Comparing Climates (Customary) Gizmo Answer Key

Name: Andreas Keller Date: 03-27-2022 Student Exploration: Comparing Climates (Customary) [Note to teachers and students: This lesson was designed as a follow-up to the Observing Weather (Customary) lesson. We recommend doing that activity before trying this one.] Directions: Follow the instructions to go through the simulation. Respond to the questions and prompts in the orange boxes. Vocabulary: adaptation, climate, equator, hot desert climate, humidity, latitude, precipitation, temperature, tropical monsoon climate, weather Prior Knowledge Questions (Do these BEFORE using the Gizmo.) 1. Climate is the average of all weather conditions in a location. Climates can be warm or cold, rainy or dry, and windy or calm. What do you think the climate is like where this palm tree grows? warm 2. What is the climate like where you live? rainy and cold Gizmo Warm-up In the Comparing Climates (Customary) Gizmo, you will compare weather conditions, landscapes, and wildlife from different parts of the world. To begin, choose Barcelona from the Location 1 menu. Select the LANDSCAPE tab. Barcelona is a city in Spain that is located on the Mediterranean Sea. You are looking at a landscape near Barcelona. 1. Drag the slider from January to December. Based on what you observe, do you think Barcelona has large temperature changes throughout the year? No 2. Click on an olive tree and read about it. Based on what you read, do you think the climate of Barcelona is very wet or rather dry? Explain. hot because it resists both drought and fire Activity A: Get the Gizmo ready: ● On the WORLD MAP tab, select New York from the Location 1 menu. Describing climate Introduction: Climate is the average of weather conditions in a location over many years. In this Gizmo you will focus on four aspects of climate: temperature, wind speed, precipitation (rain and snow), and humidity (how much moisture is in the air). Other climate characteristics include cloud cover and hours of sunlight. Question: How do we describe climate? 1. Predict: Look at New York’s position on the globe. What do you notice? It is high up Based on this, what do you think New York’s climate will be like? cold 2. Observe: Select the LANDSCAPE tab. Drag the slider from January to December. A. What changes do you see throughout the year? very seasonal B. How many distinct seasons do you notice? 4 3. Analyze: Go to the DATA tab. Look at the Avg. temperature graph and table. A. What is the general shape of the graph? upside down u B. What are the highest and lowest monthly temperatures, and what would you estimate is the average temperature for the year? (Hint: The average temperature for the year will be about halfway between the highest and lowest temperatures.) Highest temp. 77 Lowest temp. 32 Avg. temp. around 54 C. Select Two locations and choose Barcelona for the second location. Based on what you see, which location experiences greater seasonal changes? Explain. only two changes in New York and Barcelona. 4. Observe: Switch to One location and look at the Avg. precipitation graph for New York. A. What is the general shape of the graph? riggidy B. About how many inches of precipitation fall in a year? 44 C. Select Two locations and choose Barcelona for the new york second location. Based on what you see, which location has a wetter climate? 5. Describe: Plants and animals have structures, behaviors, and other traits called adaptations that help them to survive. For example, the gills of a fish are an adaptation for living under water, while lungs are an adaptation to living on land. Switch to the LANDSCAPE tab, choose One location, and check that New York is selected. Click on the deer, squirrel, and oak tree to learn about each organism. Describe one way that each organism is adapted to live in New York’s climate. Organism White-tailed deer Eastern gray squirrel Northern red oak Adaptation four-chambered stomach the way they build nests can survive cold weathe 6. Observe: Return to the DATA tab. For New York only, there are two extra graphs: Avg. yearly temp and Yearly precip. These graphs give 30-year records for temperature and precipitation. The numbers in the other graphs are averages of data from the last 30 years. A. Look at the Avg. yearly temp. graph. What do you notice? It remained in the 1950s B. How do the average yearly temperatures compare to the estimate you made in question 3B? i was right C. Look at the Yearly precip. graph. What do you notice? it is all over the place D. Which year of the last 30 years was the wettest? Driest? 