Averages, VaRiaBiLiTy, and EXTREMES in Weather and Climate
Provided by: Paleontological Research Institution |Published on: June 3, 2022
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Synopsis
This video shows how scientists use average temperature measurements and measurements of temperature variability to understand how the climate is shifting.
Students will see how global temperature distribution can be represented by a bell curve. When temperatures become more variable, the bell curve widens, and when average temperatures increase, the bell curve moves further down the axis.
This interesting video shows students how statistics can help us to understand changes in climate.
The video uses easy-to-understand graphs to show the temperature data.
Additional Prerequisites
Students should be familiar with statistics terms such as bell curves, probability, distribution, and spread.
Differentiation
Math and statistics classes could use this video to show how climate scientists use statistics in real-world applications.
In small groups, students could discuss the following questions:
Who will be affected by greater variability in the weather? Why?
What does a wider bell curve indicate in terms of variability?
Explain how higher average temperatures and greater temperature variability can both lead to extreme heat?
Other resources on this topic include thisNASA videothat shows how land temperature anomaly distributions have changed, thisTED videoon why 1.5 degrees of global warming is a big deal, and thisarticleon how increasing heat will change life on Earth.
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About the Partner Provider
Paleontological Research Institution
Paleontological Research Institution (PRI) is a national leader in Earth systems science education. They strive to help make sense of the present and potential future climate change, while also increasing understanding of global change in Earth’s past. Their programs focus on systems thinking, understanding scale and learning in your own backyard.
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