Introduction: How has the weather been in your town this year? Was it a colder winter than usual? Was the summer hotter than usual? Did it snow or rain a lot? Has there been any pattern in the weather the past few years?

Problem:

1. Make a questionnaire to gather data about what people think about the weather in your town. You might use some of the questions in the Introduction. Make up some other questions to ask them. Ask them to predict next year's weather.
2. Organize the data you collect and make at least one graph that shows what people think about the weather in your town.
3. Try to find out information about the weather in your town during the past five or ten years. Organize the data and use graphs to show the information. If useful, calculate means, medians, and modes for some of the weather information. How are some of these calculations useful?
4. Did people's thoughts (from question 1) about the weather agree with what you found out about past years' weather? Explain.
5. How do you think the data and graphs would be different if you were describing the weather in Calgary? What would you expect for Vancouver? Explain.
6. Can you make any predictions about next year's weather for your town? Explain.

Materials: pencil, paper, graph paper, information from the weather office or the Internet, calculator

Numbers and operations, data management, critical and creative thinking, communication

  Activity Type:

Group      Individual 

  Assessment:

Scale:    Levels 1-5   
Self     Peer     Teacher 
Include in your portfolio?
Yes     No     Optional 
Toward Your Marks?
Yes     No     Optional 

  Hints: