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Lesson 2 Climate

  Climate is Important to Our Daily Lives

When you think about it, the climate we live in really affects how we live our lives each day.


D2.18 Developing thunderstorm over the prairies
Climate makes us think about what clothes we need for each season, how we are getting from place to place, and the cost of our food. It dictates how we live our lives and how plants and animals survive.

Climate is different than the weather that we see each day. The weather is those conditions that we see each day, and the weather each day will be different. The average weather seen over a minimum of 30 years is used to determine the climate of that region.

Climate is also used to classify regions of Earth into biomes. These biomes are then used by scientists to study the interactions of living and non-living components and how changing a climate may affect the plants and animals that are adapted to live there.

In the next lesson, we will look at the causes of the different climates and we will study the six biomes found on Earth in detail.


  Interactive Activity

Rainfall and Bird Beaks © Explore Learning

Background Information:

This simulation will help you to understand how adaptations occur in animals as a result of climate. The finches shown in this simulation eat small, delicate seeds. During large amounts of rainfall, lots of seeds are formed, while during droughts, no new seeds are formed. The small, delicate seeds get eaten quickly, leaving tougher seeds behind. A finch’s beak is adapted to the type of seeds it eats. A smaller beak depth means the beak is more delicate and is adapted to eating small, delicate seeds. Birds with a larger beak depth are adapted to eating larger, tougher seeds. The birds with the beak that is better adapted to the seeds available will survive to produce more offspring, passing that beak type to the next generation.


Please note: if you scroll down while in the Gizmo you will see a list of questions. You DO NOT need to complete these questions. You are able to complete them for extra practice if you would like.
  1. Click on the play button to open the Gizmo. Print students can access the Gizmo in the Online Resources for Print Student section.
  2. Check that the rainfall is set to average for all five years. This is the current climate.
  3. In your notes, create a chart similar to this one to write your observations in.

    Trial # of Finches at Start
    		# of Finches of finish
    		Average Beak Depth at Start (mm) Average Beak Depth Finish (mm)
    1 (average rainfall)
    2 (more rain)
    3 (less rain)

  1. Record your starting numbers, then press play to allow the simulation to run.
  2. Record your finishing numbers.
  3. Now, let’s say the climate is has changed so that there is more rainfall. Click on the reset button next to the pause button and move the amount of rainfall each year to 40 cm.
  4. Repeat steps 4 and 5.
  5. What happens if the climate changes so that there is less rainfall? Click the reset button next to the pause button and move the amount of rainfall each year to 5 cm.
  6. Repeat steps 4 and 5.
  7. Please return to the top of this page and click on analysis to complete the analysis questions.
Here is an example of a completed observation chart. Your chart may have slightly different numbers.

Trial # of Finches at Start
# of Finches of finish
Average Beak Depth at Start (mm) Average Beak Depth Finish (mm)
1 (average rainfall)
1 000
870 9.92 10.29
2 (more rain)
1 000
2 100
10.05 7.80
3 (less rain)
 1 000
270 9.69 12.58

  1. What happened to the beak depth during each of your trails? Why did this happen?

    The beak depth in trial 1 remained mostly the same. The beak depth in trial 2 decreased, and the beak depth in trial 3 increased. This happened because more rain meant more seeds that were small and delicate. The birds had plenty of seeds that were easy to crack open, so they didn’t need as large of beaks. With less rainfall, the seeds became tougher and the birds needed larger, stronger beaks to crack the seeds open. The birds with the beaks that were best suited to the conditions survived to produce more offspring, and more of those beaks were seen in the next generation.
  2. What happened to the number of finches during each of your trails? Why did this happen?

    In trial 1, the number of finches stayed mostly the same; in trial 2, the number of finches increased; and in trial 3, the number of finches decreased. This happened because there is more food available with more rainfall. When there is less rainfall, there is less food and finches are less likely to survive.
  3. Finches have adapted to breed during the wet season. Why? How does this help to explain your results when the climate changed so that there was less rainfall?

    Finches have adapted to breed during the wet season because that is when there is the most food (remember the plants produce more seeds when there is more rainfall). This helps to explain the decrease in the number of birds in trial 3 because there was no wet season for five years. This means the birds would not have bred as much as if they were in a climate with more rainfall.
  4. How are the finch’s beak depth affected by their climate?

    You will use this answer in Assignment D1.