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Geography 417

Geography Lab - Reading and Creating Climographs

Image: Flag of California

Climographs

Before you Start: It's always a good idea to print a copy of this exercise out first. Then you can pencil in your answers on the paper copy as you go through the assignment. Should your internet connection fail, then you won't have to start over. Also, you'll have a 'hard copy' as proof you did the assignment.

When you want to enter your answers, remember to press TAB after you have typed in a response. You can also use your mouse to move to the next response box. DO NOT press enter until you are finished. Once you press Enter or click the Submit button below, you will be redirected to a page that displays your answers. It's a good idea to keep a copy of this as well.

You will also need Microsoft Excel to complete the exercise. If you don't have it at home, go to the library or somewhere else with MS Excel.

Background: The state of California expects fourth graders and their students to do several of the things in this lab. This lab is also an example of how a teacher can combine math and social studies, a technique that is important given the breadth of material and the constant pressure for time.

CSBE Standard: This exercise addresses in part several of the California State standards for 4th graders:

4.1 Students demonstrate an understanding of the physical and human geographic features that define places and regions in California.

In addition, at least one math standard is also addressed by this exercise:

1.0 Students organize, represent, and interpret numerical and categorical data and clearly communicate their findings:

CSET Standard:This exercise address in part several CSET Skills and Abilities requirements. Specifically covered by this lab are the domains below:

Part II-A. Candidates for Multiple Subject Teaching Credentials utilize chronological and spatial thinking.

Part II-B. Candidates for Multiple Subject Teaching Credentials analyze, interpret and evaluate research evidence in history and the social sciences.

 

Objectives: In general, students will be able to read, interpret and construct climographs:

* DO NOT start this exercise the night before it is due. You may need help, or a server may go down.

*DO stop by your instructors office if you are having trouble.

*DO remember to put your name in the response box below.

Part I: Vocabulary and Fundamentals

Step 1.

Read a brief explanation of climographs at the website link to the right (click): http://www.cotf.edu/ete/modules/msese/earthsysflr/climograph.html


Step 2. Answer the questions by filling in the response boxes provided below.

1. On a climograph, monthly precipitation is depicted with a (fill in the blank) graph.

2. Temperature is shown on a climography with a (fill in the blank) graph.

Part II: Making a Paper Climograph

Perhaps the best way to learn how to read a climograph is to make a few.  First you need climate data.  Remember that for the most part climate is the pattern of temperature and precipitation over a series of years for a place.  A cool website called worldclimate.com allows you to search for temperature and precipitation data for many, many cities around the world.  Click on the link and open worldclimate.com in a separate window.

Once you are in the site, type into the search box: Santa Monica Pier.  The server will return a link to the Santa Monica Pier.  Click on it and it will give you a rather lengthy list of places nearby Santa Monica Pier for which data is also available.  Scroll down through the list until you find Santa Monica Pier.

Below Santa Monica Pier are several links that contain data.  Click on 24-hr Average Temperature and this will open take you to a page featuring a table of average monthly temperatures recorded at the Santa Monica Pier for each month.  The average monthly temperature is derived by dividing the sum of the month's average daily temperature by the number of days in the month. There are several ways of calculating "average daily temperature", but generally it is derived by adding the daily high temperature to the daily low and dividing the sum by two.  The yearly temperature range is also important to know. It is the difference between the hottest and coolest month's average temperature.

Step 3. Read the question below and provide an answer in the response box.

3. Fill in the blank: If today's high temperature was 100 degrees and today's low was 50 degrees, then today's average 24 hour
temperature would be degrees .

Step 4. Examine the 24 hour temperature table for Santa Monica Pier and answer the following questions:

4-5: Fill in the blanks: August is the hottest month at Santa Monica Pier with an average monthly temperature of .The month with the lowest average daily temperature at the Santa Monica Pier is .

6. Fill in the blank. At Santa Monica Pier, the yearly temperature range is degrees Fahrenheit.

Fill in the blank. In Santa Monica, the average yearly rainfall total for Santa Monica pier isnches and the .

