Activity Overview
In this activity, students collect Celsius and Fahrenheit temperature data for various cities across the world. They develop and test a mathematical relationship between the two temperature scales.
This is Activity 5 from the EXPLORATIONS book, TI-InterActive!™ Data Collection and Analysis (Texas Instruments Incorporated, 2000).
Before the Activity
Open a new TI InterActive!™document
See the attached PDF file for detailed instructions for this activity
Print pages 27 - 32 from the attached PDF file for your class
During the Activity
Distribute the pages to the class.
Follow the Activity procedures:
From the CNN weather webpage find the high and low temperatures in Celsius and Fahrenheit scales of cities listed and 2 other cities of choice and record the data on the sheet
Graph Fahrenheit temperatures versus Celsius temperatures, and observe that the graph is linear and increasing
Find the slope of the line using the coordinates of two points on the line
Enter the x and y values of a point in the equation y = mx + b and find the y-intercept(b)
Use basic algebraic techniques to solve for the unknown and find the value of b
Form a new linear equation which shows relationship between Fahrenheit and Celsius temperature scales and is of the form y = mx + b
Use the linear regression function to get a line that best fits the data and record the linear equation y = ax + b and values of a and b
Find the values of 100 and 22 degrees Celsius in Fahrenheit using both the model and regression model equations
Observe that the values found using both equations are close to the actual values of 212 and 70 degrees Fahrenheit
After the Activity
Students complete the analysis and answer questions.
Review student results:
As a class, discuss questions that appeared to be more challenging
Re-teach concepts as necessary