In this activity, students explore factors that have caused the rise in global temperature over the last century. Educators have the opportunity to assess how modeling activities (the game), analogies (the cake), and mathematical models (graphs) develop and change student mental models.

In this multi-part activity, students distinguish between adaptation and mitigation, in response to climate change, and research and discuss/debate strategies to minimize the effects of climate change.

Infrastructures for energy, water, transport, information and communications services create the conditions for livability and economic development. They are the backbone of our society. Similar to our arteries and neural systems that sustain our human bodies, most people however take infrastructures for granted. That is, until they break down or service levels go down.

In many countries around the globe infrastructures are ageing. They require substantial investments to meet the challenges of increasing population, urbanization, resource scarcity, congestion, pollution, and so on. Infrastructures are vulnerable to extreme weather events, and therewith to climate change.
Technological innovations, such as new technologies to harvest renewable energy, are one part of the solution. The other part comes from infrastructure restructuring. Market design and regulation, for example, have a high impact on the functioning and performance of infrastructures.

In this video segment adapted from NOVA scienceNOW, MIT engineer Dava Newman is working to replace today's bulky, inflated space suits with a radical, sleek design that may one day allow astronauts to walk easily on Mars.

Observe the Nisqually Glacier at Mount Rainier in this video segment from NatureScene.

This resource is a video abstract of a research paper created by Research Square on behalf of its authors. It provides a synopsis that's easy to understand, and can be used to introduce the topics it covers to students, researchers, and the general public. The video's transcript is also provided in full, with a portion provided below for preview:

"Human activity is driving an increase in the amount of atmospheric reactive nitrogen. California grassland growth is typically limited by the amount of available nitrogen. Thus, more available nitrogen leads to more plant biomass, which means more carbon is deposited in the soil. Both the increase in nitrogen itself and the increase in carbon affect soil microbes. To better understand these impacts, a recent study examined microbial metabolic functioning in experimental grassland plots in California. These plots had been maintained for 14 years with increased nitrogen deposition mimicking the predicted levels for the end of the 21st century. This increased deposition led to an increased abundance of fast-growing bacterial species, as well as an increased capacity to use easily accessible, or labile, carbon sources. In contrast, the community's capacity to degrade recalcitrant carbon sources was unchanged or even decreased by elevated nitrogen..."

The rest of the transcript, along with a link to the research itself, is available on the resource itself.

In this podcast, learn how to address climate misconceptions and avoid the fear of climate change by using activities that inspire and empower students.

SYNOPSIS: In this final lesson in the air quality unit, students learn about vehicle idling, gather and interpret data, and take action at their school.

SCIENTIST NOTES: This lesson introduces students to car idling. Then students research about it and design a program to include posters, bumper stickers, and school campaigns to raise awareness about car idling and its impact on air quality and the environment. All materials embedded in the lesson are thoroughly sourced. Accordingly, this lesson is recommended for classroom use.

POSITIVES:
-This lesson provides students with a concrete action plan to reduce emissions and improve health at their school.
-This lesson plan could create terrific climate and health conversations at home for many students and their families.

ADDITIONAL PREREQUISITES:
-This lesson plan is listed as 90 minutes. This lesson may take less or more time depending on many factors, including the best time to observe vehicles at or near your school.
-If students are adamant about launching a full-fledged No Idling Campaign at their school, this lesson could become a class project that takes weeks, months, or even the entire school year.
-If your students choose to launch a full campaign, make sure to support them in their interactions with different stakeholders at school like teachers, administration, families, and bus drivers. Make sure to let the students take the lead.
-Make sure to remind students that walking and biking are zero carbon options. Perhaps the best outcome of this lesson is not fewer idling cars, but fewer overall cars.

DIFFERENTIATION:
-Students are given three choices in the Inspire phase of this lesson: design a poster, create a bumper sticker, or launch a No Idling Campaign. Some students may want to pursue the schoolwide campaign while others may not. Perhaps you can form a smaller group of students to take this on if all the students are not interested.
-It may be difficult for students to arrive early or depart late from school depending on family circumstances.
-There may not be a good spot for you to observe vehicles at your school. If that's the case, perhaps you can walk with your students to a nearby intersection to observe traffic there.

