The purpose of this activity is to discover why an instrument shelter is built the way it is. Students construct shelters that have varying properties and place them in the same location or place similar shelters in different locations and compare temperature data taken in each shelter. Students should predict what will happen for each of the different shelter designs or placements and perform the steps of student research. Intended outcomes are that students gain an understanding of GLOBE specifications for the instrument shelter and perform a guided inquiry project. Educational levels: Primary elementary, Intermediate elementary, Middle school, High school

The GLOBE Program, UCAR (University Corporation for Atmospheric Research)

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GLOBE® 2005  Studying the Instrument Shelter Learning Activity - 1 Atmosphere
A
ppendix
W
elcom
e
Introduction
Protocols
Learning A
ctivities
!
?Studying The  
Instrument Shelter
Purpose 
To discover why the instrument shelter is built 
the way it is 
Overview 
Students construct shelters that have varying 
properties and place them in the same location 
or place similar shelters in different locations and 
compare temperature data taken in each shelter. 
Students should predict what will happen for 
each of the different shelter designs or placements 
and perform the steps of student research. 
Student Outcomes
Students gain an understanding of GLOBE 
specifications for the instrument shelter and 
perform a guided inquiry project. 
Science Concepts
Physical Science
Heat transfer occurs by radiation, 
conduction, and convection.
Geography
Measurements of atmospheric variables 
help to describe the physical 
characteristic of an environment.
Atmosphere Enrichment
Measurements of atmospheric 
temperature are affected by the design 
and location of the Instrument Shelter. 
Scientific Inquiry Abilities
Identify answerable questions. 
Design and conduct scientific 
investigations.
Develop explanations and predictions 
using evidence.
Communicate results and explanations. 
Time 
One class period for discussion of the shelter 
and design of an experiment. Two to three 
additional class periods to experiment with 
model shelters. 
Level 
All 
Materials and Tools 
At least one pair of cardboard instrument 
shelters for each property to be explored 
(e.g., cereal container, milk container, 
shoe box). 
Two or more identical thermometers
Depending on the number of 
characteristics to be investigated, the 
following materials may be needed: 
White paint and black paint (to   
investigate color) 
Two paint brushes (if paint is used) 
Heavy-duty scissors (necessary if the 
shelters must be made from sheets of 
cardboard and also to investigate the 
purpose of slits in the shelter) 
Paper (to compare the effect of having 
shelters made of different materials) 
Two or more thermometers per student 
group (depending on the number of 
properties to be tested at the same 
time) 
String 
One or more wooden posts, strong 
enough to be placed in the ground and 
hold the instrument shelter (shelters can 
be nailed onto the posts) 
Nails (to attach shelters to the posts) 
Hammer 
Meter stick 
The actual GLOBE instrument shelter (If the 
actual shelter is not available, students 
should have the picture and physical 
description of it given in Instrument 
Construction, Site Selection, and Set-
Up.) 
Preparation 
None
GLOBE® 2005 Studying the Instrument Shelter Learning Activity - 2 Atmosphere
Prerequisites 
An assembled instrument shelter (highly 
desirable)
Background 
While it may seem that air temperature is simple 
to measure, it is not necessarily easy for many 
people around the world to take measurements  in 
precisely the same way so they can be compared 
with each other.  Factors such as wind, sunlight, 
heat radiating from the ground or nearby walls, 
and moisture can affect a thermometer. So we 
must protect these instruments by placing them 
in a shelter built to a specific set of specifications 
that shields the thermometer from these different 
influences while allowing it to sense the air . In 
addition, where this shelter is placed and how the 
thermometer is placed inside of it are of critical 
importance. 
By following a consistent approach to the 
construction and placement of  GLOBE 
instrument shelters, scientists and students 
can be reasonably certain that the temperature 
differences reported from various areas over time 
are due to real differences in air temperature. Of 
course there are some inevitable variations from 
site to site and GLOBE permits some exceptions 
