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Alpha Stage
It's Cold
February 6, 2007





The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel is running an article entitled, "You
Think This is Cold? Previous winters were chillier, but schools,
outdoor projects halt in latest arctic blast."

The article begins, "If you think it's cold now, then you probably
missed 1963. In Milwaukee, temperatures fell below zero 38 days
that year, and a total of 137 days in the 1960s."

The article continues, "Despite the current arctic blast, we have
seen only 24 days of below-zero temperatures in this decade."
Read It!!


Discussion-Starters for Younger Children

  • Ask your students if they like it when it's cold outside.
    Why/why not?
  • Consider creating a pro-con chart with your students.

  • Ask your students what they think it would be like if the
    school had no heat and it was very cold outside. What would
    they do to keep warm? (Remind them that a long time ago,
    people did not have heat in their homes.)
  • Students might create skits demonstrating what they
    would do to keep warm.

  • Can your students think of any jobs that people have to do
    outside. How might these people keep warm during the
    coldest days of the year?
  • Students might draw pictures of people with different
    outside jobs keeping warm. If clay is available, they
    might use it to demonstrate same idea.

  • Would your students prefer for the temperature to be very
    cold or for their to be a lot of snow? Why? What kinds of
    things can one do outside when it is very cold? What kinds
    of things can one do outside when there is a lot of snow?
  • Consider creating a Venn Diagram with your students
    in response to these questions.


Discussion-Starters for Older Students

  • Vocabulary terms to discuss: "Tapering Off"; Artillery;
    Moderate; and, Temperature.

  • Ask your students what it means to be cold outside. Does it
    make sense that somebody in California would say that it's
    cold when it's 40 degrees outside, but somebody in
    Wisconsin would say that it's warm when it's 30 degrees
    outside? Encourage thought.
  • Students could create dialogues between individuals in
    Wisconsin and California discussing what it means to
    be cold. These could be comical.

  • Does it make sense to cancel school when it is very cold
    outside when students will go out to the waterpark, as
    explained in the article? Why/why not?
  • Consider asking students to write persuasive essays
    in response to these questions.

  • Ask your students if they think that there's ever going to be a
    time when people can control the temperature outside? What
    type of a device might enable people to do so?
  • In groups, students could design the concept for
    such a devise and then present their work to the
    whole class.
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