Grade levels: 5-6
Time suggested: 40 minutes
Objectives:
Count the number of students in your class. Make sure you have access to that many computers for this activity.
Each student picks a different city, so that each "region" of the United States is equally represented if possible.
Northwest
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Seattle, Washington
Portland, Oregon
Boise, Idaho
Butte, Montana
Cheyenne, Wyoming
Southwest
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San Fransisco, California
Los Angeles, California
Las Vegas, Nevada
Albequerque, New Mexico
Phoenix, Arizona
Midwest
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Minneapolis, Minnesota
Ann Arbor, Michigan
Pierre, South Dakota
Chicago, Illinois
Indianapolis, Indiana
Deep South
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Houston, Texas
Dallas, Texas
Tulsa, Oklahoma
Oklahoma City, Oklahoma
Little Rock, Arkansas
Southeast
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Nashville, Tennessee
Miami, Florida
Atlanta, Georgia
Myrtle Beach, South Carolina
Raleigh, North Carolina
Northeast/Mid-Atlantic
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Lexington, Kentucky
New York City, New York
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
Baltimore, Maryland
Richmond, Virginia
New England States
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Portland, Maine
Montpeiler, Vermont
Boston, Massachussetts
New Haven, Connecticut
Providence, Rhode Island
For instance, if your class has 21 students, only allow three cities to be picked from each category. It is highly unlikely that more than 35 cities will be needed. After cities are selected, ask students to go to www.weather.com and look up the 10-day forecast for their specific city. They should look at the set of high temperatures for the next 10 days and report the median, mode, range, and mean. Create a table organized by geographical region on the board, and ask students to fill in their results. Then discuss what similarities and differences exist between groups. Perhaps ask what the hottest and coldest cities are in each region between the ones selected, anything to get your students working with the data. This is just a starting point.