to the stringent requirements for placement 
of the instrument shelter provided these are 
documented through comments (also termed 
metadata) and reported to the GLOBE Data 
Archive.
What To Do and How To Do It 
Day One 
1. You should start the discussion by 
asking students to identify the major 
characteristics of the GLOBE instrument 
shelter that could influence the
  temperature inside it. These include: 
 –  The color of the shelter; 
 –  The slits in the sides of the shelter; 
 –  The materials of which the shelter is  
 made. 
 The discussion should turn to why the 
students think these characteristics are 
important. 
2. The discussion of the physical 
characteristics of the shelter should be 
followed by a discussion of the placement 
of the shelter and the thermometer inside 
the shelter. Questions to ask are: 
 –  Why should the shelter be located 
away   from buildings and 
trees? 
 – Why should it be placed over a natural  
 surface, such as grass? 
 –  Why should it be placed 1.5 meters  
 above the ground? 
 – Why should the shelter be oriented  
 with the door facing north in the  
 northern hemisphere and south in the  
 southern hemisphere? 
 – Why is the thermometer not supposed  
 to touch the shelter? 
Students should predict the effect that each of 
the above parameters has on the measurement of 
temperature (e.g., if the shelter is mounted above 
pavement instead of grass the temperatures 
measured will be greater). Then it will be time 
to test their predictions. 
Day One/Day Two (depending on how long 
the discussions take) 
1. Students should be divided into teams. 
The number of teams will be determined 
by the number of properties to be 
investigated, the availability of materials, 
and the number of students. Up to eight 
teams could be formed to explore the eight 
basic parameters discussed above. The 
more students can be allowed to decide 
what to investigate and how to investigate 
it, the closer they are coming to doing full 
student inquiry.
2. Each team should construct two shelters. 
This is a simple task if students use ready-
made boxes such as oatmeal or shoe 
boxes, but will be more complicated if 
they must make shelters from sheets of 
cardboard. 
 If shelters are made from sheets of 
cardboard, the actual design of the shelter 
(whether it is a cylinder, like an oatmeal 
box, or a rectangle, like a shoe box) is not 
as important as the fact that all shelters 
GLOBE® 2005  Studying the Instrument Shelter Learning Activity - 3 Atmosphere
A
ppendix
W
elcom
e
Introduction
Protocols
Learning A
ctivities
should be as close to the same design and 
size as possible. This is a key lesson in 
designing student research projects. You 
always want to keep as many factors the 
same as possible and choose one to change 
in a systematic way. 
3. Each team should choose or is assigned 
a property to explore. For those 
investigating the physical properties of 
the shelter, further work on the shelter 
will be necessary. The following are 
possible alterations to shelters to study 
their properties: 
 –  Paint one shelter white and one black; 
 – Make one shelter with slits and one  
 without (paint both white);
 –  If you are using ready-made boxes, 
then   use white paper to 
construct a shelter of   similar 
shape and size to the cardboard   
one. Paint the cardboard shelter white. 
  Use a tin can and a box of the same 
size   and shape.
4. Shelters should be mounted on posts 
near one another and at the same height 
above the ground unless a team is 
investigating the effect of shelter height 
or location. For most teams, the posts do 
not need to be more that a meter high. 
The team investigating shelter height 
above the ground should mount one 
shelter sitting on the ground and the 
other one on a post approximately 1.5 
meters high. 
5. Each team should be given two identical 
thermometers. Prior to placing the 
thermometers in their shelters, the 
students must make sure that the 
thermometers read the same temperature 
while indoors. If they do not, then they 
should switch thermometers to get a pair 
that do read the same or the students 
should note the difference between them 
and adjust their measurements accordingly. 
For instance, if thermometer A reads 
18.0˚ C and thermometer B reads 19.5˚ C 
when they are next to each other in the 
classroom, then students should subtract 
1.5˚ C from every reading taken with 
thermometer B during their experiment. 
Since this is a learning activity, it is not 
important that the thermometers be 
calibrated as they must be to take GLOBE 
