Sciences for the IB MYP 2: by Concept
5 How does our planet work?
Activity: How’s the weather?
ATL
Critical-thinking skills: Identify trends and forecast possibilities
Creative-thinking skills: Use brainstorming and visual diagrams to generate new ideas and
inquiries
In this activity, you will work with your entire class to map the location of several cities around the
world and create a climatograph (also called a climograph or climogram) for each city. You will
then identify trends in the climate data, and use these trends to identify the effect of water on climate
and weather.
Before you begin, you must understand what a climatograph contains, and what you must include in
your own climatographs. Below are examples of climatographs for Manaus, in the Brazilian rainforest,
and Barrow, in Alaska.
Discuss and complete the following prompts with your partner according to what you see in the
climatographs. Use your responses as a guideline or ‘checklist’ when making your own
climatographs.
Hodder & Stoughton © Paul Morris and Patricia Deo 2017
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Sciences for the IB MYP 2: by Concept
The title of the climatograph should contain _________________________________
The x-axis is _________________________________
The y-axis on the left is _________________________________
The y-axis on the right is _________________________________
Precipitation is shown using _________________________________
Temperature is shown using _________________________________
In Manaus, the range of temperatures is from ________________ to ________________
In Barrow, the range of temperatures is from ________________ to ________________
The difference in the ranges of temperatures is because __________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________________________________
The climatograph helps us know _____________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________________________________
Now, look at the cities in the following table that your class will study. Using a world map or an
internet search, find where in the world each city is located. Then complete the table using your
background knowledge about climate and weather. An example has been done for you. (Note that all
these cities are at or near sea level.)
Hodder & Stoughton © Paul Morris and Patricia Deo 2017
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Sciences for the IB MYP 2: by Concept
City
General description of
location
My prediction of what the
weather will be like
Reasoning for my prediction
Fairbanks,
Alaska
Fairbanks is in the United
States of America. It is far
north. It is in the middle of
the state. It is not close to
the ocean or sea.
I think it is going to be really
cold there in the winter, and not
very warm in the summer. I
don’t think there will be too
much precipitation.
I think it is going to be pretty cold because it is so far north, and I have
learned that the more north you go, the colder it is. I don’t think there will
be too much precipitation because it is not near the water, and I usually
think of wet places being close to the water.
London,
England
Winnipeg,
Canada
Hodder & Stoughton © Paul Morris and Patricia Deo 2017
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Sciences for the IB MYP 2: by Concept
City
General description of
location
My prediction of what the
weather will be like
Reasoning for my prediction
Trondheim,
Norway
Goa,
India
Niamey,
Niger
Hodder & Stoughton © Paul Morris and Patricia Deo 2017
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Sciences for the IB MYP 2: by Concept
City climates
Once you have made your predictions, you are ready to go on. For this activity, you will need:

Graph paper or graphing software

A world map – either electronic or paper

A place to write down your observations and responses to the questions – this could be either
done as a class or individually
Your teacher will divide the class into six groups and assign each group a city.
1
Mark each city on one class map of the world.
2
Calculate the average yearly temperature for your city:
3
4
Hint
(see table on next page).
If you use graphing software such as
Calculate the average yearly precipitation for your city
Microsoft Excel or Google Sheets,
(see table on next page).
you can ‘plug in’ values and use the
Using either graphing software, or graph paper, graph
‘average’ function to quickly get the
both the average monthly temperature and average
average values for both the
monthly precipitation, in a climatograph for your city.
temperature and precipitation.
Note that, because you will be comparing the climate data
for each city, it is important that all of the graphs use the
same scale for precipitation and temperatures. Discuss with
your class what the range for each of these variables
should be. In other words, what will be the maximum and
Hint
Remember to use the checklist that
you identified above when making
your own climatograph.
minimum temperature on everyone’s graph? What will be the maximum and minimum precipitation, in
millimetres?
When all of the groups have finished their calculations and climatographs, share the yearly averages
with the whole class and put all the climatographs together so that the entire class can make
observations of the climate patterns in the different cities. Go back to your predictions – how well do
they match the actual climate for each city? Does anything surprise you?
Use the visible thinking routine of See–Think–Wonder when observing the graphs. You could set up a
three-column chart to organize your responses.

See: What do you notice about the climate of each city? What patterns or relationships do you
notice about the location of each city and its climate?

Think: Using your observations and what you noticed, what do you think might be the reason for
these patterns? What do you think might be the reason why your predictions about climate did not
fit the actual climate?

Wonder: What do you wonder about the climate patterns you noticed? What do you wonder
about the reasons for the climate patterns?
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Sciences for the IB MYP 2: by Concept
Average monthly temperatures (°C) of different cities (data from climatemps.com)
Jan
Feb
Mar
Apr
May
Jun
Jul
−23
−20
−12
−1
9
15
17
14
6
6
8
10
13
16
18
Winnipeg,
Canada
−16
−11
−5
3
10
15
Trondheim,
Norway
−1
0
3
7
12
Goa,
India
26
26
28
29
Niamey,
Niger
24
27
31
34
Fairbanks,
Alaska
London,
England
Aug Sept
Oct
Nov
Dec Year
8
−4
−16
−21
18
15
12
8
6
17
18
11
3
−6
−13
15
19
17
13
8
4
1
30
28
27
27
27
28
28
27
34
32
28
28
29
31
28
25
Average monthly precipitation (mm) of different cities (data from climatemps.com)
Jan
Feb
Mar
Apr
May
Jun
Jul
Aug Sept
Oct
Nov
Fairbanks,
Alaska
15
13
1
1
2
5
6
5
London,
England
52
39
35
43
50
43
41
Winnipeg,
Canada
16
13
16
20
44
63
Trondheim,
Norway
68
67
67
60
48
Goa,
India
0
0
1
5
Niamey,
Niger
0
0
4
6
3
2
2
2
48
49
71
63
53
58
37
32
17
14
17
66
70
78
92
98
67
76
56
891
853
622
237
111
35
2
35
69
154
171
92
10
1
0
Hodder & Stoughton © Paul Morris and Patricia Deo 2017
Dec Year
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Sciences for the IB MYP 2: by Concept
Now, look at the final table below. Calculate the difference in the average yearly high temperature and
low temperature for each city. (Note: the high temperatures are usually sometime in the afternoon,
and the low temperatures are usually at some point during the night.)
Add your observations of the differences in high and low temperatures for each city to your See–
Think–Wonder chart.
Average yearly high temperatures and average yearly low temperatures
Average high
(°C)
Average low
(°C)
Fairbanks, Alaska
3
−8
London, England
14
7
Winnipeg,
Canada
8
−4
Trondheim,
Norway
8
2
Goa, India
32
23
Niamey, Niger
36
22
Difference (°C)
Finally, with your group or on your own, write one sentence to summarize the pattern or
relationship between location in the world and climate. Share your ‘big idea’ with the class.
___________________________________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________________________________
Assessment opportunities
In this activity you have practised skills that are assessed using Criterion C: Processing and
evaluating (strands i and ii).
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