Global Sun Temperature Project

 

From: The Winston School, Grade 7, Short Hills, NJ

The first thing we did, before analyzing the data, was to locate each of the schools that participated. We put a pin on the latitude/longitude coordinates of each school on a map of the world. This helped us visualize where the schools were and helped us see what might be happening as we analyzed the data. After plotting the school locations we graphed the data and analyzed the graphs.

We found that there was a relationship between latitude and temperature. The higher the latitude, the lower the average temperature and the closer to the equator (lower latitude) the higher the temperature. The relationship between latitude and minutes of daylight was less clear cut, because there was there was only one data point located in the southern hemisphere. The school in Australia had a higher value for minutes of daylight than any other school. This is because of the position of the earth in relation to the sun in November.

The essential question this year at The Winston School is 'what does it mean to be a global citizen?' The Global Sun Temperature Project helped us think about different temperatures and different climates affecting citizens around the globe.