Vladimir Köppen, a Russian-German geographer, climatologist and botanist (1846-1940), was one of the first pioneers to tackle the very ambitious undertaking of creating a classification system to derive a number of distinct climate types across the world.
A sampling of those types is shown in the map above for the State of California, which, because of its very long geographic extent coupled with its location along the Pacific coast, has a wide range of climate types.
Science that is also math practice
In this workshop participants learn some of the nuts and bolts behind Köppen’s methods. They are also shown how their students can use climate data, in particular annual patterns of temperature and precipitation, to classify climates while using very grade-appropriate and simple math such as addition, averages, ranges and the addition of decimals.
Format
Two hours. 2 CEUs awarded, with hands-on activities distributed.