Non-significant results are less likely to be reported by authors and, when submitted for peer review, are less likely to be published by journal editors. This phenomenon, known collectively as publication bias, is seen in a variety of scientific disciplines and can erode public trust in the scientific method and the validity of scientific theories. Public trust in science is especially important for fields like climate change science, where scientific consensus can influence state policies on a global scale, including strategies for industrial and agricultural management and development. Here, we used meta-analysis to test for biases in the statistical results of climate change articles, including 1154 experimental results from a sample of 120 articles. Funnel plots revealed no evidence of publication bias given no pattern of non-significant results being under-reported, even at low sample sizes. However, we discovered three other types of systematic bias relating to writing style, the relative prestige of journals, and the apparent rise in popularity of this field: First, the magnitude of statistical effects was significantly larger in the abstract than the main body of articles. Second, the difference in effect sizes in abstracts versus main body of articles was especially pronounced in journals with high impact factors. Finally, the number of published articles about climate change and the magnitude of effect sizes therein both increased within 2 years of the seminal report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change 2007.

Hands-on outdoor lesson plan for students to understand the meaning and components of climate change, and engineer and model how greenhouse gases cause heat trapping.

This activity develops students' understanding of climate by having them make in-depth examinations of historical climate patterns using both graphical and map image formats rather than presenting a general definition of climate. Students explore local climate in order to inform a pen pal what type of weather to expect during an upcoming visit. Students generate and explore a variety of graphs, charts, and map images and interpret them to develop an understanding of climate.

Lesson plan to explore how snow crystals form, atmospheric conditions that influence crystal morphology. Makes connections crystals, snow density and water content

In this short video segment Native Americans talk about climate change and how it impacts their lives as they experience unexpected changes in environmental conditions. They describe observed changes in seasonality, how these changes affect ecosystems and habitats, their respect for Mother Earth, and the participation of tribal colleges in climate change research projects.

An investigation of changes in polar regions using Google Earth.

(Note: this resource was added to OER Commons as part of a batch upload of over 2,200 records. If you notice an issue with the quality of the metadata, please let us know by using the 'report' button and we will flag it for consideration.)

In this activity, students use Google Earth and information from several websites to investigate some of the consequences of climate change in polar regions, including the shrinking of the ice cap at the North Pole, disintegration of ice shelves, melting of Greenland, opening of shipping routes, effects on polar bears, and possible secondary effects on climate in other regions due to changes in ocean currents. Students learn to use satellite and aerial imagery, maps, graphs, and statistics to interpret trends accompanying changes in the Earth system.

In this lesson, students will investigate the question, what is the effect of climate on glacial landscape processes? Students will be guided through understanding how climate factors, such as temperature and precipitation, affect the growth or depletion of glaciers using the online resource Climate Reanalyzer. Students will then investigate how glaciers influence topography by studying a variety of glacial landforms, and then connecting these landforms to the Indiana landscape through an ArcGIS storyboard.
After understanding how glaciers influenced Indiana directly, students will study the formation of Lake Michigan, and how the Last Glacial Maximum influenced the creation of the Grand Kankakee Marsh. Students will look at the distribution of sediment deposited by glaciers in Indiana with the online resource Soil Explorer to better understand the lasting glacial impact on the area, relating it to industry and human interaction. With knowledge of glacial influence and landscape features, students will apply the formations to the area they are living in by independently researching specific glacial history and creating a Google Earth tour of their area. At the end of this lesson, students will be asked to draw conclusions on how the future of glaciers and the global landscape will be affected by climate change.

(Note: this resource was added to OER Commons as part of a batch upload of over 2,200 records. If you notice an issue with the quality of the metadata, please let us know by using the 'report' button and we will flag it for consideration.)

In this lesson, students learn about plastic pollution and write a letter to a local official advocating for a solution to plastic pollution.

Step 1 - Inquire: Students complete the Anticipation Guide individually or in groups, responding to true or false prompts and answering one question about plastic pollution and the Great Pacific Garbage Patch.

Step 2 - Investigate: Students conduct research on plastic pollution and the Great Pacific Garbage Patch and complete the RACES writing organizer.

Step 3 - Inspire: Students write a letter to a local official advocating for action on plastic pollution.

SYNOPSIS: In this lesson, students learn about plastic pollution and write a letter to a local official advocating for a solution to plastic pollution.

