meteorologists asking this question and they generously responded (their comments have been edited by Marci McGowan):

1/25/01
Dave DeMay, Webmaster, www.WeatherGuru.com

Dear Spring Lake,
... I can say for sure math is used in meteorology very frequently to calculate statistics or "the chances" of one kind of weather occurring for Spring Lake versus another. On a large picture scale, math is used in tracking the movement of various weather systems. A change here will most definitely cause a change everywhere else. Temperatures are also a practical example of mathematics in use. Temperatures indicate whether it will be rainy or snowy or even foggy for that matter ...

1/28/01
Nick Walker, www.wxdude.com

Dear Mrs. McGowan's first graders,

I am glad to hear you're studying weather! Meteorology (the study of weather) uses math in almost every part. Weather uses lots of numbers...temperatures, relative humidity (which is in percent), measurements of rain and snow in inches and centimeters, measurements of wind speed, measurements of how high clouds are from the ground ... computer programs ... averages ...
Weather and math go hand-in-hand. Keep studying math if you want to know more about the weather!

2/16/01
Frank Lombardo, www.weatherworksinc.com , WCTC 1450AM Radio

Math is very important to a meteorologist, and to a weather center...

Math is used
    * to calculate the speed of various weather systems
    * to measure the amount of various precipitation types
    * to determine how big or small a weather system is or will be
    * to calculate how rapid a system is growing ( like measuring a first grader at the beginning and end of the school year).

By using mathematical calculations we determine when storms will hit us, and when we will be spared. Math is an extremely
important part of Meteorology.

2/19/01
Steve Wistar, AccuWeather, Inc.
...your student is correct that meteorologists use math to determine the speed of storms (refers to Elizabeth's idea that "...you use math to tell how fast a storm is coming").

Mr. Wistar also offered suggestions for future activities integrating math and weather study:
--using a rain guage
-- have the class read a thermometer at the same two-hour (or whatever is convenient) interval each day and keep a record of the difference in the temperature from one time to the next. Then, show how the differences are generally less on cloudy days than on sunny days.
-- keep records of all kinds of averages...temperature, humidity, rainfall, snowfall, wind ( good for older students).
--in the realm of averages, meteorologists frequently compare what actually happens to the long-term averages.

Our Investigation - How We Did It

This project was designed for first grade students and could easily be adapted for other grade levels. It addressed Math Topics of: measurement, constructing tables and graphs, using tables and graphs to obtain information.

It included these activities:

gathering weather information from the Internet
recording in logs, tables, and creating graphs
finding specific information from these tools
constructing own math questions about the information
communicating with each other in a daily class "weather report"
communicating with others through our class website
writing to professionals to find out how they use math to learn about weather.

As the students located weather conditions and temperatures from a weather website , they recorded their findings on a chalkboard table similar to this:

*Five Spring Lakes' Weather: January 15 - 19, 2001*
Spring Lake	New Jersey	Michigan	Minnesota	Missouri	North Carolina
Monday	Rain 36°F	Rain 36°F	Snow 25°F	Cloudy 25°F	Mist 39°F
Tuesday	Partly Cloudy 36°F	Cloudy 34°F	Snow 10°F	Mist 25°F	Mist 39°F
Wednesday	Sunny 32°F	Cloudy 30°F	Cloudy 5°F	Mist 21°F	Mist 39°F
Thursday	Cloudy 36°F	Cloudy 30°F	Snow 19°F	Mist 19°F	Mist 46°F
Friday	Rainy 39°F	Snow 28°F	Cloudy 1°F	Cloudy 12°F	Fog 50°F

During the week, they were asked by their teacher to obtain information about the five towns' weather. Various types of questions were modeled for the students.

Next, there was an assignment for students to create their own math/science questions utilizing the table data.

Here are their math-related questions:

1. Which Spring Lake had a temperature of 5°F?

2. Which was the coldest Spring Lake?

3. Which was the warmest?

4. Which Spring Lake had a temperature of 1°F?

5. Which Spring Lake had a temperature of 32°F?

6. What temperature was it in Minnesota on Thursday?

7. Which Spring Lake had a temperature below 5°F ?

8. Which Spring Lake had the most cloudy days?

9. Which Spring Lake had the most days at or above freezing (33ºF)?

10. Which Spring Lake had the most days at or below freezing (32ºF)?

Students worked individually or in small groups to answer their classmates math questions. They use the table to find their answers. Several of the questions were made into PowerPoint slides for our whole class viewing and discussion ( overhead transparencies also could be utilized).

Questions 8, 9, 10 needed two-step solutions. Our students each created a smaller table and Excel chart for one of these questions. Here's an example:

Days At or Below Freezing
NJ	MI	MN	MO	NC
1	3	5	5	0

below freezing new.jpg (14411 bytes)

Now this problem is for you to solve! Go to the weather website . Look up the 5 Spring Lakes and record the temperatures for the day in a table. Apply any of the questions listed above and see what you can learn from the table.

An important part of math learning in our classroom is integration with other areas of the curriculum. This project also focused on science, social studies, art, literacy, and the use of technology.

usa map1.jpg (14952 bytes)

	Students used their prior knowledge about geography and cold/warm places. They knew that north of New Jersey can be colder. We are Santa Claus fans and it's really cold at the North Pole! We located the four other Spring Lakes on a large USA map. They decided Minesota and Michigan had colder days because they were farther north of New Jersey. We decided that Missouri might be cold because of the cold air coming down from Canada.
Several students'families were planning trips to warm southern islands or Florida. So it made sense that North Carolina would have warmer temperatures. "It's farthest south, closer to Florida and it's hot there". "It's closer to the equator where it's really hot".
	Our Five Spring Lakes Weather Project correlates with the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics (NCTM) Standards for Connections, Problem Solving, and Communication.
The project also: * is aligned with New Jersey Core Curriculum Content Standards for Art (1.3), Literacy (3.3, 3.4, 3.5), Social Studies (5.2, 5.5), Science (6.7), Math (4.1, 4.2, 4.3, 4.4, 4.5). * supports the National Technology Standards for Students ( NETS) in the areas of basic operations and concepts, technology productivity tools, and technology communications tools.

We had a great time looking for math in a community weather study. When the local weather improves, we can "hit the trail" and be on the lookout for even more math!

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