HEAT.gov - Heat Maps

• This resource provides a number of interactive heat maps of the United States, an interactive graph showing the number of people under heat alerts over the last 30 days, and links to additional interactive maps and information about heat and health.
  
• From this starting point, students can explore current U.S. temperatures, climate outlooks, heat forecasts, extreme heat days by 2050, and days over 90 degrees by 2050, or click on recent heat-related news articles.

Positives

• This website is an excellent starting place for a variety of lesson plans based on the concept of heat and its effects on humans.
• There are several articles, mapping tools, interactive maps, and data visualizations linked from this resources. 
• Contributing organizations include the CDC, FEMA, NOAA, and the Department of Health and Human Services
  

Additional Prerequisites

• Teachers and/or students will need access to the Internet to utilize this resource.
• Students should be comfortable with interpreting charts and maps.
• This is the "Home" page of the HEAT.gov website.
  

Differentiation

• This resource will work well with both whole-class instruction or individualized research or assignments.  There is enough information for a class of 20 students to each choose different topics.
• The information provided can easily be integrated into science, math, and language arts classes.
• Social science classes can also benefit from this website.  Students can draw conclusions about how the people and communities in the most affected areas are likely to be impacted in the future.
• Earth science and geography classes can use the heat maps to discuss topography, prevailing winds, and continental position in relation to weather conditions and predicted weather in the future.
  

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