data.
Day Three/Day Four 
1. Choose a day that is mostly sunny 
and, ideally, slightly breezy. For most 
comparisons, you do not want an 
overcast, rainy, or snowy day. 
2. Each team should record the starting 
temperature of their thermometers. 
(Again, these should be the same or the 
differences noted.) 
3. Then the thermometers should be 
placed in the shelters in such a way 
that they do not touch the cardboard 
(or paper) surface (unless, of course, 
the group is exploring the effect of the 
thermometer touching the shelter wall). 
If ready-made cardboard boxes are used, 
the thermometer can be hung by a 
string from the top of the shelter. 
4. Each team should take its two shelters 
(with thermometers in them) outside. 
The teams investigating the physical 
properties of the shelter (color, slits, 
material) should find an open area away 
from buildings, preferably an open field. 
Teams investigating the placement of 
the shelter will split into two subgroups. 
One group will place its shelter in an 
appropriate area (grassy area, away from 
buildings). The other group will place 
its shelter in a non-ideal location. That 
is, to investigate the effects of shelter 
placement, place: 
 One shelter in an ideal location, one 
next to the sunny side of a building, one 
in the middle of a parking lot, or other 
paved or asphalt surface one shelter at 
1.5 meters above the surface, one on the 
ground at the base of the post.
5. Students should record the temperature 
from each thermometer about five 
minutes after placing their shelters. They 
should then wait another five minutes 
GLOBE® 2005 Studying the Instrument Shelter Learning Activity - 4 Atmosphere
and record the temperatures again. 
Temperatures should continue to be 
recorded at approximately five minute
  intervals, until the temperatures in the 
shelters have stabilized and do not 
change over two successive readings. 
Note that this may not necessarily 
take the same amount of time for 
both shelters. That is, it may take one 
thermometer longer to reach the 
maximum temperature than the other. 
Therefore, it is important to check both 
thermometers. 
6. Once the temperature has stabilized 
in both shelters, the students can 
bring their shelters and their recorded 
temperatures back to the classroom. 
7. Each team should give a brief report of 
what it found to the entire class and then 
discuss their results. 
8. Each team should write a brief report 
showing its recorded temperatures. 
The team should discuss its findings in 
terms of how the particular parameter 
investigated affects the temperature and 
provide any conclusions they can justify 
about why this is true. 
Adaptations for Older Students 
For older students: Older students can explore 
which of the parameters is most important by 
quantitatively comparing the results from the 
different pair comparisons. The may also test the 
combined effect of different changes by making 
more than two shelters in various categories.
For example, they could test the combined effects 
of color and ventilation by making one black and 
one white shelter without slits and one black and 
one white shelter with slits. They can also explore 
what effect different weather conditions have on 
their results. For instance, the experiment could 
be performed on both a clear day and an overcast 
day or a calm day and a windy day.
Students could also examine sets of three or 
more shelters. An example of this might be to 
place identical shelters next to a building, 5 
meters from the building and 10 meters from 
the building; or there might be shelters with no 
slits, a few slits, and many slits.
Student Assessment 
Students’ understanding of the importance of the 
shelter design and placement can be assessed in 
terms of: 
• The conclusions they draw in their oral  
and written reports; 
• The understanding they show during the 
class discussions; 
• Their ability to deal with such additional 
questions as: What would be the effect 
on the white shelter if it became covered 
with a heavy layer of dust?; 
• The validity of the measurements they 
take. 
Students’ progress in inquiry can be assessed in 
terms of:
• Participation and creativity in experiment 
design;
• Use of math and being quantitative in their 
analysis;
• How logical is students’ reasoning in 
reaching their conclusions;
• How students discuss and reason about 
possible extensions to the project.


Studying the Instrument Shelter

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Studying the Instrument Shelter

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