Unit - Populations
Life Science
Lesson 4
Colorado’s Temperature and Precipitation
Past to Present (~1900 to 2012)
Teacher Notes
Purpose:
This lesson designed to allow students to synthesize the information they collected in the
previous lesson with their classmates to try and come up with a picture of climate trends for
the Colorado Mountains. This Activity adds in precipitation data.
Time: 1 – Class period
Materials:
1 set for each student: Printouts of the data (charts from the Climate trends website) for
the locations they researched.
Lesson Overview:
Students will use the worksheet to help guide them in a group synthesis of the location
they researched as well as their group mates.
Assign each group one student who researched each of the following locations.
Fort Collins
Hayden
Dillon
Grand Lake
Montrose
Climax
Part 1 – Students complete an individual analysis of their location
Part 2 – Students analyze precipitation data for their location.
Part 3 – Students come together in student groups (each student in the group represents a
different location)
Activity 3
Page 1
Unit - Populations
Life Science
Lesson 4
Name: ____________________________
You have researched temperature information about a particular place in the Colorado
Mountains. Now it is time to think about what that information means. So, today your teacher
will hand out printed graphs of the same temperature charts that you looked at in the computer
lab.
Part 1 – Webquest synthesis
Today we will analyze the information and also look at some new information. You will also get
some precipitation data from the same location that you researched the temperatures.
Your job is to get a “picture” of what is going on. To do this you will look at trends. A trend is
something that happens over time. For example if you see that temperatures are increasing from
the past then the trend is that it is getting warmer. If you see the temperatures are becoming
lower than in the past then the trend is that it is getting colder.
Let’s start filling in some information to help you out.
The station you researched: ____________________________________________
On your chart the past is to the left and last year is on the right.
What is the year on the far left side of the graph? __________________
What was the approximate temperature that year? _________________
The information on the right is for the year 2011.
What was the approximate temperature for 2011? _______________
How does the temperature from the past compare to 2011? Circle your answers below.
It is Higher / Lower / Same
So this means it is: Warmer / Colder / Same
So overall the station you studied is becoming? Warmer / Colder / Same
Activity 3
Page 2
Unit - Populations
Life Science
Lesson 4
Now look at the next page that has 4 graphs on it. These are the graphs you looked at in our last
lesson.
Maximum temperatures are from the daytime when we receive most of our heat from the sun.
What is the year on the far left side of the “x” axis? __________________
What was the approximate maximum temperature that year? _________________
The year at the right side of the “x” axis is for the year 2011.
What was the approximate maximum temperature for 2011? _______________
How does the temperature from the past compare to 2011? Circle your answer below.
It is Higher / Lower / Same
So this means it is: Warmer / Colder / Same
Minimum temperatures are from the night time when we don’t receive heat from the sun.
What is the year on the far left side of the graph? __________________
What was the approximate minimum temperature that year? _________________
The information on the right is for the year 2011.
What was the approximate minimum temperature for 2011? _______________
How does the temperature from the past compare to 2011? Circle your answer below.
It is Higher / Lower / Same
What are the days becoming?
So this means it is: Warmer / Colder / Same
Warmer /
What are the nights becoming? Warmer /
Activity 3
Colder
Colder
/ Same
/ Same
Page 3
Unit - Populations
Life Science
Lesson 4
Now let’s look at summer vs winter.
Summer is the season when we have longer days and is the warmest season.
What is the year on the far left side of the graph? __________________
What was the approximate average temperature that year? _________________
The information on the right is for the year 2011.
What was the approximate average temperature for 2011? _______________
How does the temperature from the past compare to 2011?
It is Higher / Lower / Same
So this means it is: Warmer / Colder / Same
Winter is the season when we have shorter days and is the coldest season.
What is the year on the far left side of the graph? __________________
What was the approximate average temperature that year? _________________
The information on the right is for the year 2011.
What was the approximate average temperature for last year? _______________
How does the temperature from the past compare to last year?
It is Higher / Lower / Same
What are the summers becoming?
So this means it is: Warmer / Colder / Same
Warmer /
What are the winters becoming? Warmer /
Activity 3
Colder
Colder
/ Same
/ Same
Page 4
Unit - Populations
Life Science
Lesson 4
Part 2 – Precipitation Charts and analysis.
Are you ready to look at the precipitation data?
Your teacher has given you a bar graph that shows the precipitation for the station you have been
studying. Take a look at the chart and answer the questions below.
1. What information is on the “x” axis? ________________________
2. What information is on the “y” axis? ________________________
3. How many years does the chart cover? _______________________
Hint: Subtract the number on the left from the number on the right.
Since we are looking at two very specific populations in the forest we want to focus on
information that pertains either to the pine beetle or the lodgepole pine. We know that the
lodgepole pine needs a specific amount of water every year. They need between 18 and 25
inches of precipitation to be healthy. So we are going to look at the years that the lodgepole pine
receives the required amount of water.
1. How many years (count each bar) did your location receive greater than 18 inches of
precipitation? _______________
2. Since the year 1996 how many years has your location received greater than 18 inches of
precipitation? _______________
3. Since the year 1996 how many years has your location received less than 15 inches of
precipitation? ______________
4. How much precipitation has your location received so far this year (2012)? _________
Activity 3
Page 5
Unit - Populations
Life Science
Lesson 4
Your group will take some of the information each of you researched for a particular location in Colorado on the chart below. This chart will help you identify
trends about temperature and precipitation and will help identify a trend for the Colorado Mountains and whether or not our forests are getting what they need
to be healthy.
Team
Location
Member’s Name
Name
Highest
Average
Temperature
and Year
Lowest
Average
Temperature
And Year
/
/
/
/
/
/
/
/
/
/
/
/
/
/
Range of
Temperature
What is the
Average
Temperature
doing over
time?
What is the
Summer Average
Temperature
doing over time?
What is the
Winter Average
Temperature
doing over time?
Based on
precipitation are
the trees in your
location healthy
or stressed?
Based on the information above and looking at all of the trends answer the following questions:
1. For all of the stations what is the overall trend for the average temperature over time? ________________________________
2. For all of the stations what is the overall trend for the average summer temperature over time? _________________________
3. For all of the stations what is the overall trend for the average winter temperature over time? __________________________
Activity 3
Page 6