What is El Niño, anyway? Take a look at these maps of sea surface temperature (SST) for major El Niño/La Niña events in the 1997 and 1998. How do they compare? What differences do you notice? What do the displayed colors indicate? Which map shows highest temperatures? Where? Which shows lowest temperatures? Where? How would you describe these three graphics?
El Niño conditions are characterized by unusually warm ocean temperatures in the Eastern Equatorial Pacific while conditions known as La Niña are characterized by unusually cool ocean temperatures in the same area. These sea surface temperature variations effect changes in weather systems around the world.
This is the first of three lesson plans in a lesson set guiding learners to investigate the "El Niño" phenomenon. In this inquiry lesson, learners access, visualize, analyze, and interpret sea surface temperature data recorded from satellite-based remote sensors to define the terms "El Niño" and "La Niña." In the succeeding lessons, learners investigate the impact of a strong El Niño event on their local areas compared to other regions and explore solutions to mitigate the impacts of such weather changes. The ultimate end-product of the lesson set is the construction of "The Next El Niño Survival Guide."
| Relevant Disciplines: | All |
| Grade Level: | 6-12 |
| Adaptable to Other Grades: | No |
| Time Required (class periods): | 2-3 |
| Prerequisites: | Basic computer skills |
| Additional Resources Available: | Yes |
Next Generation Science Standards addressed in this lesson:
MS-ESS2-4
HS-ESS2-4
| Lesson Resources for What is El Niño? - Part 1 | |
| File Type/Link | Description |
| Document-pdf | Sea Surface Temperature Anomalies plots, 69KB |
| Document-pdf | "El Niño" 3-D Diagrams, 36KB |
| Video-MP4 | Animation of sea surface temperature and wind data from moored buoys, 640x480, very short, 302KB |
| Image stack-tif | Image stack containing sea surface temperature data imagery for analysis with ImageJ, 13MB |
| Document-txt | Metadata for image data in the image stack; from NOAA View, 1KB |
| Compressed folder-zip | Zipped folder containing sample files produced by accomplishing this lesson, 12KB |
| Document-pdf | Hard copy of graphed results from this lesson to be used in lieu of printing from computers in class, 69KB |