Make a Temperature Tracker

Sure, graphing math facts may not be as fun as karaoke or skating. But, as homework goes, it's a whole lot more interesting than organizing facts in a chart or numbers on a list. Even though "plotting," or marking a data point on the x-axis and y-axis of a graph can be both challenging and tedious, watching numbers take shape as meaningful data can be as rewarding and interesting as it is important for the statistical analysis of middle school and high school math.

By developing graphing skills and interpreting data, students are exercising key analytical skills. Here's a fun at-home activity that will help your child strengthen these skills using high and low temperature data, and become a master temperature tracker!

• access to an on-line weather website (such as weather.com or accuweather.com) or a daily newspaper
• paper
• pencil
• markers
• ruler

Have your child record the daily temperature highs and lows for one week. Useful sources for this data are on-line weather websites or a daily newspaper. Have him make a chart to display his data. Use Days of the Week, Highs, and Lows for headings. Let him do the work, but remind him to check and record his findings each day.

Discuss with your child how to set up a line graph showing his data. Suggest placing the days of the week under the horizontal line or "x-axis". To determine how to set up the numbers on the vertical line or "y-axis", ask your child questions such as "What is the highest temperature you recorded?" and "What is the lowest recorded temperature?". This will help your child determine which numbers he wants to show. If the variations in temperature are small, he may want to count by ones or twos. If the variations are large, he may choose to count by fives, or tens.