Skill: write-like-james @ cca3af6 · the build: write-lesson, write-mcqs, write-video-script, write-summary, write-intro @ cca3af6; the non-author review and fix pass: review-lesson (Roles B and C), review-questions, review-figures, review-accuracy @ cca3af6; the blind read (two cold readers) follows
Topic 15 "What makes a climate zone" — your read (8 October 2026)
Skim first
The lessons in teaching order, each with its one rule sentence; then the intro script; then the question types. The review page follows.
The lessons and their rules
| Lesson | Atom | Rule sentence |
|---|---|---|
| L01 Describe a climate zone: its usual temperature and precipitation | EAR5-017 | A large area where the climate is about the same is called a climate zone: the tropical zone, the temperate zones and the polar zones. A climate zone is described by its usual temperature and its usual precipitation. |
| L02 What latitude is: how far from the equator | EAR5-018 | The equator is the imaginary line round Earth's middle halfway between the poles. How far north or south of the equator a place is is called its latitude. |
| L03 Nearer the equator, hotter all year | EAR5-015 | Places near the equator stay hotter all year than places near the poles, because the sunlight hits the ground more directly there. |
| L04 Higher up, colder: a place's elevation | EAR5-019 | How high up a place is, is called its elevation. Places high up, like mountain tops, stay colder than low places nearby. |
| L05 Near the ocean or a great lake, milder | EAR5-020 | Places near the ocean or a great lake have milder temperatures than places far inland: cooler summers and warmer winters. |
| L06 Spot what makes a place's climate | EAR5-016 | To spot what makes a place's climate, find a place like it in every way but one. The one difference makes the climates different. |
The intro script (119 words, about 60 s)
Here's Paloma on a sunny beach in Honolulu, Hawaii, on a video call with her cousin. Her cousin is in Anchorage, Alaska, in a thick coat, with snow piled up behind her. It is the same day in January. Every January is like this: Honolulu is warm, and Anchorage is cold, year after year. Every place on Earth has its own usual weather. So what makes one place hot and another cold, year after year? To find out, we will look at where Earth's hot and cold places are, and what makes each place as hot or cold as it is. Okay, so are you ready to find out what makes a place hot or cold, year after year?
The question types (from TYPES_G5T15.md)
- Type 1 (easy · MCQ, the zone set; one plain · 017): which two things describe a climate zone; which zone a described place is in — its usual temperature and precipitation + three; the zone set (fixed, key moves)
- Type 2 (easy, medium · MCQ, the description set; one drawn monthly table · 017): which sentence describes a named zone; which zone a monthly table of highs and rain shows — the four descriptions (fixed); the zone set
- Type 3 (easy · MCQ · 018): which line runs round Earth's middle; what latitude is; the equator's latitude; which place is at 90 degrees north — four lines / four meanings / four numbers / four places
- Type 4 (medium · MCQ, a drawn latitude table and a drawn globe · 018): which place is nearer the equator; which is farthest from it — the places plus "both the same" / "you cannot tell"
- Type 5 (easy, medium · MCQ, three with a drawn latitude table · 015): which stays hotter / colder / coldest through the year from latitudes; the bare rule on two unnamed towns — the places plus "both the same" / "you cannot tell"
- Type 6 (easy, medium · MCQ · 015): which sentence about the distance to the Sun is true; why the ground near the poles is warmed less; what happens to a lamp's patch when tilted — four single statements
- Type 7 (easy, medium · MCQ, three with a drawn table and one with the drawn mountain · 019): what elevation is; which stays colder (a hut and a village); which of three places stays coldest; which town has the warmer summers; the most likely July high at a mountain top; why a top is colder; why a snowy top is cold — four meanings / four places / four numbers / four reasons
- Type 8 (easy, medium · MCQ, two with a drawn temperature table · 020): what milder means; the cooler summers from a table; which of three towns is on the coast (backward); why the coast town's summer is cooler; fast or slowly; a great lake — four phrases / the places / four reasons
- Type 9 (medium · MCQ, a drawn pair card, the climate-maker set · 016): what makes the two climates different — latitude / elevation / nearness to the ocean / the climate zone it is in (fixed, rotated)
- Type 10 (medium, hard · MCQ; one drawn two-difference card; one three-place matching · 016): why two nearby towns' climates are alike; what cools a high city on the equator; what the card alone can say when two rows differ; what makes two winters different at one latitude; which list matches three places to their July highs — four single statements / the climate-maker set / four lists
- Type 11 (hard · typed · 017, 018): the zone described (two typed words, twice); the line round Earth's middle; the word for how far north or south of the equator — tropical zone / polar zone / equator / latitude with article forms and child spellings
- Type 12 (hard · MCQ; two claim-reason items · 015, 019): Omar's claim judged by its correct reason (Hawaii closer to the Sun than Alaska); the reason a town on the equator is hotter than one at 45 degrees south; Otis's claim judged by its correct reason (the top of Mount Hood closer to the Sun) — four single-statement reasons
- Type 13 (hard · MCQ · 019, 020): why ice lies on the top of Mount Kenya on the equator; the inland town's likely January high from the coast town's and the summer readings — four single statements / four numbers
Six lessons for six atoms, in Miss Oyelaran's class with Omar, Otis and Paloma.
