Math Concept Reader MCR g5 forecast sunny skies

Math Concept Reader

Sunny Skies!

by Aenea Mickelsen

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ISBN 13: 978-0-15-360199-6

ISBN 10: 0-15-360199-X

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 179 16 15 14 13 12 11 10 09 08 07

by Ilse Ortabasi

Forecast:

Sunny Skies!

It is January in Chicago Outside it is snowing and already getting dark at four o’clock in the afternoon Olivia and Keisha

tumble into the house and throw off their jackets and boots They

cannot wait to tell Keisha’s father the big news at school The

school will have a summer science camp this year! Everyone in

their class will have the opportunity to go to camp at Miller’s Lake

during July or August

To participate in the science camp, students will have to work very hard between now and the end of the school year Mr

Rodriguez, their teacher, is giving the class an opportunity to earn

points by working hard and showing progress Today Mr R.,

as his students call him, asks his class to start thinking about the

science projects they plan to work on Students need to find a

topic, collect data, and then present the information to the rest of

the class If the science projects are done well, these projects will

help students earn points so they can attend the school’s summer

science camp



Chapter 1:

Change of Season

Keisha and Olivia need to come up with an idea for their science project In class, they are studying climates Scientists

describe climate as the weather averaged over a long period of

time To measure changes in the climate, scientists collect data on

rainfall, snowfall, wind speed, temperature, and more

The classmates discuss why some parts of Earth have different weather during the seasons of the year They learned

that the seasons are due to the tilt of the Earth as it moves around

the sun At certain times during the year, one part of the Earth is

more directly exposed to the rays of the sun

Olivia is surprised how much climate, or the weather, affects people’s lives and what they do every day “In some parts of the

world there is little or no snow,” she says

Keisha says, “I would like to live in a place where I could wear sandals, t-shirts, and shorts throughout the year.”



Climate is weather averaged over a long period of time.

Keisha and Olivia start talking about all the fun outdoor activities they hope to participate in at the summer science camp

Keisha pictures herself hiking through the woods in search of

plants and insects, while Olivia talks about fishing in Miller’s Lake

This conversation leads them to an idea for a science project on

weather and climate The classmates want to find out the percent

of days that might be sunny during July and August

They decide to conduct some research on the weather during July and August They discuss where to find the weather

data Keisha’s father thinks that they should be able to find the

weather data on the Internet They look on the calendar to see

which dates the camp will be in session, and they count how

many days the summer science camp will last It turns out that

the first camp session starts right after the Fourth of July holiday

The total number of days for all sessions is 50



Keisha and her father discuss how to research weather data.

The next day at school, Olivia and Keisha head to the media center to find the information they need They spend some time

searching the Internet for information on weather When they are

on the Internet, Keisha and Olivia learn that scientists use

satel-lites to track changes in weather around the world The girls are

amazed by some of the satellite pictures of Earth from space

While the photos are fun to look at, Keisha and Olivia need information on the weather at camp The media specialist, Mrs

Arora, has some ideas on how the girls can find the weather data

First, they look at a map to find out where the camp is located

Then, they find a nearby location where they can get data about

the weather Mrs Arora says they should look at the average data

from at least the last ten years to get a good estimate of how

many sunny days to expect

Soon Keisha and Olivia find the weather data they are looking for The weather data tells them the average type of weather

during the 50 summer camp days Keisha and Olivia decide to use

the information to make a table



Sky Cover Average Number of Days

Average Type of Weather During 50 Summer

Camp Days Over the Last Ten Years

Chapter 2:

Facts and Figures

Keisha reminds Olivia that it would be better to display the data

in a graph rather than a table A graph is easier to read and

understand for some types of data The girls discuss what type of

graph they want to construct Finally, they decide to make a

pictograph A pictograph uses pictures or symbols to display data

“It will be more eye-catching than a table,” says Keisha To set

up the pictograph Keisha draws three rows to represent the types

of weather that they can expect during summer camp Each of the

three rows is made up of the number of days of either sunny, partly

cloudy, or cloudy days while camp is in session Olivia and Keisha

thank Mrs Arora for her assistance and leave the media center



Mrs Arora helps the students in the media center.

