Warm-up Your Brain and Make Observations
Yellowstone, Wyoming (late spring)
California Coast
(late spring)
Utah Student Science Experience format adapted from the work developed by Chris Zieminski and TJ McKenna for NGSSphenomena.com
What are you seeing?
How does the weather on a typical day in late spring look different between Yellowstone and California?
How Can I Explore What is Happening?
What is the weather typically like in February and March where you live?
Many people in Utah go to St. George to play outside sports like baseball and soccer in February and March. Compare the climate data between St. George and Salt Lake City.
What patterns in weather do you notice on the graphs in Salt Lake City and St. George?
From this information, describe why sports tournaments are played each year in St. George during February and March, and not in Salt Lake City.
What Can I Learn to Help Me Make Sense?
Read the following:
Climate
Weather is a specific event like a rainstorm or hot day. Weather happens over a short period of time. It can be measured every hour or each day. Climate is different. Climate describes the average weather conditions in a place over a long period of time, about 30 years. The climate where you live is made up of all the different weather patterns that usually
happen there. For example, the climate in Salt Lake City is cold and snowy in the winter and hot and dry in the summer.
Climate Patterns
We can also use climate patterns to compare two places. Look at the temperature graphs for New York City and San Diego. If you wanted to go somewhere warm in January, which city would you
choose to visit? Why?
What Can I Learn to Help Me Make Sense?
Climate Zones
There are many different types of climates on Earth. Climate scientists use patterns of temperature and precipitation to split the Earth into five main types of climates.
Tropical Climates
Tropical climates are found around the equator. These climates have warm temperatures year round. Tropical climates may be very wet all year or have a wet and a dry season.
equator
Dry Climates
Dry climates receive very little rainfall. Deserts are found in dry climates. Deserts receive less than 10 inches of rain or snow per year.
Temperate Climates
Temperate climates have mild temperatures. The weather is not too hot and not too cold. Areas with temperate climates are usually found on the edges of continents.
Continents
Continental Climates
Continental climates have hot summers and cold winters that include snowstorms and strong winds.
Areas with continental climates are found in the middle of continents.
Polar climates
Polar climates are found near the North and South Poles. The summers are very cool. The winters are extremely cold. Polar climates have low precipitation because it is so cold.
What Can I Learn to Help Me Make Sense?
What is something new you learned about climates?
How do climate zones relate to differences in typical weather in Yellowstone and California on the first slide?
California
Yellowstone National Park
What can I do next?
Can you think of a month during the year when you expect it to be hot and dry where you live? When?
Share what you learned with another person. Make sure to tell them why you think we have similar weather patterns during certain times of the year where you live. How did it go? Keep the emoji that shows your feelings.