1989 was wettest 1997 was driest Activity B: Rainforests and deserts Get the Gizmo ready: ● Select Two locations. ● On the WORLD MAP tab, select Manaus for location 1 and Cairo for location 2. Question: What are the characteristics of tropical monsoon and hot desert climates? 1. Predict: Look at the positions of Manaus and Cairo on the globe. Based on what you see, what do you predict the climates are like in these locations? It will probably be rather hot. 2. Observe: Select the LANDSCAPE tab and One location. Check that Manaus is selected. Drag the slider from January to December. Observe what happens to the landscape. A. How many seasons do you observe in Manaus? 1 B. Click on the leaf-cutter ant, Guyanan red howler monkey, and kapok tree to learn about each organism. Describe one way that each organism is adapted to live in the thick forests that result from the climate of Manaus. Organism Adaption Leaf-cutter ant ride on leaves Guyanan red howler flexible and durable tails being able to swing and grasp food Kapok tree massive trunks 3. Analyze: Select the DATA tab. Look at the Avg. temperature, Avg. precipitation, Avg. wind speed, and Avg. humidity graphs. (For the Avg. precipitation graph, click the zoom out [–] button to see the whole graph.) A. What Is the shape of the temperature graph? really high and similar to stacys B. What is the shape of the precipitation graph? Like a V Manaus has a tropical monsoon climate. Tropical climates are found near the Earth’s equator. They are warm and can be wet, dry, or somewhere in between. Monsoon climates have a wet season with abundant rainfall and a dry season with less rain. 4. Observe: Select the LANDSCAPE tab and change the location to Cairo. Drag the slider from January to December. A. What changes do you notice, if any? none B. Click on the dorcas gazelle, Egyptian cobra, and date palm tree to learn about each organism. Describe one way that the organism is adapted to live in Cairo’s climate. Organism Dorcas gazelle Adaptation may concentrate its pee into pellets to reduce water loss and obtain the water it needs from plants. Egyptian cobra will occasionally soak up the early light after a cool night to increase body heat. Date palm tree low humidity and high temperatures are necessary for growth and reproduction. 5. Observe: Go to the DATA tab. Select Two locations, and set location 2 to Manaus. View the Avg. temperature, Avg. precipitation, Avg. wind speed, and Avg. humidity graphs. A. How do the highest monthly temperatures compare in each location? they are the same number B. In which location does the temperature change more throughout the year? Egypt, Cairo C. Estimate the total yearly rainfall in Cairo. How does this compare to Manaus? Cairo rains 1in a year while Manaus rains a lot more D. How do wind speeds and humidity compare in the two locations? Cairo has worse wind speed, but Manaus has worse humidity. Cairo has a hot desert climate. In a hot desert, daytime temperatures are very high and nighttime temperatures are cool. Precipitation is very rare and is less than 8 inches per year. Cairo is unusually humid for a desert because it is close to the Mediterranean Sea. Activity C: Climate factors Get the Gizmo ready: ● On the WORLD MAP tab, select Two locations. ● Select Yellowknife and Miami. Introduction: The climate of a location is influenced by many factors. These include latitude (how far north or south a location is), position relative to oceans, and motions of large air masses. In this activity you will see how some of these factors affect climate. Question: What factors influence climates around the world? 1. Predict: How do you think climates near the equator compare to climates near the north and south poles? Compared to traveling by the N or S poles, the climate near the equator is extremely hot. 2. Gather data: From the WORLD MAP tab, find the latitude of each city. Then go to the DATA tab and find the highest and lowest monthly average temperature. List these below. Location Latitude Highest temp. Lowest temp. Yellowknife 62 63 -15 Miami 25 84 68 3. Analyze: Miami is located much closer to the equator than Yellowknife. A. How does the latitude affect the average temperature of each location? The hotter the number, the lower it is Locations closer to the equator receive more direct sunlight than locations near the poles, so they tend to be warmer. B. In which location was there a bigger difference between the highest temperature and lowest temperature? Yellowknife In locations closer to the equator, the length of a day does not change as much as it does near the poles. In fact, north of 66.5 °N (and south of 65 °S) the sun doesn’t rise at all during parts of the winter. In the summer, very long days can lead to some surprisingly mild temperatures. C. For location 2, select Manaus. Manaus is very close to the equator. How much does the monthly average temperature vary near the equator? 