The AirData website provides access to air pollution data for the entire United States. Users have the ability to produce reports and maps of air pollution data based on criteria that they specify.
Students will create an animation to represent one of the many feedback loops that influences climate change. To create their animation, students will use clay, cut paper, whiteboard or other materials commonly found in the classroom. They will make a storyboard, plan a narration, rehearse their animation and then film their animation with stop-motion photography.
Students will explore how human population growth, air pollution, agriculture, mining, water use, and other human activities have impacted the environment and the mark they will leave in the fossil record.
This article highlights man-made sources of ozone, that contributes to surface global warming.
Students engage in lessons where they develop some basic background knowledge about climate change drawing on research from scientists around the world. They will begin to develop key ideas that climate change is happening, we can observe it and it is a global problem. Students also begin to understand some of the lines of climate change evidence. More fundamentally, Unit 1 explores the relationship between climate and life, helping students explain the difference between weather and climate.
Black carbon, another name for soot, is shown in this video, and contributes to the melting of sea ice.
This toolkit was designed to support educators in teaching the fundamental scientific concepts of climate change.
Students use online calculators to calculate and compare the amount of CO2 produced by different energy sources in an effort to think about and evaluate a reduction of carbon-based emissions.
This video animates the rise of Carbon Dioxide over the decades.
This activity will allow students to use several web tools to analyze CO2 concentrations from sites around the globe.
In this lesson, students calculate their carbon footprint and then determine how they can reduce it.
In this lesson, students investigate climate change and search for and evaluate evidence of change. Students will then write a scientific argument using evidence and reasoning to support claims. Students will also be able to reflect on the weaknesses in their own arguments in order to improve their argument and then respond to other arguments.
This series of videos, produced by The National Research Council, summarizes the current state of knowledge about climate change and its causes.
This video provides information about the causes and effects of Earth's changing climate, specifically focusing on wildlife populations and the impact global warming has on habitats.
Students read and analyze a topical news article about some aspect of climate change and share their analysis with their classmates.
Students will see how Earth's temperature rises as the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere increases.
This video discusses the impact climate change is having on coral reefs around the world and what we can do to preserve these important and diverse ecosystems. A set of discussion questions and post-viewing activities are provided.
The purpose of this activity is to simulate a method soil scientist use to predict what kinds of rocks, minerals, and sediments are located underground without disturbing a large amount of habitat.Problem:How do scientists study what is underground without messing up a lot of the natural surroundings?
In this problem-based learning (PBL) activity, students take on the role of a student research scientist and explore the role of solar energy in determining climate, focusing on the urban heat island effect. Students conduct research and compare temperatures between two cities, and determine the factors that are responsible for the difference exhibited between them. The lesson is supported by teacher notes, answer key, glossary and an appendix with information about using PBL in the classroom. This is the third of three activities in Investigating the Climate System: Energy, a Balancing Act, and serves as an authentic assessment for all three modules.
Students explore 150+ years of scientific work, an interdisciplinary body of knowledge that contributed to the discovery of global warming. Students will develop a qualitative and quantitative sense about how Earth"™s global mean temperature has changed over the Industrial Era and its relationship global carbon dioxide levels.