This video segment from 'Earth: The Operators' Manual' explores how we know that today's increased levels of CO2 are caused by humans burning fossil fuels and not by some natural process, such as volcanic out-gassing. Climate scientist Richard Alley provides a detailed step-by-step explanation that examines the physics and chemistry of different "flavors," or isotopes, of carbon in Earth's atmosphere.

The concentration of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere is the focus of this article; the units of measurement (ppm) are explained and the importance of monitoring that number as one of Earth's vital signs is also discussed. This article is part of the Climate Kids website, a NASA education resource featuring articles, videos, images and games focused on the science of climate change.

This lesson covers different aspects of the major greenhouse gases - water vapor, carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxides and CFCs - including some of the ways in which human activities are affecting the atmospheric concentrations of these key greenhouse gases. This is lesson six in a nine-lesson module about climate change.

Spat, What's That? is a lesson on intertidal organism life cycles which explores how different life cycle stages are vulnerable to stressors like predation, ocean acidification, and habitat loss.

This collection of activities is based on a weekly series of space science problems distributed to thousands of teachers during the 2009-2010 school year. They were intended for students looking for additional challenges in the math and physical science curriculum in grades 9 through 12. The problems were created to be authentic glimpses of modern science and engineering issues, often involving actual research data. The problems were designed to be ‘one-pagers’ with a Teacher’s Guide and Answer Key as a second page. This compact form was deemed very popular by participating teachers.

These are full-course openly licensed resources for districts interested in exploring OER options when considering core instructional materials for district adoption. Course materials are available for online viewing or download.

The Third Grade Elementary Framework for Science and Integrated Subjects, Weather, uses the phenomena of extreme weather events.  It is part of Elementary Framework for Science and Integrated Subjects project, a statewide Clime Time collaboration among ESD 123, ESD 105, North Central ESD, and the Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction. Development of the resources is in response to a need for research- based science lessons for elementary teachers that are integrated with English language arts, mathematics and other subjects such as social studies. The template for Elementary Science and Integrated Subjects  can serve as an organized, coherent and research-based roadmap for teachers in the development of their own NGSS aligned science lessons.  Lessons can also be useful for classrooms that have no adopted curriculum as well as to serve as enhancements for  current science curriculum. The EFSIS project brings together grade level teams of teachers to develop lessons or suites of lessons that are 1) pnenomena based, focused on grade level Performance Expectations, and 2) leverage ELA and Mathematics Washington State Learning Standards.

These are skeleton notes to accompany lectures in Physical Science I.Topics covered:Solar SystemRocks and MineralsBuilding Earth's Surface: Folds and FaultsTsunamisThe AtmosphereThe HydrosphereWeatherClimate

In this virtual professional development opportunity designed for teachers, participants will have a chance to authentically engage with activities and experts as they grow their understanding of how climate change has and will impact their community. Teachers analyze and interpret recent climate science data and progress understanding on the most salient climate change indicators in Washington. Additionally, teachers explore the efforts to conserve and protect a local species, its cultural significance and how these efforts are indicative of a greater effort to address climate change. Teachers leave this training with increased preparedness to leverage a local species or climate change impact in their classroom to spur action in their community. Contact EarthGen at info@earthgenwa.org for more information.

Travel with Scripps marine biologist, Dr. Jeffrey Graham, to swamps, jungles, and isolated islands where he probes the world of air breathing fishes and asks the question, why breathe air? (53 minutes)

In this activity, learners use the STELLA box modeling software to determine Earth's temperature based on incoming solar radiation and outgoing terrestrial radiation. Starting with a simple black body model, the exercise gradually adds complexity by incorporating albedo, then a 1-layer atmosphere, then a 2-layer atmosphere, and finally a complex atmosphere with latent and sensible heat fluxes. With each step, students compare the modeled surface temperature to Earth's actual surface temperature, thereby providing a check on how well each increasingly complex model captures the physics of the actual system.

This activity is an overview of basic weather processes, starting incoming with solar radiation and how that establishes basic atmospheric processes.

This class introduces scientific, economic, and ecological issues underlying the threat of global climate change, and the institutions engaged in negotiating an international response. It also develops an integrated approach to analysis of climate change processes, and assessment of proposed policy measures, drawing on research and model development within the MIT Joint Program on the Science and Policy of Global Change.

In this activity, students use datasets from both the Northern and Southern hemispheres to observe seasonal and hemispheric differences in changes to atmospheric C02 release and uptake over time.

This course examines alternative conceptions and theoretical underpinnings of sustainable development. It focuses on the sustainability problems of industrial countries, and of developing states and economies in transition. It also explores the sociology of knowledge regarding sustainability, the economic and technological dimensions, and institutional imperatives, along with implications for political constitution of economic performance.
17.181 fulfills the undergraduate public policy requirement in the Political Science major and minor. Graduate students are expected to explore the subject in greater depth through reading and individual research.

Students use information from Project Drawdown to learn about the sectors where climate solutions are being implemented to help slow down climate warming. Students construct a plan for using specific solutions to reduce and remove the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, and make a claim describing how their plan could work to keep global temperature change below 1.5 ÂC.

In this lesson students will learn about evaporation, fossil fuels, greenhouse gases, and the greenhouse effect. Patterns in nautre are discussed, including what is happening over time and why we should care.

NGSS: 5-ESS2-1, 5-ESS3-1

Time: 55 minutes - 1 hour

Materials: laminated patterns in nature photos (photos included), plastic cups, rulers, Sharpies

This video is part of the Climate Science in a Nutshell video series. This short video looks at the effects of climate change happening right now around the globe, including: more extreme weather events, droughts, forest fires, land use changes, altered ranges of disease-carrying insects, and the loss of some agricultural products. It concludes with a discussion of the differences between weather, climate variability, and climate change.

Graph reading and data analysis are highlighted in this activity where students identify the countries that produce the highest levels of polluting atmospheric emissions. They compare these data with the population of the countries, and describe how the percentage of total emissions and total population numbers are related. The resource includes the graph and a student worksheet. This is an activity from Space Update, a collection of resources and activities provided to teach about Earth and space. Summary background information, data and images supporting the activity are available on the Earth Update data site.

This animation allows students to explore the infrared spectra of greenhouse gases and depict the absorption spectra. Vibrational modes and Earth's energy spectrum can also be overlaid.