Teaching objectives
Why does it pour with rain in Galicia while Almería bakes in the heat? What turns a Mediterranean low into the feared DANA? This secondary-school lab puts students at the controls of the Iberian Peninsula's weather: they drag pressure centres, adjust sea temperature, and watch real atmospheric physics react to their decisions. They can even create their own hurricane (a very realistic simulation in room 3)!
What you'll learn
Students develop causal understanding of climate: each parameter has visible, immediate consequences, which trains systemic thinking and modelling skills. Students move from observing phenomena to recreating them with controlled variables.
- In rooms 1–2 students drag and calibrate pressure centres to steer the wind over the Meseta Central and reproduce the synoptic pattern of the DANA (an isolated low over the western Mediterranean).
- Room 3 adjusts sea surface temperature, latitude, and wind shear so that a tropical system intensifies into a hurricane.
- Rooms 4–5 ask students to block Atlantic low-pressure systems with anticyclones and reproduce the classic autumn pattern: simultaneous rain in Galicia and drought in Almería.
- Rooms 6–8 explore the sea's influence on thermal oscillation: students observe, predict the region with the greatest day-to-night temperature swing, and as a final challenge adjust wind and sea temperature to match a target temperature map within ±2 °C.
Key mathematical ideas
- Wind flows from high to low pressure following the gradient; a greater difference means stronger wind.
- A DANA is an isolated pressure minimum: without nearby highs to block it, it fuels torrential rainfall on the Levante coast.
- A hurricane requires three variables to exceed thresholds simultaneously: sea temperature > 26 °C, latitude ≥ 5°N, and low wind shear.
- Daily thermal oscillation is a function of heat capacity: the sea buffers temperature (stable coasts); the interior, with no maritime influence, amplifies the maximum–minimum difference.
- Reproducing the target map is a parameter-fitting problem with an error constraint (±2 °C): it connects climate modelling with the mathematical idea of approximation.
Room-by-room contents
Room 1 · Controlling the wind
The student discovers how pressure centres determine wind direction over the Iberian Peninsula. By dragging and adjusting anticyclones and low-pressure systems, they make air flow from west to east across the Central Plateau.
Student tasks
- Drag the pressure centres to change wind direction.
- Click on them to increase or reduce pressure.
- Make the wind blow from west to east over the Central Plateau.
Room 2 · The DANA (Cut-off Low)
The DANA is introduced: an isolated low pressure over the Mediterranean that causes torrential rainfall in eastern Spain. The student configures the pressure centres to recreate this phenomenon.
Student tasks
- Place a strong low over the western Mediterranean with no nearby highs.
- Verify that the configuration generates the Cut-off Low pattern.
Room 3 · Hurricane formation
Tropical Atlantic simulation: the student manipulates three key variables (sea surface temperature, latitude and wind shear) and observes whether the system intensifies to hurricane strength.
Student tasks
- Adjust sea surface temperature, latitude and wind shear.
- Find the combination of conditions that triggers a hurricane.
Room 4 · Block the rain
Atlantic low-pressure systems advance from the west laden with rain. The challenge is to position a sufficiently powerful anticyclone to divert them and keep the Central Plateau dry.
Student tasks
- Place a powerful anticyclone in the appropriate position.
- Verify that the Atlantic lows are blocked before entering the Peninsula.
Room 5 · Rain in Galicia, sun in Almería
Classic autumn pattern of the Peninsula: an Atlantic low in the north-west and an anticyclone in the south-east. The student must simultaneously achieve rain in Galicia and dry weather in Almería.
Student tasks
- Position the low and the anticyclone in the correct locations.
- Make Galicia record rainfall and Almería remain dry at the same time.
Room 6 · The sea moderates temperatures
Summer temperature laboratory: the student controls wind direction and temperature and sea temperature, observing how coastal regions have much smaller day-night oscillations than the interior.
Student tasks
- Vary wind direction and temperature and sea temperature.
- Compare the maximum and minimum temperatures of coastal regions with those of the interior.
- Deduce why the sea stabilises coastal temperatures.
Room 7 · Where will the temperature drop most?
Interactive map quiz: given wind and sea conditions, the student predicts which region will have the greatest day-night temperature range and clicks on it.
Student tasks
- Read the wind and sea conditions presented.
- Click on the region of the map where the range between maximum and minimum will be greatest.
Room 8 · Reproduce the thermal map
Final synthesis challenge: a target map of maximum temperatures appears on the left; the student adjusts wind and sea temperature until their own map matches the target in all regions (±2 °C).
Student tasks
- Observe the target maximum temperature map.
- Adjust wind direction, wind temperature and sea temperature.
- Make all regions of your map match the target (±2 °C).
Rooms to project
The most striking ones to show and discuss in class.