What it shows
Daily maximum temperatures are coloured from cool to hot with a colour scale and summarised with AVERAGE, MAX and MIN. It shows how colour helps people see patterns in numbers.
The science
A colour scale gives each cell a colour according to its value, so a wall of numbers becomes a picture where hot days stand out. The average describes the typical day, the maximum and minimum show the range, and the difference between the highest and lowest temperature is called the range. In the Indian summer, temperature rises steadily until the pre-monsoon showers cool the air.
Materials
Cost: free. Many items come from home or from waste; spare parts such as LEDs, motors and wire are in the store.
- A computer, laptop or phone with a browser (free)
- A spreadsheet program: LibreOffice Calc (free) or Google Sheets (free)
- Daily maximum temperatures for your town for 30 days from a newspaper, a weather website or an outdoor thermometer in the shade
- A notebook and a pencil
Safety
This project uses safe, everyday materials. Still, read the rules below with a parent before you start.
Never use mains electricity: power models with cells, batteries or a low-voltage adapter. Sharp and hot tools, flames and lab chemicals need an adult or your teacher beside you. Keep magnets, button cells and small parts away from young children, and wash your hands after making.
All the safety rulesStep by step
8 steps. Do them in order, and test each part before you go on to the next. Write what you notice in a notebook as you go.
Make a table with weeks in rows and days in columns: Week 1 to Week 5 in A2 to A6 and Mon to Sun in B1 to H1.
Type the 30 daily maximum temperatures in order into B2 to H6, leaving the last cells empty.
Select B2:H6 and in LibreOffice choose Format, Conditional, Color Scale; in Sheets choose Format, Conditional formatting, Color scale.
Choose blue for the lowest, yellow for the middle and red for the highest.
In A8 type Average and in B8 type =AVERAGE(B2:H6); do the same for Highest with =MAX(B2:H6) and Lowest with =MIN(B2:H6).
In A11 type Range and B11 =B9-B10 using the highest and lowest cells.
In A12 type Hot days over 35 and B12 =COUNTIF(B2:H6,">35").
Write three lines about the pattern, such as which week was hottest and whether the rain brought a drop.
What you should see
A calendar-like grid with blue, yellow and red cells shows the warm and cool days at a glance, with the average, highest, lowest, range and number of hot days beneath it.
Viva questions
A teacher or a judge will ask how it works. Try to answer each question before you open it, then compare.
1What does a colour scale do?
It colours each cell according to its value.
2What is the range of the data?
The highest value minus the lowest.
3What does COUNTIF(...,">35") count?
The days with a temperature above 35.
4Why keep the thermometer in the shade?
Direct sun would make it read higher than the air temperature.
Take it further
Add a second month and compare the two heat maps and averages side by side.
Change one thing, measure what happens, and add a table or chart of your readings: that is what turns a model into your own investigation.
Free ebooks for this project
Computer & office
MS Excel Study Book
The complete study notes, practice questions and glossary for MS Excel
Computer & office
Excel Formulas Workbook
Sixty formulas and functions, each with a worked example from school, shop or office