Mathematics 7–10 · Years 9–10
Climate Data Online: daily maximum temperatures for two months compared
Statistics and probability
The idea
A public data set of daily observations can be downloaded, summarised and displayed so that two distributions are compared on centre, spread, shape and outliers with the real numbers behind them.
What you need
- Bureau of Meteorology Climate Data Online (daily maximum temperature, csv download) for the station nearest the school
- Spreadsheet software
How to do it
- On Climate Data Online choose daily maximum temperature, find the nearest station by name or map, and download the csv for a recent year.
- Extract the daily maxima for January and for July of that year (31 values each).
- For each month compute the five-number summary and the mean, draw the two box plots on one axis, and note any outliers.
- Write three comparisons: which month has the higher median, which has the larger interquartile range, and whether either distribution is skewed.
- Repeat for a second station in a different climate (coastal against inland) and compare the July spreads.
What you should see
January falls in the southern hemisphere summer and July in the winter, so at a NSW station the January median daily maximum comes out above the July median and the January box sits to the right of the July box on the axis. The actual medians, quartiles and any outliers are read from the downloaded csv and will differ by station and year; the learner records them with the station number and year. Whether an inland station shows a wider spread of daily maxima than a coastal station at a similar latitude is a hypothesis the learner tests with the two downloads, reporting both interquartile ranges rather than assuming the answer. The learner knows it worked when the spreadsheet's quartiles for one month match hand-computed quartiles from the ordered 31 values and the csv's station number and dates are cited in the write-up.
What changes
This activity lists no variables to change, measure and keep the same.
Common misconceptions
Each of these ideas is wrong, and the activity is a chance to test it.
- The mean and the median of a month's temperatures are the same thing.
- A month with a higher maximum has a higher median.
- One year's data settles what a climate is like.
Safety card
Hazards
No hazard is listed.
Controls
No control is listed.
Note
No chemicals or heat are used, so the NSW Department of Education Chemical Safety in Schools package does not apply; ordinary classroom supervision.
Curriculum references
The NSW syllabus outcomes and Australian Curriculum v9 codes this activity supports. They are references, not a verified or complete curriculum alignment.
- Mathematics K–10 Syllabus (2022), Stage 5 Data analysis A; page read 2026-09-22MA5-DAT-C-01
- Mathematics K–10 Syllabus (2022), Stage 5 Data analysis C (Path); page read 2026-09-22MA5-DAT-P-01
- Australian Curriculum v9AC9M10ST02AC9M9ST04
Sources
The pages the author read to write this activity.