The impact of extreme heat differs depending on the community or area of the city you live in.

There is a relationship between surface material and surface temperature (natural surfaces tend to be cooler than human made surfaces).

In places with more human made surfaces, air temperatures are higher.

Communities with fewer natural surfaces (green spaces) are hotter.

Cities across the globe are heating up faster than rural areas surrounding them. The Urban Heat Island Effect can explain higher temperatures in areas with more human made surfaces and fewer natural spaces. In this learning experience, students investigate the science of surface temperatures. The learning experience concludes with a solutions-based approach as students create a research-based plan to cool down their schoolyard.

Engage students in a conversation about “Heat Days” or other current heat-related experience.

Discuss with students that these “Heat Days” seem like the new normal for our area, and that they will be investigating who is impacted by extreme heat, and why this might look different for different communities within our city.

Show the anchoring phenomenon series to students on the slide deck. In groups, students may review each piece of evidence and begin completing their Notice/Wonder chart.

Use Google Maps view of your school yard to have students identify the hottest areas, based on their experience. *Explain to students that they will be going outside to gather some first-hand information.  Students will use their senses to observe temperature differences in 4 different areas or designated “zones” (without tools). You may want to bring a copy or photocopy maps for your students to bring outside and orient them to their location on the map.

Finally, have students analyze a sliding map from ArcGIS showing surface temperature. Looking at the map they can see the changes in the surface area of the schoolyard.

Create a Driving Question Board with students (physical or digital).

At the end of the protocol, ask students what question(s) they think are most important to answer first? Why?

Different surfaces absorb and reflect light differently. Light reflection and absorption impacts heat in an area. The greater the absorption, the hotter the surface.  The more green space, the less heat absorption because of shade. Green space also causes plant transpiration that can create a cooling effect in the air. Light surfaces reflect light, thus resulting in less light and heat absorption. 

Students will use 3 different sensors to collect data on 3 different days, from 4 areas in the schoolyard with different surface materials. You need sufficient data for students to draw conclusions and synthesize information.

Students create a graph of their data. The slide deck includes instructions for creating the graph. You can also have students use graph paper to plot their data. The deck includes questions to guide student analysis of the data.

Now that students have collected data, introduce the term Urban Heat Island.

Case study: Pacoima Middle School in California. Elicit student understanding about the design choices (removing asphalt and planting trees will result in cooler surface temperatures and lower the air temperature). Allow students to critique the design, adding any evidence-based suggestions.

Notice that the images are from a school across the country. UHI is a global problem, impacting communities in all areas of the world. In this step, students will investigate how UHI impacts other communities and explore solutions.

Strategy suggestion – give each different group of students a different resource to view/read and share out or jigsaw. Step 7

Now that students have collected data and done additional research, they will make some design choices to develop a solution to cool their schoolyard. See the slide deck for resources.

Students should follow the rubric for developing their designs. A teacher sample, made using Google Slides feature is linked here