Math Lessons Using Thermometers

Using what you know about temperature can allow you to easily teach math lessons at home and to reinforce or introduce skills. Nearly every home has a thermometer somewhere to tell inside and outside temperature. You can learn all kinds of mathematical information from simply reading the thermometer.

Temperature Graphing Activities: Show your children how to read the thermometer and then have them check the temperature at the same time each day. After a week of checking and recording the temperature, show them how to put the information in a graph.

To make the graph, draw a large L on your paper. The “x” axis is the bottom of the L or horizontal across the graph and the “y” axis is the side of the L or vertical on the graph. Underneath the graph label the X axis “Days of the Week” and write each day of the week across the bottom of the graph. On the side, label the Y axis “Temperature” and chose a frequency of temperatures up the axis. For example, if your temperatures collected showed very little change, then a frequency of 1 degree would be sufficient: 70, 71, 72, 73, 74 etc. If there was greater variability, chose a different frequency: 70, 72, 74, 76 etc.

Once your graph is ready, start putting your data, or collected temperatures from the week, on the appropriate place on the graph. If the first day you recorded the temperature was a Monday, and the temperature was 73 degrees, go to Monday on the graph, and follow the temperatures up the side until you get to either 73 degrees or if you skipped 73, mark it between 72 and 74 degrees. Continue adding all of your temperatures in this way. You can then either connect the temperature marking with a line (for a line graph) or draw columns up to each day’s temperature (for a bar graph).

Interpreting the data: Mean, median, mode

Using the temperatures you gathered you can find the mean (average), mode (most frequent) and the median (middle) temperature of the week. First put all the numbers in order from least to greatest. The mode is the number that occurs most often in your list. To find the median, cross off the numbers on either end of the list until the middle number is all that is left. That is the median! To find the mean or average temperature of the week, add all the numbers together, and divide by the total number of numbers, which in this case should be 7 if you recorded the temperature for an entire week.

Using the data: Predicting

Watch the weather channel together and discuss how a weatherman uses the thermometer. Weathermen watch for patterns in the weather that help them to predict what the weather will be tomorrow. Have your children do the same thing! After having charted the temperature for a week, look at the pattern and predict tomorrow’s temperature. The next day, see how close your prediction was. Teach your children that predicting means coming up with a reasonable guess based on what you know, which does not mean that your prediction will always be correct.

Be creative and use what you know about temperature to use the thermometer as a teaching tool in your house. This creativity will benifit children with different learning styles, as well as children with learning disabilities.

Using the Thermometer to Teach Math Skills

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