Using Data from NOAA in a Technology Based Lesson Anna Wan Brice – Auburn University Margaret Ku – Dorsey High School

Goals of This Session Overview of Website Useful areas of NOAA website for the mathematics classroom Link to Common Core State Standards – Mathematical Practices Introduce Excel Sample problems I made from the website Teaching with technology tips Time for you to develop your lessons

NOAA: Homepage Explore NOAA: o Weather o Oceans o Fisheries o Charting o Satellites o Climate o Research o Coasts Features: NOAA Education Site Map Link to NOAA Climate Services:

Mathematical Practices Make sense of problems and persevere in solving them. Reason abstractly and quantitatively. Construct viable arguments and critique the reasoning of others. Model with mathematics. Use appropriate tools strategically. Attend to precision. Look for and make use of structure. Look for and express regularity in repeated reasoning.

Excel We’re going to tailor this part to you… and your needs… What is the surface area and volume of a cube with side length: o1o1 o2o2 o 15 o Show using a table Make some meaningful charts of this data. What would be useful?

Problem 1 part 1 The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) maintains records of monthly snowfall (in feet)recorded at various stations throughout the United States. Some of the information can be accessed through online geographic information systems (GIS) hosted on the NOAA website. Locate the annual snowfall data for Lee County, Alabama from 1940 to Create (1) a data table showing for each year in which snow fell in Lee County how many years have passed since the last time the county saw snow. We'll call the periods without snow snowless intervals. Create a (2) histogram plotting the frequency of the various lengths of snowless intervals. Please place an appropriate title above both your data table and your histogram, and be sure to label both the horizontal and vertical axes of your histogram per the instructions in the paragraph above.

Problem 1 part 2 Short Answer Questions Create a text box on your spreadsheet and answer the following questions. Some are factual, and some require interpretation of the data. Make sure that answers requiring interpretation are fully-explained and well-reasoned. 1. What are the mean, median, and mode of the lengths of the snowless intervals? (10 points) 2. Based on trends in the data, and based on the fact that it snowed in Lee County in both 2009 and 2010, when might you guess that it might snow again in Lee County? (10 points)

Rubric for Grading

From the same data site… Locate the total monthly snowfall data collected from Mystic Lake, Montana for each month of Create (1) a data table showing the total snowfall in feet that occurred in each month, (2) a graph showing, in chronological order, the snowfall in feet that occurred each month, and (3) a pie chart showing what percentage of total 2009 snowfall occurred during each month. Please place an appropriate title above each of your data table, your graph, and your pie chart. Be sure to label both the horizontal and vertical axes of your graph per the instructions in the paragraph above. Also be sure to label your pie chart. Short Answer Questions Create a text box on your spreadsheet and answer the following questions. Some are factual, and some require interpretation of the data. Make sure that answers requiring interpretation are fully-explained and well-reasoned. 1. List the months of 2009 in order of least snowfall to greatest snowfall as recorded at Mystic Lake. (10 points) 2. When would you, personally, like to visit Mystic Lake, Montana? Why? Explain your answer and use the data to support your reasoning. (10 points)

Rubric for Grading

Classroom Example How I enacted the problems in class Student mistakes Concluding class Purpose of this lesson

Teaching with Technology Be very comfortable with the technology before letting your students use it Just like math concepts, break down the steps for students o Be cognizant of level of technological savvy-ness expected of students for a lesson o Develop a suite of lessons that builds the savvy-ness Give them multiple opportunities to use the technology, it’s an ongoing process

Tips for Using NOAA Climate data is on climate.gov Fastest way to search for data is from the data tab on climate.gov NOAA main website, and especially NOAA education provides a good background for the data you have