Lesson One (SECONDARY)

GEOGRAPHY OF THE WASATCH FRONT

Concept:

Urban, suburban, and rural communities are the three main types of developed environments. All three of these environments have both common and unique land cover types. Each land cover may affect local air temperatures differently because of unique thermal properties.

Lesson One Goal:

Students will learn about urban geography and land-cover types along the Wasatch Front. Analysis of thermal images will be presented. Students will be introduced to the fact that different land-cover surfaces affect air temperature differently.

Utah State Science Core Objectives:

9th Grade: 3600-0301; 3600-0702;

8th Grade: 3240-0304

Physics Course: Matter — 3640-0106; Energy — 3650-0503

Intended Learning Outcomes:

  1. Students will distinguish the three main types of "urban" environments–urban, suburban, and rural–by learning characteristic land-cover types.
  2. Students will learn the effects of different land covers on local air temperatures.
  3. Students will examine and analyze a thermal image of Salt Lake City.
  4. Students will learn to predict surface and air temperatures from aerial photos showing various land-cover types found in the Salt Lake Valley.

Materials/Preparation:

  1. Small thermal maps of downtown Salt Lake City
  2. Overhead copies of a thermal map and downtown pictures
  3. List of land-cover types
  4. Tally sheets for listing positive and negative elements characteristic of the three main urban environments

Vocabulary Words:

Environment, urban, suburban, rural, land-cover surfaces, geography, thermal images (images taken with special cameras that let you "see" heat emitted from surfaces)

Background Information:

  1. Eight percent of the Utah population lives along the Wasatch Front corridor.
  2. Salt Lake is the 6th most urban area in the country.
  3. Ground level ozone affects our health more than any other type of air pollutant.
  4. The Salt Lake Valley violated the air quality standard 60 times during the month of July in 1998.
  5. On August 13, 2000 Salt Lake, Davis, & Weber counties reached ozone levels between 85-130 ppm, which are considered "unhealthy" by EPA (Environmental Protection Agency) standards.
  6. Asphalt parking lots are second hottest to roofs in surface temperature during summer months. Asphalt reflects only about five percent of incident solar radiation; the rest is absorbed.
  7. Primary factors that contribute to the urban heat-island effect are the following:
    1. Use of black and other non-reflective roofing surfaces e.g., roofs of East High School, Salt Palace, and Matheson Courthouse
    2. Shopping centers and other businesses with large non-reflective asphalt parking lots
    3. Removal of vegetation in "undisturbed" areas to make room for buildings
    4. Removal of vegetation in parks and cities to reduce maintenance by park and city managers.

Instructional Procedures and Assignments:

  1. Discuss the following geographic characteristics and land-cover surfaces found in the three community environments. Talk about how these characteristics may affect local air temperatures differently.
    1. Urban = concentrated areas such as the downtown with high rise buildings, commercial and industrial sites, and urban residential spaces including apartments, townhouses, single-family dwellings; wide asphalt roads especially in Utah, parking lots and terraces, urban parks, and nonnative vegetation.
    2. Suburban = scattered distribution of commercial businesses and residential areas; narrow asphalt and concrete roads; parking lots, parks and recreational facilities, native vegetation in outlying areas, and nonnative vegetation in urban forests; and water bodies such as ponds, streams, and lakes.
    3. Rural = dry and irrigated farming and widely spaced residential homes; paved, dirt, and gravel roads; native vegetation in mountain forests; and water bodies such as rivers, streams, lakes, reservoirs, and flood plains.
  2. Explain the overhead showing the infrared map of downtown Salt Lake City. Ask students what geographical features they recognize on the map.
  3. Hand out copies of the "Salt Lake City Thermal Image — July 1998". Discuss thermal properties of the urban elements labeled on the map.
  4. Discuss thermal properties of major land-cover types that are shown in each overhead of the Salt Lake Valley. Ask students to predict the effect of these land-cover types on the local air temperature.

Assignment:

Assign to three corners of the classroom, the three major types of community environments previously discussed. Have students move to the environment they would prefer to live in or learn more about. Divide the individual groups into subgroups of no more than four students each. Assign each subgroup to determine at least four pros and four cons unique to their chosen environment. Remind students to include climate in their discussions. Request one member from each subgroup to write their pros and cons on the board under their environment type. Discuss answers as a class. Determine if reasonings overlap. Vote on where the majority of students would like to live and why. Make sure students don’t perceive one area as all-negative. There should be pros and cons for all three areas.

Additional Activity:

Walk around the school campus to identify various land-cover types as they relate to the three urban environments. Explain that different urban surfaces(gravel, grass, asphalt, and concrete) have various surface temperatures and affect air temperature and microclimates differently.

 

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