3-ESS2-1
The standard
Represent data in tables and graphical displays to describe typical weather conditions expected during a particular season.
Next Generation Science Standards
What this standard means
Students need to use weather data, not guesses, to show what a season is usually like. They should organize numbers in a table, then turn the data into a pictograph or bar graph. They also need to describe patterns, such as winter being colder or spring having more rainy days.
Mastery looks like a student making a clear graph with labels, reading it correctly, and using it to make a season-based claim. Students often get stuck choosing a good scale, mixing up daily weather with seasonal patterns, or saying what they feel instead of what the data shows.
Ways to teach it
- Give pairs one month of local temperature cards and have them sort, tally, and build a bar graph of warm, cool, and cold days.
- Ask students to write: Which season would you expect to be rainiest here, and what data would prove it?
- Show a simple pictograph of windy days by season and ask students to name the windiest season and explain their evidence.
- Have students compare a local weather graph to choices people make, such as clothing, sports, gardening, or heating and cooling homes.
Plan a lesson for 3-ESS2-1
Generate a complete lesson plan aligned to this standard, with objectives, activities, and materials. Free, no account needed.
Related standards
- K-ESS2-1
Use and share observations of local weather conditions to describe patterns over time.
- MS-ESS2-5
Collect data to provide evidence for how the motions and complex interactions of air masses results in changes in weather conditions.
- 5-ESS1-2
Represent data in graphical displays to reveal patterns of daily changes in length and direction of shadows, day and night, and the seasonal appearance of some ...
- 3-ESS2-2
Obtain and combine information to describe climates in different regions of the world.