SCIENTIST NOTES: The impact of plastic pollution and how it ends up in the ocean is underscored in this lesson. The video, accompanying materials, and class activity will spur students to engage in ocean clean-up exercises and advocate for responsible consumption and bans for single-use plastic. All the materials in the lesson are well-cited, and this lesson has passed our science credibility process.

POSITIVES:
-This lesson empowers students to take concrete action by contacting a local official advocating for immediate action on plastic pollution.
-This lesson may debunk some myths about plastic pollution, including the importance of plastic straws in global plastic pollution.

ADDITIONAL PREREQUISITES:
-It is important for students to understand the global context of plastic recycling. Only 9% of global plastic is recycled. The rest is mismanaged, landfilled, or incinerated.
-It is also important for students to understand that more than half of oceanic plastic pollution is made up of discarded fishing gear. While much emphasis is placed on individual behavior change (e.g., replacing plastic bags with canvas bags, carrying a reusable water bottle, etc.), one can argue that the best individual action you can take is to reduce or eliminate seafood consumption. This would decrease fishing in the oceans and the amount of discarded fishing gear dumped in the ocean.
-Students may find the answers to only some of the true/false questions on the Anticipation Guide by the time you reveal the answers at the end of the Investigate section. That is OK. You can still reveal the answers and move on.
-When students are drafting their letters to local officials, make sure they know that Oregon's single-use plastic bag ban went into effect on January 1, 2020. There is no need to advocate for banning single-use plastic bags, as that is already the law in Oregon.

DIFFERENTIATION:
-Some of the suggested resources in the Investigate section are more complex and might be better for higher-level students. These include Our World in Data’s Plastic Pollution website, the video titled How Much Plastic Is in the Ocean?, and the video titled Trash Island: Is It a Myth?
-When revealing the answers to the Anticipation Guide, you may have students tally their correct answers. The student with the most correct answers from the beginning of the lesson can be declared the winner.
-One possible extension is for students to draw a simple map of their local waterway and its path to the Pacific Ocean. Students can include a paragraph about how trash travels in waterways and describe a land-based solution to help prevent trash from entering waterways.
-There are ways to extend or adapt the Inspire section of this lesson. Here are some suggestions:
-Students can mail or hand-deliver their letters to local officials.
-Students can deliver a speech at a local government event (e.g., a city council meeting) advocating for more action on plastic pollution.
-Students can write letters to state or federal officials instead of local officials.
-Students can advocate for systemic change in their schools. Ideas include banning some or all single-use plastic packaging in the cafeteria, removing vending machines from school that sell beverages in single-use bottles, or changing school policies regarding birthdays or holidays such as Halloween or Valentine’s Day (e.g., banning single-use plastic candy, banning cheap plastic toys, banning balloons, etc.).
-Students can educate teachers or students in other grades about the problem of plastic pollution through speeches or posters displayed in common spaces throughout the school.

SYNOPSIS: In this lesson, students make personal connections to fire, understand how climate change is making wildfires worse in Oregon and across the globe, and create a wildfire solution presentation to promote a prevention or preparation strategy.

SCIENTIST NOTES: This lesson allows students to learn about the causes of wildfire and how they are induced by climate change. It also highlights locations at risk to wildfires in Oregon and ways students can develop tactics to promote effective management of wildfire events. The archival data on wildfires will enable them to interpret wildfire hotspots for contingency planning. This lesson is very engaging and is recommended for classroom use.

POSITIVES:
-This lesson can be taught in a language arts class or a science class.
-Students make a personal connection to fire before learning about climate change’s impact on wildfires.
-Students promote a prevention or preparation strategy to share with their class, school, or community.

ADDITIONAL PREREQUISITES:
-It would be helpful for students to have some background knowledge of what makes fire burn. The resources Heat and Fuel and Oxygen can provide more context for students.
-The data in the sortable table titled, Oregon Biggest Fires, comes from this article. You can access the data by clicking, “Download the data.”

DIFFERENTIATION:
-If teachers want to provide more context on active fires in Oregon, this map provides up-to-date information.
-This video can provide additional information and also serve as inspiration for students to create their own presentations.

In this activity, students investigate the shifting of three penguin communities in response to climate change.