Human Impact and the Creation of Urban Heat Islands
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Provided by: My NASA Data|Published on: January 7, 2026
Lesson PlansScientist Reviewed
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Scientist Reviewed This resource has been reviewed by SubjectToClimate's climate scientists and verified for scientific accuracy and up-to-date information. Learn about our review process →
Synopsis
- In this interactive story map activity, students will analyze maps of the U.S. to understand the relationship between population density, land type, and surface temperature.
- This activity will help students construct an understanding of what types of land cover tend to be hotter and how urbanization affects surface temperatures.
Subjects: Earth and Space Sciences
Authors: My NASA Data
Region: Global
Languages: English
Teaching Materials
Positives
- The overlaid maps with a slider help illustrate the relationship between components in a way that is easy to see.
- Provided questions seamlessly guide students through exploration of the maps.
Prerequisites
- Teachers can receive an answer key by filling out the request form linked at the bottom of the page.
Differentiation & Implementation
- Teachers can make connections to climate change by discussing how this will increase the temperatures in cities even more and the importance of “greening" urban spaces.
- After discussing their takeaways from this activity, students can move on to exploring solutions for urban heat, such as green roofs, more trees along sidewalks, more parks and trails, or more protected natural spaces within cities.
- This article describes an example of an interesting solution being implemented that can connect to visual arts classes.
- After this activity, teachers can move on to this lesson to make connections between urban heat islands and environmental justice.
- For younger students, and to provide local context for this issue, students can explore their own schoolyard, taking temperature data for different areas, such as shaded, grassy, or concrete. This lesson plan provides instructions for a similar activity.
This resource from NASA's My NASA Data Program contains several interactive models and a lesson plan that helps students explore how human activity contributes to the formation of urban heat islands. The activity includes guided data analysis using NASA datasets, maps, and visuals to show how land use changes affect local temperatures. Created by a trusted scientific organization, the resource uses data from 2010-2013, which is slightly dated but still valuable. This would be a great resource for teaching about climate change and human choices.
Teaching Tips
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Resource Type and Format
About the Partner Provider
My NASA Data
NASA offers petabytes of global Earth science data collected from satellites, but accessing these data in a traditional (or virtual) science classroom can be tricky. Since 2004, My NASA Data has supported students and teachers of grades 3-12 in analyzing and interpreting NASA mission data.
Scientist Reviewed
This resource has been reviewed by SubjectToClimate's climate scientists and verified for scientific accuracy and up-to-date information. Our review process ensures that every resource in our library reflects the current state of climate science.
Learn about our review process →
