Year 10 can read a textbook flood hydrograph and are ready to build one from a real river over two lessons. The teacher shows the Environment Agency's real-time flood-monitoring service, which publishes river levels every 15 minutes and keeps about four weeks of readings, and the class uses the gauge on the River Severn at Bewdley with a rain gauge upstream in the catchment. Each student uses IMPORTDATA in Google Sheets with a readings link the teacher prepares to pull the last 28 days of readings, more than 2,600 rows, then plots river level against rainfall on one chart that updates when the sheet refreshes. They mark peak rainfall, peak level and lag time for each storm, compare two events, and write a 400-word flood briefing for Bewdley judging how far the river rose above its typical range and how close it came to the highest level on record, both published for the station. The lesson is timed after a wet spell so the data holds at least one storm, and students check the live sheet over the following week to see whether their predictions for the next rise hold.
Tools: Google Sheets Nine ideas for your own version in Generate
This page is one of a growing set of PICRAT examples by cell, subject and grade. Page maintained by Andy Perryer.