Step 4. Next open either of the blank climograph links below, which will open a new browser window containing a blank climograph.  These blank climographs were adapted from the Partnership for Environmental Education and Rural Health website at Texas A&M. The third link below will begin a download of a powerpoint file with a tutorial on climographs.

Step 5. Print out your blank climograph (you may need to use the "landscape" setting on your printer) and using the correct graphical symbol (line or bar) plot the temperature by month for Santa Monica Pier.  Make sure that you refer to the scale on the right hand side of the climograph to plot temperature.

Step 6. Make sure that you title the graph with the location and in small type, print the source of the data and range of years this data was collected.  Also it would be good to put on the latitude and longitude coordinates.  You might even put the elevation as well.   Put your name in the lower left corner. 

Step 7. In your browser window displaying Santa Monica's temperature table, click on the back button.  Again you will see the list of climate variables for Santa Monica pier.  Note that there are two of them for Average Rainfall.  Click on either of these links to open a rainfall table. The uppermost one has the longest temporal frame for its data, so it may be more accurate..  Answer the three questions below:

7. What month is rainiest in Santa Monica?

8. June and July are the driest months in Santa Monica. The average rainfall is in these two months is listed as (fill in the blank) : inches though this does not mean that it has never rained here in those months. Instead it is an indication that on average, monthly rainfall is less than one-tenth of an inch, and one can see this by looking at the average monthly rainfall in millimeters.

9 Fill in the blank. Santa Monica Pier gets about inches of rainfall per year.

** Remember. These numbers are averages and the odd thing about "average" weather is that it seems that it never happens.  Some years it may be very rainy and other very droughty.  Some years are hot and some are cool. Somewhere in the middle is the average, but it may actually be rare to have an "average" year.  This is especially true in desert climates where the standard deviation is more telling than the average.

Step 8. On the same graph paper that you plotted Santa Monica's temperature, plot its monthly and yearly rainfall totals.  Use the appropriate graphical device for plotting rainfall and use the left axis as a guide for plotting the data.  In the box labeled KEY, write the words temperature and rainfall, and next to them draw symbols that indicate to your readers what data the lines and bars represent.  This graph you will turn in to your instructor on the assigned date.  Make sure your name is on it.

Part III: Using Microsoft Excel to make Climographs

Luckily, we have computer software that can help us create a variety of high quality graphics from data such as this, and as a certified educational professional you are expected to be reasonably competent users of common software such as Excel.  Excel is probably the most widely used spreadsheet program in the world and it has a few graph making features that you will use to make a series of climographs of locations around California.  

Step 9.  Open MS Excel, you may need to launch it from your start button on the lower taskbar.  From there, if Excel is installed, you will find it by clicking on All Programs and then you'll find it as one of the programs in Microsoft Office.   These directions are written for MS Office 2003, so your version of Excel may be slightly different.  However, since most of the functions used in this exercise have long been in Excel, most of the directions should still be easy to follow.

Step 10. At the bottom tab on worksheet, double click on the word "Sheet 1" and rename the worksheet Santa Monica. (see screen capture).  Save the file now..use this naming convention: geog417_climo_insert your last name.  So if your last name is Jones, you would save it as: geog417_climo_jones.doc.

Step 11.  Return to your browser window.  Open (or reopen) the webpage that has the rainfall data for Santa Monica Pier.  Place your cursor in the blank, upper leftmost cell of the rainfall table (just to the left of "Jan").  Click and drag your cursor down and to the right until all the data in the table is highlighted.  (see screen capture)

Step 12.  Press simultaneously the Control button and C (Ctrl + C) to copy the data.  Or you can click on Edit and select copy from the drop down menu in the web browser.

Step 13.  Return to Excel (Alt + Tab) and paste (Ctrl + V) the data in to the upper left most cell (the cell in column A, row 1 is cell A1) (see screen capture)

Step 14.  Return to the browser window (Alt + Tab) and click on the back button.  Select from the list of Santa Monica Pier Data the 24 hr Average Temperature .  Repeat steps 11 through 13, copying and pasting the temperature data into Excel, but placing it immediately below the rainfall data.  The blank cell to the left of Jan and above degrees C (°C).  It would be in cell A4.  (see screen capture).