Key: Each = 5 Days

Ten-Year Average Sky Cover over Miller’s Lake

From July 5 to August 23

Sunny Partly Cloudy Cloudy

Keisha and Olivia decide that they need to create a symbol for the pictograph The girls decide to draw a symbol that has both a

sun and a cloud Each symbol represents five days of this type of

weather The girls like this idea because it reminds them of how

the weather forecast on the local TV news channel shows what

type of weather to expect It will also be a helpful way to

represent the data to people who read the pictograph

Olivia and Keisha look at the finished pictograph They can see right away that there were more sunny days than cloudy days

during the past ten years The graph also shows that there were

more partly cloudy days than sunny days

This is what the pictograph looks like when Keisha and Olivia are done:



Sky Cover Average Number Fraction of Total Percent of Total

of Days Days Days

Average Type of Weather During 50 Summer Camp Days

Over the Last Ten Years

Sunny

Partly Cloudy

Cloudy

15 25 10

15 50 25 50 10 50

Olivia and Keisha decide to add a column to their table The first column shows the data as fractions To write the fractions,

Olivia divides the number of sunny, partly cloudy, and cloudy

days by 50 Their data represents 50 days at camp Keisha then

adds another column to their table The second column

represents the data as percents



Sky Cover Average Number Fraction of Total Percent of Total

of Days Days Days

Average Type of Weather During 50 Summer Camp Days

Over the Last Ten Years

Sunny

Partly Cloudy

Cloudy

25 50 10 50

15 25 10

30%

50%

20%

15 50

15 50

15 x 2

50 x 2

30 100

= = or 30%

Keisha reminds Olivia that percent is a ratio that compares a number to 100 Their fractions compare numbers to 50, however,

because there are 50 camp days They need to find equivalent

fractions with denominators of 100 Once they have the

equivalent fractions, they can write the fractions as percents

“We need to multiply the numerator and the denominator of the fraction by a number that gives us a denominator of 100,”

Olivia says Olivia sets up the computation for the first percent

This means that 30 percent of the days at camp are likely to

be sunny The symbol % means percent When they calculate

the other two percents they find that 50% of the days at camp

are likely to be partly cloudy and 20% of the days are likely to be

cloudy They write the percents in the fourth column



50%

40%

30%

20%

10%

0%

Sky Cover Data Over Last Ten Years at

Miller’s Lake

Sunny Partly Cloudy Cloudy

Sky Cover

They also add the labels “Sky Cover” and “Percent of Days” to

the axes Finally, they graph their data using a different color for

each type of sky cover

The bar graph is complete Keisha and Olivia are looking forward to presenting the research and data they have collected

to the class The graph will help them explain the data to their

classmates This is what their graph looks like:

10

Keisha and Olivia share their work with some classmates the

following week at school Olivia decides to add a collage of

photos that show all the fun things they will do at camp Edward,

a classmate, asks them to explain where they found the data in

the graphs Keisha tells him how Mrs Arora, the media specialist,

helped them research the weather for the last 10 years Marisa,

another student in the class, asks the girls to explain how they

calculated the percentages Olivia shows Marisa the sheet of paper

with her computations

The students are thrilled that Keisha and Olivia are predicting

that 30% of the days will be sunny Edward points out that if only

20% of the days will be cloudy, then 80% of the days will be

ei-ther partly cloudy or sunny The classmates are really excited about

spending a week at summer science camp The data that Keisha

and Olivia have shared lets them anticipate good weather at the

summer science camp

11

Chapter 3:

Hard Work Has Its Rewards

The girls give their presentation to the entire class When they

finish, other students have many questions about their data For

example, they ask Keisha and Olivia whether they have any data

on how many rainy days to expect They want to know how hot

the temperatures might get during the day Someone asks how

cold the temperatures might be at night

“These are all good research questions,” says Mr Rodriguez

“You two are making great progress and with a little more work

you will be well on your way to earning points for science camp.”

