Lesson overview: In this lesson we explore the main climate zones, their link to the global atmospheric circulation and the influence of the oceans.
Climate zones describe parts of the Earth that have similar climate – the characteristics of the seasonal variations in weather. These relate to physical factors such as latitude and altitude, in association with their position relative to the global atmospheric and oceanic circulation. Although there are only five top-level categories – Tropical, Dry, Continental, Temperate and Polar – it is possible to define a total of 30 categories using the Köppen-Geiger classification system. This sytem considers a range of data that includes typical weather data such as temperature and precipitation and supplements this with evaluation of other variables such as soil temperature and the frequency of specific weather phenomena. These data allow climatologists to differentiate between similar climates and describe the characteristics of specific climates very precisely. Projections of climate change suggest climate zones show significant, though complex, change.
Learning objectives:
To be able to describe the major world climate types.
To know where the world’s major climate types are found.
To understand what happens to precipitation and temperature with increasing distance from the sea.
Met Office resource looking at correlation between classroom behaviour and weather with student worksheet and answers for teachers. Note the appearance of WOW has changed a little since this resource was written, but the St Athan data can be found by typing St-Athan or 3034 into the search box.
Urban Heat Islands: a three lesson fieldwork resource, using a class set of simple digital thermometers to make a temperature map of the school’s catchment area. The lessons cover Urban Heat Island background information, fieldwork planning and data collection, display and analysis. Teachers notes and PowerPoints 1, 2 and 3.
Unit 3: The Difference between Weather and Climate
On this map of the world , ask the students to write on the following country names in green: UK, New Zealand, North Carolina (USA) and Uruguay; the following countries in yellow Arizona (USA), Namibia, Mali, Saudi Arabia and Western Australia; and the following countries in red Indonesia, Democratic Republic of Congo, Colombia and Hawaii– what pattern can they see? [according to the standard Köppen classification, the green countries have a temperate or cold climate without a dry season, the yellow countries a Dry (desert or semi-arid climate) and the red countries a Tropical climate]
Red sky at Night, Shepherd’s Delight worksheet and Teacher’s Notes – a resource looking at how our prevailing wind direction means this saying is largely true.
Pop up depression – fold a 3 dimensional depression (simple and more detailed versions).
Impacts of a depression – PowerPoint (wont link) and Student Worksheet.
Isotherm and Isobar drawing exercise based on a depression: student worksheet. A simpler version of the T/ isotherm map can be found here or the full version including solutions may be found on the A level page.