Omar slides his finger up the globe from the Amazon rainforest to Chicago to the far north of Alaska, so L01 teaches that a climate is described by its usual temperature and its usual precipitation, that whole bands of Earth share one climate, and that such a band is a climate zone: the tropical zone, the temperate zones and the polar zones.
Otis asks what the thin lines on the globe are for, so L02 names the equator, the imaginary line round Earth's middle, and latitude, how far north or south of it a place is, counted in degrees from 0 to 90.
Omar says Miami is hotter than Fairbanks because it is closer to the Sun, so L03 shows the whole Earth is about the same distance from the Sun (93 million miles against Earth's 8,000) and that the sunlight hits the ground more directly near the equator, with a flashlight on a sheet of paper as the model.
Otis drives up Pikes Peak in July from shorts to a coat beside the snow, so L04 coins elevation and teaches that places high up stay colder than low places nearby; 8,000 feet changes nothing against 93 million miles, and thin air holds little warmth.
Paloma needs her sweater on the San Francisco beach but not in Sacramento the same afternoon, so L05 teaches that places near the ocean or a great lake have milder temperatures: cooler summers and warmer winters.
Then the capstone: two cards on the board, Honolulu and Anchorage, and the routine of finding the one way two places differ, on four pairs ending with the near miss of Hilo and the snowy top of Mauna Kea in the tropical zone.
The non-author review is applied (four must-fixes, fourteen worth-fixings, no key changed); two cold readers then agreed with every key, and their nine text flags are applied. Pictures are placeholders until the picture pass; the eight-video batch is built, checked and not sent (this topic is in your Earth and Space review sample).
Questions for James
none — every call the review met is recorded below under "Applied without asking"; none would change what a student learns by your answer.
Applied without asking
8 Oct 2026, the non-author review and fix pass (REVIEW_G5T15_2026-10-08.md). A fluency item right after the ocean lesson was marked by a key that contradicted the rule just taught (Palm Springs, an inland desert, has the warmer January): it is now Santa Maria against Bakersfield, and the coast town has the warmer winter. A practice pair card for Tacoma and Mount Rainier differed in two rows while its key named one: it is now Jackson, Wyoming against the top of Grand Teton, both far from the ocean. Mauna Kea's July high was 42 degrees, its winter figure; it is now about 50. Big Bear Lake is 30 miles from San Bernardino, not 75. The Denver / Leadville item no longer prints the July highs it asks for. The lamp item is asked in the video's own words. Two globes had labels running into other labels; the L06 rule card now prints the rule word for word; one empty chip prints a question mark. In the bank, a fast-or-slowly item became four happenings, Otis's claim-reason item lost the "so the top is colder" tail on every option, Omar's lost two silly distractors, and the two-difference card's key lost its length tell. L01 and L06 were trimmed (402 → 382, 429 → 411 words); "temperate zone" is now said in L03. Keys and key strings unchanged.
The author's calls the review read and kept: climate zone and the three zone names coined together in L01 (a describe atom is empty without its members; each in the "is called" frame; Florida's words); "elevation" coined because Florida names it (the exam-board-term rule); "milder" explained in place and never coined (the register's own everyday word, tested as its sentence, never typed); the six articles above 300 words (every section feeds an item; a subtitle or figure every eight idea lines or fewer; Topic 27's long articles were kept by your recommendation-close on 8 Oct); "polar zone" not said in L02, L04 or L05 (no honest place for it; said in L01, L03, L06 and the summary).
The lessons
Also on the site
Topic intro and poll · summary and three questions · mixed practice · the PP100 bank · the type sheet
After you answer
Nothing is waiting on an answer. Your notes on the six scripts are the cue for the batch to go (physics-first gating does not apply; this is an Earth and Space sample topic, so your read of it comes first). The picture pass starts on the nine cartoon and five photo placeholders once the text is settled; the two cold readers' agreement with every key is the last gate before the pages stage.
