Temperature

Objectives

• Students will read a thermometer accurately. (Application)
• Students will accurately record daily high and low temperatures found on Netscape on a line graph. (Synthesis)

Materials

• Thermometer for each pair
• Glass of warm water for each pair
• Glass of cool water for each pair
• Temperature-Recording Worksheet for each student
• Overhead of 4 blank thermometers
• Paper towels
• Sample line graph of high and low temperatures
• Graph paper for each student
• Red and blue marker for each student

Procedures

1. Ask class if anyone has a thermometer outside at home. Ask how many students are familiar with how to read them. Put a picture of 4 thermometers on the overhead projector. Fill in the thermometers to different temperatures and explain that the number the line goes to is the temperature. Ask class what the temperature is on the thermometers on the overhead.
2. Ask the students what liquid is in thermometers. What must some properties of the liquid be? What must it be able to do? Explain why mercury is used.
3. Put students into pairs. Hand out a thermometer, a glass of warm water, a glass of cool water, a temperature-recording worksheet, and paper towels to each pair. Instruct the class to predict how warm/cold the water is and record on worksheet. Ask them to then take the temperature of both water dishes. Remind them to dry off the thermometer in between tests. Have them record temperatures on worksheet. Walk around room and observe the children working and recording.
4. Discuss findings as whole class. What were the found temperatures? Were results the same throughout the class? Were you surprised at the temperature difference?

1. Report to class with a printed out copy of the daily high and low temperatures for the area from Netscape. Explain that the class will be making a line graph of these temperatures.
2. Show class a sample line graph of high and low temperatures on the overhead projector. Explain that the vertical axis will list the possible temperatures (at intervals of 10), and the horizontal axis will list the days of the given week. Review the importance of equal intervals and accuracy.
3. Hand out graph paper and work together (listing temperatures and weekdays, labeling, and making the title).
4. With supervision, each day a pair of students will be responsible for looking on Netscape and bringing a print out of the high and low temperatures for the area to class. This will be read to the class and students will plot data. Temperatures will be recorded in red for highs and in blue for lows.
5. At the end of the week, post the graphs around the room for children to compare. Discuss findings as a class. Were all the graphs similar? Should they all be similar? Why?

Evaluation

1. Did the students give the correct responses for the sample temperatures shown on the overhead projector? As I walked around the room, were students recording accurate information from taking the temperature of the hot/cold water onto their worksheets?
2. Were the student graphs similar to my own? Did the graphs accurately depict the data we had gathered?