Urban Heat Island Exploration Activity

This lesson introduces students to the phenomenon of an urban heat island using a place-based context. It provides them experience in hands-on data collection, reading graphs, and data analysis. They can observe how energy can be stored differently in local desert, urban, and riparian environments. The lesson is culturally relevant, place-based, and intended to get students thinking about how human interactions with nature have changed energy dynamics and may have created societal inequities in their community.

• Objectives 
  • I can understand what an urban heat island is and how it affects Earth’s energy balance.
  • I can explain how human activity changes urban, desert, and riparian environments.
  • I can collect and analyze data to show others about a phenomenon in my community.
• Grades: 6, 7, 8 - adaptable to 9 thru 12
• Time: 6 class periods 
• Author: M Becker 

Arizona Standards Engaged

8.P4U1.3: Construct an explanation on how energy can be transferred from one energy store to another
8.E1U3.8: Construct and support an argument about how human consumption of limited resources impacts the biosphere.

Core Ideas - E1: The composition of the Earth and its atmosphere and the natural and human processes occurring within them shape the Earth’s surface and its climate. 

Science & Engineering Practices        
Analyze and interpret data       
Obtain, evaluate and communicate information         
Plan and carry out an investigation