This video uses a world map to show the number of record high and low temperatures on Earth recorded in 2021.
Students will see the daily, monthly, and all-time high and low temperatures throughout the year.
Teaching Tips
Positives
This short, silent video can be used in a variety of grade levels.
The graphics are easy to understand and when taken together, create a jarring conclusion about Earth's extreme temperatures in 2021.
Additional Prerequisites
Students should be able to read maps and scatter graphs.
For younger students, consider pausing the video at the beginning to go over the key.
Differentiation
Social studies classes could use this video to start a discussion about the impacts of temperature extremes on different communities that students have studied.
Consider introducing the concept of the video and having students jot down some general predictions about what they will see. Halfway through the video, pause it and have students add to or amend their predictions. At the end of the video, lead a discussion about what students learned.
Other related resources include this lesson about the rise in U.S. wildfires, this site about global temperatures, and this lesson about graphing temperature models.
Scientist Notes
This resource visualizes global temperature records in 2021. It shows temperature records from 8,524 weather stations and data on temperature highs and lows. This is recommended for teaching.
Standards
Science and Engineering
ESS2: Earth’s Systems
4-ESS2-2 Analyze and interpret data from maps to describe patterns of Earth’s features.
HS-ESS2-2 Analyze geoscience data to make the claim that one change to Earth’s surface can create feedbacks that cause changes to other Earth systems.
ESS3: Earth and Human Activity
MS-ESS3-5 Ask questions to clarify evidence of the factors that have caused the rise in global temperatures over the past century.
HS-ESS3-5 Analyze geoscience data and the results from global climate models to make an evidence-based forecast of the current rate of global or regional climate change and associated future impacts to Earth’s systems.
Social Studies
Geography
Geography 1 (D2): Students understand the geography of the community, Maine, the United States, and various regions of the world, and geographic influences on life in the past, present, and future by describing the impact of change on the physical and cultural environment.
