Environmental Conditions

Reprinted from The Wild Times Teacher Connection v1n1, Fall 1995.

This activity will foster student's development in collecting empirical data. This data is quantitative and absolute, requiring careful and precise readings. Like the observational exercises, it is important that students develop an organized and consistent means of recording their data. Teachers may choose to create a central database that will be shared by the entire class. If a central database is used, different teams of students could rotate through the jobs of collecting and recording data. Practice using the various instruments will also prove valuable.

For schools that do not have access to some of the equipment required for this project, the local newspaper or radio or TV news should provide the necessary information.

Due to our international membership, we will record all data using metric units. If your instruments do not have metric scales, you will need to convert using the mathematical formulae.

To collect the data directly will require the following equipment: Outdoor thermometer (beneficial if it records high and low temperature) that uses the Celsius scale, rain gauge calibrated in centimeters, relative humidity gauge or wet-bulb thermometer, anemometer or wind speed gauge calibrated in kilometers per hour, and pH paper sensitive to at least 0.5 units or pH meter.

Data should be collected daily (M-F) and weekly averages computed. The weekly averages should then be reported to The Wild Ones by mail or e-mail.

Data from around the world will be charted on this web site as it is reported. These charts can be viewed on-line or printed for students to study.

Report Data

View Data

By comparing the data from different geographic locations, students will be able to identify areas with similar climate. They will also be able to determine what makes climates at different latitudes vary. High and low temperatures will be indicators of seasonal changes, and the differences between the high and low as well as the amount of change over time will indicate temperate or tropical environments.

Precipitation and humidity will help indicate the type of vegetation present. This should provide interesting comparisons between our temperate and tropical members.

Measuring pH of the precipitation will show trends in acid rain (pH less than 4.5). It may also provide clues to the degree of industrialization in an area. Combined with the direction of prevailing winds, students may also be able to determine the source of the pollutants contributing to acid rain.

Amount of daylight or photo period will provide significant clues to the latitude of each site. Seasonal variations will be quite interesting. Most importantly, this information will provide members with a greater understanding of what different environments around the world are like.

Teachers of younger children should feel free to limit the number of measurements your group records and considers. pH especially, may be too abstract a measurement for young children. To help make it more understandable, have children test the pH of various common substances like orange juice, water, baking soda solution, and milk. This will give them a sense of the value of the measurement in determining the acidity of a substance.

Students should be encouraged to write reports of their comparisons of the data. Like other work, this too can be shared through the web and The Wild Times.

Due to the open-ended nature of this project, teachers should feel free to participate for as long or short a period as is practical for each particular setting. Six weeks is suggested as a minimum for participation. Shorter periods may not provide enough information and make conclusions difficult to form.

Submit your own curriculum plans or resource suggestions to The Wild Ones for publication.

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