Students analyze and interpret graphs to compare the flow of shortwave energy from the Sun toward China over the course of a year on cloudy versus clear days.

This animated video describes the difference between weather and climate in a fun and engaging way. It provides a brief overview of both topics and covers common misconceptions and logical fallacies about climate and weather differences.

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:

"Adaptability gives species an edge in surviving environmental changes both big and small But how different species adapt together isn’t always clear For instance, how do predator and prey adjust their interactive behavior in the face of climate change? A new predator-prey model provides some clues Researchers looked at how tweaks to offensive and defensive strategies affected predator-prey populations under two types of disturbances -- Short-term perturbations, such as extreme weather events And permanent perturbations, such as climate change They found that fast adaptation can hold population dynamics steady against these disturbances But in some cases, adaptation can worsen the effects of perturbations This finding suggests that understanding perturbation type, target, and strength matters -- Strengthening the need for tailored approaches to ecosystem management in changing environments Raatz et al..."

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

Has your attention recently been caught by news of coastal catastrophes such as hurricanes and tsunamis? Do you wonder why so many coastal communities in the world are vulnerable to flooding and other coastal hazards? Have you considered what coastal flood protections cities like Houston and Miami will need in the future to protect their residents? This course will provide a better understanding of these phenomena. We present a global perspective of coastal landscapes, the geologic processes responsible for their formation, and ways that society responds to hazards like sea level rise and catastrophic weather events. You will participate in active learning exercises such as analyzing real-world datasets and applying critical thinking to real-world societal problems while investigating a coastal community.

Climographs, graphic plots of monthly temperature and precipitation, allow students to see how differences in insolation at various locations affect rates of heating and cooling. In this activity, students use climographs to plot locations using latitude and longitude, calculate annual temperature ranges, and relate unequal rates of heating and cooling to climate variations. They will also construct climographs for two locations in New York, analyze them, and answer questions about their observations.

OASIS3-MCT is a coupling library that can be used to exchange information between codes modelling the different components of the Earth System, for example the ocean and the atmosphere. In this training, consisting of a series of videos, you will learn how to use OASIS3-MCT to set up a coupled model exchanging coupling fields. This material is based on a SPOC (Short Private Online Course) developed in the framework of the ESiWACE CoE. It is fully valid for OASIS3-MCT_5.0 and previous versions. To gain full knowledge on how to build a coupled model with OASIS3-MCT, we strongly encourage you to follow the SPOC in addition to your visit to the current OER pages. For questions, please contact oasishelp@cerfacs.fr

This professional development article identifies resources that show young learners (K-grade 5) how scientists study Earth's climate and make predictions. The online lessons either allow students to collect and analyze data or learn about tools and technologies that make data collection possible. The lessons are aligned with national content standards for science education. The article appears in the free, online magazine Beyond Weather and the Water Cycle, which examines the recognized essential principles of climate literacy and the climate sciences for elementary teachers and their students.

Climate change poses a threat to the traditional livelihoods and the sustainably managed forestlands of the Menominee Nation. However, climate change also presents an opportunity—a chance to apply indigenous knowledge to adapt and sustain native communities, and for the Menominee Nation to share its understandings with others seeking to address this global issue. 

This visualization shows the molecular interaction of infrared radiation with various gases in the atmosphere. Focus is on the interaction with C02 molecules and resultant warming of the troposphere.

This activity addresses climate change impacts that affect all states that are part of the Colorado River Basin and are dependent on its water. Students examine available data, the possible consequences of changes to various user groups, and suggest solutions to adapt to these changes.

This video highlights a variety of climate change research initiatives from scientists at the University of Colorado, Boulder. It describes the changing dynamics of Antarctic ice sheets and the impacts of reduced Arctic sea ice. The video illustrates the excitement of this research through interviews and video clips of scientists in the field.

This video features CU Boulder Professor Jeff Mitton and his research team, who study the effects of mountain pine beetle infestations on the forest ecology in the Rocky Mountains. They explain the pine beetle life cycle and how they attack trees. An outlook into the future is also provided.

This trip followed the Columbia River across the basalt flows of the Columbia Plateau through the Columbia Gorge that bisects the Cascade Range and then turned south along Oregons spectacular coastline. The opportunities to integrate biology and geologic processes were limited only by time as students explored the plant and animal life of rocky and sandy beaches dune fields and coastal forests. The southernmost portion of the trip extended from Crescent City, CA (site of the 1964 tsunami) through the Klamath Mountains on the Oregon/California boundary one of the most geologically dynamic landscapes in North America. The tectonic history of the region with its resulting shifts in climate patterns and merging of previously isolated land forms along with an unusual abundance of ultramafic rocks have driven the evolution of one of the most diverse floras in North American populations of carnivorous Darlingtonia (Pitcher plants) provided a dramatic example of the unusually large number of plant species endemic to the serpentine soils of this region.

(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.)

An attractive concept/mind map that illustrates various human strategies for responding to climate change. It was developed by a psychologist and not by an educator or scientist but can be used to inspire discussion and artistic representations of the human dimension to climate and energy issues.

This article lists common misconceptions about weather, climate change, and the polar regions. It provides formative assessment probes and information about teaching for conceptual change.

In this activity, students use climate data to develop a simple graph of how climate has changed over time and then present the result in a blog, emphasizing effective science communication.

This activity explores how the topic of climate change is represented in various forms of writing, from scholarly articles to opinion pieces and works of fiction. While the content does not emphasize climate science itself, it instead allows students to focus on how the science is being portrayed.

This Professional Development course sets up teachers and students to use the perimeter of their school to inquire about and monitor air quality as well as learn about emissions and activism in their community.Did you know idling cars during school pickup impacts air quality and the environment? Learn how to use an easy-to-implement action project to motivate and empower your students. Your students will build an understanding of how air pollution impacts their community and the climate and learn what community members are doing about it. They will then work together to map their findings, develop an action plan and share what they have learned.Learn how the Next Generation Science Standards Engineering Design Process and Social Studies standards can be an integral part of students working on real-world problems.Explore the social-emotional side of climate change and how direct action can foster resilience and environmental justice.Collaborate with teachers from across the region to have a collective impact on air quality and the environment.#climate science #islandwood (already searchable on text)

This genomics education lesson plan was formulated and tested on some year 6 students with the help of their teacher Michelle Pardini at the Hong Kong ICS School. Using the example of the ongoing citizen science Bahinia Genome project from Hong Kong it hopes to serve as a model to inspire and inform other national genome projects, and aid the development of crucial genomic literacy and skills across the globe. Inspiring and training a new generation of scientists to use these tools to tackle the biggest threats to mankind: climate change, disease, and food security. It is released under a CC-BY SA 4.0 license, and utilised the following slide deck and final quiz. Promoting open science, all of the data and resources produced from the project is immediately put into the public domain. Please feel free to utilise, adapt and build upon any of these as you wish. The open licence makes these open education resources usable just with attribution and posting of modified resources under a similar manner. Contact BauhiniaGenome if you have any questions or feedback.Bauhinia Genome overviewFor a slidedeck for the lesson plan laid out here you can use the set in slideshare here.

This reader is an Open Educational Resource, meant to accompany a graduate or higher-level undergraduate university course in climate change resilience, adaptation, and/or planning. While the material is geared toward students in urban and regional planning, it may also be of interest to students of urban studies, public health, geography, political science, sociology, risk management, and others.