What the reviews found, and what changed
The guidance, questions, figures and accuracy review (8 October, non-author)
The science is right and the order is right, the reviewer said; every real place's number was checked against its climate record and one was wrong (Mauna Kea's July high, now about 50 degrees) and one distance (Big Bear Lake, now 30 miles). Four must-fixes, all in the checks and drawings: the Palm Springs fluency item whose key contradicted the rule just taught (re-scened as Santa Maria against Bakersfield); the Tacoma / Mount Rainier practice card whose two rows differed while its key named one (re-scened as Jackson against the top of Grand Teton); the four-place globe whose Kampala label was struck through by the equator line and whose Cape Town label ran into a line label; and the L01 zones globe whose place labels ran into the band names. Fourteen worth-fixings applied: a table that printed the temperatures it asked for (Denver / Leadville, now elevations only); a lamp item asked in words only the article taught (now the video's words); the elevation coining line aligned to the rule's form; the L06 rule card aligned to the rule; one "does not decide" feedback line; a bank fast-or-slowly item re-asked as four happenings; Otis's claim-reason options cut to single statements; two silly distractors on Omar's; the two-difference card's key cut to the distractors' length; a staging imperative in L01 ("Now look at the whole globe"); "temperate zone" said in L03; an empty chip now a question mark; L01 and L06 trimmed. Left as built, with reasons: the four coinings in L01, "elevation" coined, "milder" uncoined, the article lengths, the polar-zone reuse hit, the thin polar caps on the globe, the shared table drawer's sizing at phone width (Topic 18's drawer, outside this topic), and an unused Alaska table in the figure module. Keys unchanged; every gate at its stated result; bundle re-cut to blind/2026-10-08-reviewed (122 MCQ, 9 typed, 2 written; 133 held); batch rebuilt and checked, not sent.
The blind read (two cold readers)
Two cold readers read the re-cut bundle (133 items) and agreed with every key: 0 MCQ disagreements, every typed answer matched. Their nine text flags were applied in the adjudication (no key moved): a typed scaffold cut; a table that printed the temperatures it asked for; one option re-worded as its numbers; the two bank claims in the course's majority form; "the climate zone it is in" as the fourth cause; Cusco against Quillabamba so elevation is the only difference; the Half Moon Bay card's latitudes made identical; the bare-adjective typed answers already steered by feedback; the four bank typed items re-scened away from their practice twins. The re-read of the fourteen changed ids is on blind/2026-10-08-adjudicated (CHANGED_IDS.md, ids only).
The bank, in brief
51 items in content/G5T15_pp100_bank.py: 47 four-option MCQs and four typed terms (tropical zone, polar zone, equator, latitude). Per atom: EAR5-017 9 · EAR5-018 8 · EAR5-015 9 · EAR5-019 9 · EAR5-020 7 · EAR5-016 9. Easy 15, medium 23, hard 13, sorted easy to hard and rising with the atom's place. MCQ keys A 17 · B 12 · C 10 · D 8. Thirteen question types, one exemplar each on the type sheet: the two things that describe a zone; a described place to its zone; a zone to its description; the equator, latitude and the scale's ends; nearer or farther from the equator on a drawn table or globe; hotter or colder from latitudes; the distance to the Sun and the tilted lamp; elevation items with drawn tables and the drawn mountain; milder, the coast town among three, why the coast is cooler, the ocean's slow cooling, a great lake; the pair card to its climate-maker; the two-difference card, two towns alike, a high city on the equator, two winters at one latitude, three places matched to their highs; the typed terms; the two documented beliefs judged by their correct reason; two chained-ideas items. Every scene is fresh against the lessons, the quizzes and the practice (the scene grep is in the build record and was re-run after the two re-scenes).
The records, in full
The review record (8 October 2026)
See REVIEW_G5T15_2026-10-08.md beside this file: the Role B checklist, the 39-row findings table with verdicts and what was done, the review-questions set-level reads, the accuracy summary with its deliberately-omitted list, the gates after the fix pass, and the changed ids.
The build record (v1, with the review's pointer section)
See BUILD_RECORD_G5T15.md beside this file: the structural decisions in place of a blueprint, the design-check-sequence records, the key strings, the example sequences, the rules applied, the misconceptions used and the beliefs not stated, the checker results with every WARN answered, the bank freshness and blind-text greps, the figure self-check, the judgement calls, and what is owed.
Done: none open.