Worksheet

Warmer Nights and Ozone Alerts in a Growing Town

Grade 8 argument practice: a school weather station, a rural station and town records show how growth and per-person use change a town's air and land.

Grade 8ScienceInteractive · Printable

Aligned toMS-ESS3-4

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1 NGSS standard
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11 questions
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Format: Interactive · Printable
Grade: Grade 8
Subject: Science
Question types: Fill in the blank, Multiple choice, Circle the answer, Sorting, Short answer

About this worksheet

What students practice

Students compare a town weather station with a rural station to separate local change from regional change.
Students tell apart changes caused by more people from changes caused by more use per person.
Students construct an argument from data about how a town's growth affects the atmosphere.

How to use

Read the passage together and point out the difference between the two weather stations before students begin. Calculators are helpful for Part 2.

Curriculum

NGSS standard covered

MS-ESS3-4

Argue how growth in human population and resource use affects Earth's systems.

Preview

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Warmer Nights and Ozone Alerts in a Growing Town

Use a school weather station's records to argue how growth changes the air.

Part 1: Two weather stations

Read the passage and Table 1, then answer questions 1–4.

The Station by the Ball Field

1In 2004, science teacher Mr. Henrik Saarinen and his students set up a weather station on a pole beside the ball field at Brindle Falls Middle School. When it was built, the school stood at the edge of town, next to corn fields. Today it is surrounded by houses, stores and parking lots. The station records the temperature, wind and rain every ten minutes and sends the readings to a forecast app that many families in town use. This year, eighth grader Delphine Okonkwo joined the weather club and noticed something in the app's history: summer nights in town seemed to be getting warmer.

2Delphine wanted to know whether the whole region was warming or mainly the town. She compared the school's records with a second station, run by the water district at Lone Pine Reservoir, 25 km from town. The land around the reservoir is forest and pasture and has changed very little since 2005. Both stations use the same kind of thermometer, in a shaded white box about 2 m above the ground. Table 1 shows summer averages of the night low, the coldest temperature of each night.

3On a clear July day, the club pointed an infrared thermometer at surfaces near the school. At 3 PM, the asphalt parking lot read 52 °C, a dark shingle roof read 48 °C and grass in the shade of a maple tree read 29 °C. At 10 PM, the asphalt still read 31 °C and the roof 27 °C, while the shaded grass had cooled to 22 °C.

4The forecast app also shows air quality alerts. Ground-level ozone is a gas that forms when gases in vehicle exhaust react with each other in strong sunlight, mostly on hot, still afternoons. High ozone can make breathing harder, especially for people with asthma, so the regional air agency sends an alert on days when ozone is forecast to reach unhealthy levels. The club counted the alert days in each summer.

5Finally, Delphine asked the town planner, Ms. Priyanka Dube, for the town's records (Table 2). Paved and roof area is the share of the town's land covered by pavement and buildings. Tree cover is the share of the land shaded by tree crowns. Next month the town council will vote on a plan for 2035, when about 140,000 people are expected to live in Brindle Falls.

Table 1: Summer Averages (June–August)
Year	School night low (°C)	Reservoir low (°C)	Ozone alert days
2005	17.8	17.2	3
2015	19	17.4	7
2025	20.4	17.6	12

Use Table 1. Subtract the reservoir's night low from the school's night low in each year.

In 2005, the school's summer night low was °C warmer than the reservoir's. In 2025, it was °C warmer.

Use Table 1. Find how much each station's summer night low rose from 2005 to 2025.

The school station's night low rose by °C. The reservoir station's night low rose by °C.

Kai, another club member, says, "Summers are just getting warmer everywhere. Our town's growth has nothing to do with it." Which evidence best shows that the town's growth also played a part in the warmer nights?

A. The ozone alert days rose from 3 in 2005 to 12 in 2025.
B. Both stations use the same kind of thermometer in a shaded box.
C. The town grew from 60,000 people in 2005 to 110,000 in 2025.
D. The reservoir, where the land barely changed, warmed far less.

Use paragraphs 1 and 3. Which explanation best connects the infrared readings to the town's warmer nights?

A. Roofs and asphalt cool off faster than grass at night, so the town loses its warmth sooner.
B. Asphalt and roofs take in energy from sunlight and are still warm at night, and they now cover more of the town.
C. Shaded grass soaks up more sunlight than asphalt, so lawns warm the night air most.
D. Maple trees give off warmth at night, and the town has planted more of them since 2005.

Part 2: More people and more use per person

Use Table 2, Table 1 and paragraphs 4 and 5 to answer questions 5–8.

Table 2: Brindle Falls Town Records (summer averages for driving and power)
Year	Population	Paved + roof area (%)	Tree cover (%)	Driving/person (km/day)	Home power (kWh/day)
2005	60,000	18	30	40	28
2015	85,000	26	25	44	31
2025	110,000	35	19	48	35

Total driving = population × driving per person. In 2005, the town's residents drove a total of about 2.4 million km per day.

In 2025, they drove a total of about million km per day. That is times the 2005 total.

From 2005 to 2025, the number of ozone alert days grew to four times as many, while the population did not even double. Which explanation fits the page best?

A. Total driving grew faster than the population, so more exhaust gases were there to react in sunlight.
B. The new residents drove less than the old ones, so more ozone was carried in from other towns.
C. The school station moved closer to the parking lots, so it began to count more alert days.
D. Rain fell more often in summer, and raindrops turn exhaust gases into ozone.

Delphine wants to show that growth has two parts: more people, and more use by each person. Sort each change in Brindle Falls by which part it mainly shows.

Each resident drove about 8 km more per day in 2025 than in 2005.The town gained 50,000 residents between 2005 and 2025.A typical home used 7 kWh more electricity on a summer day.The middle school added 12 classrooms for its larger enrollment.New neighborhoods were built on corn fields to house newcomers.

Mainly more people	Mainly more use per person

Circle each record that shows the town's growth changing land and living things, not only the air.

Paved and roof area rose from 18% to 35% of the town's land.The reservoir's summer night low rose from 17.2 °C to 17.6 °C.Tree cover fell from 30% to 19% of the town's land.The station sends readings to the app every ten minutes.Corn fields next to the school were replaced by houses and stores.

Part 3: The plan for 2035

Use everything on the page to answer questions 9–11.

Suppose Brindle Falls reaches 140,000 people in 2035, each person drives even more, and tree cover keeps falling. Which prediction do the records support best?

A. The school's night lows would likely keep rising, and ozone alerts would likely top 12 days.
B. The reservoir's night low would rise faster than the school's, since more people drive past it.
C. The gap between the two stations would shrink, since the town would cover more land.
D. The ozone alert days would fall back to about 3, since the trend would level off.

10.

The council wants a plan that would most likely lower both the town's night heat and its ozone alerts. Which plan should Delphine support?

A. Give each home a second air conditioner so families stay cool on hot nights.
B. Pave the school's grass field to add 200 parking spaces for parents and visitors.
C. Plant street trees and add bus routes so that fewer car trips are made each day.
D. Move the school weather station into the shade so that it reads lower temperatures.

11.

At the council meeting, a resident says, "Our hot nights and ozone alerts come from regional weather, not from our town. Growing bigger and driving more have not changed our air." Write an argument for or against this claim. State your claim, use at least three pieces of data from the tables or the passage, and explain how growth and use per person affect the atmosphere.