Teaching about weather and climate is probably one of my favourite topics to teach in Geography. I love the relevance, I love the theory and I love exploring the data surrounding it. To help my students understand the climate of the UK, the differences and the influences I created this UK Climate Inquiry.
Students are provided with a task sheet individually and a resource pack in groups. Click here for resources.
The resource pack contains – Climate data for 6 locations in the UK from the Met Office – Precipitation and temperature maps for the UK from the Met Office – Air mass diagram – Factors affecting climate cheat sheet
Students are also provided with 4 climate graph templates to reduce the time spent creating climate graphs so they can focus on developing their understanding of the theory.
The task requires students to explore a range of resources to help them to understand how the climate of the UK varies and the factors that influence our climate.
Stage 1
Students start off by making predictions on the following using their prior knowledge
Which areas of the UK do you think get the most rainfall? Why do you think this?
Which areas of the UK do you think have the highest temperatures? Why do you think this?
What do you think affects an areas rainfall and temperature?
They then use the resources provided in the group pack to fill in the two tables.
Stage 2
Next they select 4 out of the 6 locations provided. Using an atlas students have to work out where the named locations can be found. Choosing one location to represent each section of the UK (North East, North West, South East, South West). To stretch and challenge students there is also a central location to encourage comparison between coastal and inland areas.
Stage 3
Next students create climate graphs for each of their chosen locations using the Met Office data found here.
I provide the students with climate graph templates so they spend less time deciphering how to set up their climate graph and more time analysing them. To stretch and challenge I do encourage students to create a climate graph of their own for the central location.
Stage 4
The next stage involves data analysis and interpretation. Students are required to describe the patterns they see for each section of the UK and offer reasons using the resources provided.
Stage 5
Finally students write a conclusion in their book to bring together their findings on how and why the climate of the UK varies.
Stretch and Challenge
For students that excel in the task, they are encouraged to compare central and coastal areas by creating their own climate graph for Sutton Bonnington. After doing so, they then compare the characteristics with the other locations, using the factors affecting climate cheat sheet to explain the differences.
If you’d like the resources, download it here.
Hope you can make use of the resource. Best wishes,
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