Keisha and Olivia are encouraged by the comments from their

classmates and Mr R They are ready to take on the new

assignments They think about how they will approach these new

questions Keisha and Olivia will return to the media center

tomorrow to find the information they need They will ask Mrs

Arora to help them again They are already planning to make

tables and graphs to share the data they find

1

The class asks many good research questions.

The next day, Keisha and Olivia begin their new research assignments At the media center they use a computer to search

the Internet for weather data They return to several Web sites

to look for the temperature and rain data they need They try to

figure out what other information they need to help them answer

these new questions

After Keisha and Olivia find the percentages for the data, they get to work on making graphs Since a bar graph worked well

for presenting information on sky cover, they decide to make bar

graphs again They make a graph to show the percent of days

they predict it will rain during camp Then they make a graph

that shows the percent of days with daytime highs of over 90

degrees Fahrenheit They make a bar graph showing the percent

of days with temperatures below 80 degrees Fahrenheit

1

100%

90%

80%

70%

60%

50%

40%

30%

20%

10%

0%

Temperature Data Over Last Ten Years at

Miller’s Lake

Days Above 90˚F

Fahrenheit

Days Between 80˚F and 90˚F

Days Below 80˚F

The following week, they present their data to Mr R and their

classmates The class studies the data on the graphs to determine

what it might mean Mr R studies their original data and their

computations He is impressed by how accurately his students

have prepared their graphs Mr R places sun-shaped stickers on a

large chart he has prepared for counting “summer-camp” points

Olivia and Keisha are quite pleased to be the first ones who earn

points toward summer camp!

Olivia and Keisha help other students with their ideas for

science projects They begin by asking good research questions

They help other students by finding out what types of data they

need to answer their questions Finally, they help by finding

percentages within their data and representing the data on

graphs They learned that using graphs helps to make the data

easier for others to understand Their research and data collection

skills have come in handy as Keisha and Olivia help other students

in the class

1

Mr R uses this sticker to count points.

Later in the week, Keisha and Olivia join the summer science camp planning committee This group of students and teachers

will help with the planning and preparations for camp Although

the camp is six months away, a lot of organizing needs to be

done

The planning committee is pleased with the weather data Keisha and Olivia have collected The data also helps in

planning activities for sunny, cloudy, and rainy days After looking

at the data, the group decides that it will be cool enough to have

a campfire in the evenings

The data also helps in planning what type of clothes, equipment, and other things to bring Since many of the days will

be warm, they will tell students to bring shorts, t-shirts, and

sandals Everyone should have a hat and sunscreen for those

warm, sunny days

It is fun to plan for summer camp while the January winds blow Everyone is sure that summer science camp will be a great

success Keisha and Olivia and all of their classmates can hardly

wait for summer to arrive They are counting the days!

1

Olivia counts the days until summer science camp.

denominator the number below the bar in a fraction that tells

how many equal parts are in the whole

equivalent having the same value

numerator the number above the bar in a fraction that tells

how many equal parts of the whole are being considered

partly cloudy 30-70 percent of sky covered by clouds

percent a ratio of a number to 100

ratio the comparison of two quantities

Photo credits: cover, pp 4, 6, 12 © Corbis; p 3 © Images.com/ Corbis; p 15 © Jonathan

Nourok/Photo Edit.

year, what percent of the total number of days are rainy days?

2 Why do you think it is more important to look at weather data from many previous summers rather than just one summer in order to predict the weather for the next summer? Explain your answer

3 Use the bar graph on page 10 Have there been more sunny days or partly cloudy days at the camp near Miller’s Lake during July and August over the last 10 years? Explain your answer

4 How helpful are Keisha’s and Olivia’s graphs in knowing

on which days it will be sunny or cloudy during each summer camp session? Explain your answer