International Falls Weather Watch: A Week in the Icebox
International Falls, Minnesota - nicknamed 'the Icebox of the Nation' - just entered a brutal January cold snap. In this real-world interactive worksheet, sixth graders step into the role of a junior meteorologist at KFAL News 7, tracking daily low temperatures across a full week, comparing them with inequalities, calculating day-to-day temperature swings, and delivering a live Friday Night Weather Recap to viewers.
This worksheet makes negative integers feel urgent and real. Every temperature value is winter-plausible (ranging from -30°F to 15°F), every calculation has a clear correct answer, and the five-part structure mirrors what a real weather professional actually does. Students are not just practicing inequality symbols - they are making broadcast decisions with them.
Pre-Requisites
- Understanding of negative integers and their placement on a number line
- Basic signed-number subtraction (finding differences between positive and negative values)
Key Features
- Randomized temperature profiles - each student receives a unique weekly cold snap so answers cannot be copied
- Drag-and-drop ordering in Part 2 for ranking days coldest to warmest
- Auto-graded inequality comparisons with dropdown < / > selectors in Part 3
- Dynamic line chart in Part 4 that updates as students enter daily temperature changes, with a red dashed 32°F freezing reference line
- Broadcast sign-off long-answer reflection field in Part 5 for authentic communication practice
Best Used After
Assign this worksheet after introducing negative integers and inequality notation on the number line. It works especially well as a culminating activity for a 6.NS.C.7 unit or as a real-world application before a unit test.
Learning Standards
- 6.NS.C.7a - Interpret inequality statements as statements about the relative position of numbers on a number line
- 6.NS.C.7b - Write, interpret, and explain statements of order for rational numbers in real-world contexts (temperature comparisons)
- 6.NS.C.6c - Find and position integers on a number line; apply to signed temperature values
- 6.NS.C.5 - Understand that absolute value represents distance; surfaces naturally in day-to-day temperature swing calculations
In this worksheet, students will log four daily temperature readings per day across a Monday through Sunday cold snap and identify the correct daily low for each of the five days. Students will order all seven daily lows from coldest to warmest using drag-and-drop cards, then write and interpret inequality comparisons for five fixed day-pairs by selecting the correct symbol from a dropdown. Students will calculate signed day-to-day temperature changes for four consecutive day transitions and observe how those changes appear on a dynamic line chart. Students will apply their understanding of integer ordering, inequality notation, and signed differences in a real-world meteorology context throughout all five parts. Finally, students will synthesize the week's data to answer five Friday Night Recap broadcast questions and compose a short on-air sign-off reflection.
This worksheet supports randomization. Each student will receive a unique January temperature profile for International Falls. All profiles guarantee clean integer answers for every part of the worksheet, so grading stays automatic and fair. Would you like to enable randomization for this assignment?
💡 Tip: When assigning this activity to your classroom, you can optionally enable randomization to give each student a unique version of the problems. When you re-assign the same worksheet, each student will get a new set of questions, helping them master the content through repeated practice.