1970s to 1980s 4. Predict: On the WORLD MAP tab, select San Francisco and Kansas City. In which city do you expect a greater change between summer and winter? Kansas City 5. Analyze: On the DATA tab, view the temperature graphs of San Francisco and Kansas City. A. What do you observe? San Francisco is around the 50-60's which is way different to kansas city because it is 30-80 Because San Francisco is located near the cool Pacific Ocean, it doesn’t get as warm in the summer or as cold in the winter as Kansas City. B. Change Location 1 to New York. What do you notice about the temperature graph of New York? it changes a lot While New York is also located near an ocean, the air masses that affect its weather tend to come from the land to the west rather than from the ocean. Thus New York’s climate is less affected by the ocean than the climate of San Francisco. 6. Explore: Select the WORLD MAP tab. For each location, the climate classification is listed. Find the climate classification for each of the locations listed below. Then, using the LANDSCAPE and DATA tabs, describe the characteristics of each location’s climate. Location Climate classification Yellowknife subarctic Kansas City humid continental Miami humid monsoon Barcelona humid subtropical Ulaanbaatar cold-semi arid humid humid subtropical warm Sydney Climate characteristics cold different similar, warm mild Extension activity: Get the Gizmo ready: ● On the LANDSCAPE tab, select One location and Ulaanbaatar. Adaptations and climate Question: How are animals and plants adapted to the climate? 1. Predict: Based on what you have seen so far, what are some adaptations you would expect animals and plants to have to cold climates? Hot climates? Wet climates? Dry climates? Write some possibilities into each of the boxes below. Cold climate adaptations Hot climate adaptations extra fur/skin, good hunting, good eyes not a lot of fur, some sort of sun protection Wet climate adaptations Dry climate adaptations good grip, slick back, does not need to be dry,know how to make homes for themselves can deal with little to no water, can staymoisturized, fast 2. Describe: Using the Gizmo, find an example of an animal adaptation to a cold climate, a warm climate, a wet climate, and a dry climate. Write the locations, animal names, and adaptations below. Remember, adaptations can be physical features or behaviors. Climate Location Animal Adaptation Cold San Francisko California Sea Lion Hot Cairo Dorcas Gazelle able to concentrate its urine into pellets to save water Wet Miami Snowy Egret long thin legs make it easy to walk through water Lots of layers of fat to keep warm Dry Ulaanbaatar Mongolian wildass can dig holes in dry river beds to get water 3. Describe: Now do the same thing, but look at the plant adaptations. Give one example of a plant adaptation to each climate characteristic. Climate Location Plant Cold Yellowkife White Spruce Hot Cairo Date Palm Wet Miami Dry Kansas City Adaptation able to survive very cold weathers Requires low humidity and high temperature to survive prop roots anchored in the mud hold Red Mangrove mangrove trees Switchgrass rows deep roots at depth over 3m to effectively absorb moisture from dry soils 4. Challenge: The climate helps to determine if a landscape is a forest, a grassland, a swamp, or a desert. Therefore, adaptations to the type of landscape are often related to the climate. For example, on the open grasslands of Mongolia, it is helpful for an eagle to see very far because it can spot its prey from a great distance. Long-distance vision may be less helpful in the rainforest, where trees will block the view. In the Gizmo, try to find other examples of adaptations that relate to the type of landscape the animal (or plant) lives in. Describe them in the space below. If possible, share your examples with your classmates and teacher. Due to the mid-winter climate of Barcelona, olive trees are resistant to fire.