Do Hot Neighborhoods Affect Everyone Equally?

• In this adapted scientific paper, students learn about how increased temperatures in cities disproportionately impact people of color and poor people.
• Students read a scientific paper, watch related videos, and answer questions as they learn about the urban heat island effect and how it impacts people differently based on race and income level.

Positives

• The paper is excellent practice for reading academic papers in the future.
• The worksheet includes a glossary of key terms and there are links to additional resources provided.
• The supplemental videos help provide additional context and information to the paper.
  

Additional Prerequisites

• Teachers must fill in a form with their name, email, and school information to access the teacher's key, which includes answers to the discussion questions.
• Students should be familiar with reading and interpreting maps and bar graphs.

Differentiation

• It may be helpful for some students to use the audio version of the article (the first video on the webpage).
• To help younger students process the article, have them answer the comprehension questions orally in groups before putting their responses in writing.
• Just as some parts of the article are highlighted, have students practice annotating and highlighting parts of the article they consider most important.
• As a follow-up activity, have students create questions for the scientists, swap with another student, and answer each other's questions by researching online.
• Watch this video to learn more about how the urban heat island effect impacts communities of color.
• Physics classes can use this paper to connect to lessons about heat transfer, thermodynamics, and properties of materials.
• Biology classes can connect this resource to lessons about heat stroke, homeostasis, trees, evapotranspiration, the water cycle, green spaces, and ecosystems services.

This resource addresses the listed standards. To fully meet standards, search for more related resources.