Lesson 5Plotting the Weather

Learning Goal

Let’s construct a model.

Activity 1: California Rain

Problem 1

What do you notice? What do you wonder?

A graph of month (horizontal axis 0 - 12) and rainfall in inches (vertical axis 0 - 20). Highest rainfall occurs in month 3 and 12.

Activity 2: Data Snooping

Problem 1

The table shows the average high temperature in September for cities with different latitudes. Examine the data in the table.

city

latitude  (degrees North)

temperature (degrees Fahrenheit)

Atlanta, GA

Portland, ME

Boston, MA

Dallas, TX

Denver, CO

Edmonton, AB

Fairbanks, AK

Juneau, AK

Kansas City, MO

Lincoln, NE

Miami, FL

Minneapolis, MN

New York City, NY

Orlando, FL

Philadelphia, PA

San Antonio, TX

San Francisco, CA

Seattle, WA

Tampa, FL

Tucson, AZ

Yellowknife, NT

  1. What information does each row contain?

  2. What is the range for each variable?

  3. Do you see an association between the two variables? If so, describe the association.

Activity 3: Temperature vs. Latitude

Problem 1

  1. Make a scatter plot of the data.

    a blank grid
  2. Describe any patterns of association that you notice.

  3. Draw a line that fits the data. Write an equation for this line.