| Instructors:
This
activity is appropriate for classes from advanced middle school to university
level. It takes some computer savvy--the main technical requirements
are the ability to cut and paste data from a web page to MSWord and Excel,
and to create graphs using Excel or similar software. It also takes
a little patience to find a data station that will work for you.
But be assured that they do exist, and with a few minutes of persistence,
you will find one.
Would you like to use a data set that has
already been downloaded for you, with a graph already made for a few days
(or a year)? Click on one of these:
Apalachicola,
FL Crescent
City, CA Kawaihae,
Hawaii Island, HI Rockport,
FL
Be prepared to be amazed by the graphs
that you will produce--you're going to get graphs that show much, much
more than the "two highs & two lows per day" that you might initially
expect, although you definitely will see that too! Many factors influence
tidal levels. This activity doesn't explain why tides happen.
But it will draw you and your students to try to explain the data trends
that you discover. Maybe you will be able to figure out something
new--and really interesting! |