Step 15.  Now you have the data necessary to make a climograph, but you must delete some of it to make the graph look better.  First eliminate the rain data recorded in millimeters.  Place your cursor on the number two (2) on to the left of the second column that begins with "mm". Notice that your cursor turns into a bold right pointing arrow (-->)  . Click once to select (or highlight) the entire row. 

Step 16.  Click on the word Edit in the menu bar at the top of your window.  From the drop down menu select delete (see screen capture).  The ENTIRE second row of data should disappear.  Repeat the this deletion process with the second set of months and the row of Celsius temperature data.  You should have only the top row of months, followed by a row of "inches" and a row of "° F". 

Step 17.   Next, you need to move the year end average one cell away from the monthly data to get a nice graph. Place your cursor on the column N header cell above the word "Year" in cell N1.    This will highlight the column.  Next, select from the "Insert" drop down menu "Column".  This will put a blank column between the year end totals and the December averages.   You are now ready to graph.

Step 18.  Place your cursor in cell A1 (upper left) and drag your mouse to cell N3, containing the yearly average for temp (61.2).  All the data should be highlighted. 

Step 19   Next, click on Insert on the top menu bar and select from the drop down menu items "Chart" (see screen capture).

Step 20.  A Chart Wizard dialog box will appear and you should click on the top tab labeled "Custom Types".  From the list of custom chart types, select "Line-Column on 2 Axes".  (see screen capture). Click Next.

Step 21.  Click the "Next>" button.  All the default options on this "Chart Wizard -Step 2 of 4" dialog box should be OK, but I encourage to at least take a peak at the information and options on the series tab. You may find them useful another day.  Click Next.

Step 20.  The "Step 3" dialog window allow you to add page titles and axis titles to your graph, as well as several other options.  Title your graph "Santa Monica Pier: Climograph"  Add appropriate titles to the X axis and both Y axes. You may want to move the legend to the bottom (see screen capture). 

For bonus points: Add the latitude, longitude and elevation data for each of the five climographs you make into the secondary X axis box.

Step 21.  Click next and make sure the chart (graph) is going to placed as an object in the worksheet you have named Santa Monica.  Click Finish and congratulate yourself on making an electronic version of a climograph.  Save your file before you go any further.

Step 22.  Next make a climograph for Eureka, California.   You'll need to go back to the home page of worldclimate.com and type in Eureka, CA into their search window box.  Use the data from: EUREKA, CA., UNITED STATES OF AMERICA.  Then repeat the steps from above.  Remember to do rainfall first, then temperature.

Step 23. Answer the next two question, then finish up with steps 24-26.

10.Fill in the blank. Eureka gets about inches of precipitation or rainfall each year.

11. Fill in the blank. The average monthly temperature in Eureka varies by about degrees Fahrenheit over the course of a year.

Step 24.  Next insert 2 new worksheets into your Excel workbook. To do so, click Insert from top menu bar and select Worksheet from the drop down menu. Press F4 to add a second.

Step 25.  Next, select 3 additional locations in California that are representative of 3 other California climate types.  You may want to pick a high and/or low desert city, a Great Central Valley City, maybe someplace from the San Fernando Valley, or the High Sierras.  Remember to rename each worksheet so that I can identify the location by looking at the worksheet tabs which towns you have picked.

Step 26. When you have made a total of 5 climographs, attempt to answer the last bonus question and then submit the answers to this component of the lab by clicking submit below.  You are also to email your excel file as an attachment to your instructor.  Make sure that the file is is properly named ..see naming convention above) and is free of viruses. 

Bonus: Fill in the blank. Compare your climographs with each other.  Comparisons between the locations could be made easier and more useful to
viewers if the on all the primary and secondary Y axes was consistent for each graph.

 

Type your name, email address and code into the boxes below and click sumbit.





When you click the button below, you will be directed to a web page that shows your answers. The instructor will get a copy of this email as well, but you may want to keep a copy for your records. If you are curious about the correct answers, please bring your questions to class

 

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