Activity: Graphing Lake Erie Temperatures

Summary: Students explore water temperatures from the surface to the bottom of Lake Erie, graphing and discussing the results.

You Need:

• 50 minutes
• Graph paper
• Pencils
• Ruler
• Downloads:
  • Graphing Temperatures Data Sheet
  • Graphing Temperatures Data Sheet Key
  • Water temperature versus depth data (PDF)
  • Example Graph

Procedure

Create groups of six students and assign a station to each student in each group.

• The six stations are 1047, e10, 968, E42, 1003 and 1190.

Part 1 – As a class

• Determine the minimum and maximum depth for all of the stations.
• Determine a scale for graphs (minimum and maximum depths and temperatures necessary to fit all data onto the graphs).
  • X-axis – 0 to 25 degrees Celsius
  • Y-axis – 0 to 35 meters
• Discuss reasons for setting ‘0’ at the top of the y-axis.
• 0 is the surface, the deepest station is 33 meters deep

Part 2 – Each student

Using graph paper:

• Create a graph using the agreed upon scale
  • X-axis – 0 to 25 degrees C
  • Y-axis – 0 to 35 meters
• Label x-axis and y-axis
• Create a title including the station ID number
• Label the bottom of the lake at each station
  • For example, station E42 is only 22 meters deep
• Plot temperature (degrees C) by depth (meters)

Part 3 – In small groups

• Answer data sheet questions
• Have students compare their graph and data sheet answers with other students in their group.