In this activity, students analyze data maps of sea surface temperature anomalies for a 14-year interval and create an ENSO time line in a case study format. Based on their findings, students determine the recurrence interval of the ENSO system.

What happens when light from the Sun shines on the Earth?

Short Description:
This course is intended for prospective and practicing elementary and middle school teachers. By exploring physical phenomena in class, you will learn science in ways in which you are expected to teach science in schools or in informal settings such as afterschool programs, youth group meetings, and museum workshops. This course also is appropriate for general science students and others interested in exploring some of the physical phenomena underlying global climate change. Data dashboard

Word Count: 178063

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This 4-H project book includes a series of eight activities, focused on polar science, that youth can complete with an parent or mentor. Each activity includes a hands-on component and options for communication. The activities featured are appropriate for use outside of 4-H, for instance in science classrooms, with after school programs, or during enrichment camps. Each activity includes links to supplemental materials to extend learning.

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This teaching activity addresses regional variability as predicted in climate change models for the next century. Using real climatological data from climate models, students will obtain annual predictions for minimum temperature, maximum temperature, precipitation, and solar radiation for Minnesota and California to explore this regional variability. Students import the data into a spreadsheet application and analyze it to interpret regional differences. Finally, students download data for their state and compare them with other states to answer a series of questions about regional differences in climate change.

Student teams formulate and complete space/earth/ocean exploration-based design projects with weekly milestones. This course introduces core engineering themes, principles, and modes of thinking, and includes exercises in written and oral communication and team building. Specialized learning modules enable teams to focus on the knowledge required to complete their projects, such as machine elements, electronics, design process, visualization and communication. Examples of projects include surveying a lake for millfoil from a remote controlled aircraft, then sending out robotic harvesters to clear the invasive growth; and exploration to search for the evidence of life on a moon of Jupiter, with scientists participating through teleoperation and supervisory control of robots.

The students will come into this activity with no or very little knowledge of snow. They will divide into groups, each group receiving the first list of questions (on Rite-in-Rain paper). The questions help guide them through their inquiry and are divided into groups: A) initial observations, B) measurement and detailed observations, and C) inferences and hypotheses. They dig a snow pit to the ground (typically < 2ft).

Part A, they study the layered structure, the texture of different layers, the color (presence of sediment?), initially using basic sketching. Then they decide what aspects are worth measuring in further detail (such as thickness of layers, hardness of layer, density of layers, size of crystals) and come up with a plan.

Part B, they are allowed to begin making their measurements and they are given guiding questions, such as what are the errors in these measurements? How many measurements is sufficient to describe the characteristic you are describing?

Part C is primarily brainstorming ideas and hypotheses among their group, and they can return inside if they choose. They are asked consider the role that snow plays on the landscape. How does the snow affect the ground underneath it? Would that role be different at the coldest part of winter than during the spring melt? Does snow affect the air above it? How might snow play a role in the large climate system?

Oral Synthesis: after completing Part C, each group is given a different overarching question, they must use what they have learned and their ideas to give a 4-5 minute oral synthesis to the class.

This activity is meant to give them new insights into a common geologic material and to recognize the linkages between the atmosphere above the ground and the geology and ecosystem below.

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How do soils develop over time? Perhaps the best place to learn is a across a chrosequence of deposits that span a wide range in age (and appearance). If we can identify parent material and measure its chemical composition, it can be used as a benchmark for comparison with the chemical composition of soils that were formed from it. This enables us to quantify the degree of chemical depletion. In general we expect older soils to be more depleted, all else equal. But older soils might also be subject to greater physical erosion, in addition to chemical weathering. This complicates the assessment of soil development because the eroded material is no longer present.

Students are presented with two alternate hypotheses about the soils/deposits they visit:
a) the material has been weathering w/ little physical erosion since it was deposited
b) the material has been weathering and eroding since it was deposited
These hypotheses are developed in lectures before the activity and are based on principles of conservation of mass.

During their site visit, students coarsely characterize topography (@2 -- 5 m scale) for several "representative" cross sections. If time is limited this step could be done remotely (e.g., with topo maps and Google earth).

Students assess and discuss evidence for erosional (and depositional) processes since the deposits were created. They look for broad topographic signatures and measure (for example) the spatial density and material volume of tree throw and animal burrowing mounds, if present.

Students also assess and discuss evidence for in-situ weathering (e.g., development of rinds, soil texture, and mineral alteration). The idea is to train their eyes to observe and key in on any site-to-site differences.

Students dig (and discover!) at select sites. They sample soils at regular intervals from pits (with discussion of merits of different sampling approaches e.g., random vs. stratified random). Students discuss relationships in excavated pits.

A jigsaw approach would be an effective way to tackle the large number of field tasks outlined here.

Back in the lab, using literature values, students estimate weathering rates for each deposit. They compare their estimates with back-of-the-envelop estimates for physical erosion rates (based on tree throw/animal burrowing density) and literature values of diffusivity (which can be coupled with curvature measurements).

The instructor promotes discussion of the implications of differences in residence time on weathering rate estimates.

Students analyze samples by XRF; depending on the course's time constraints students are provided with geochemical data from previous year's field effort or other existing data (in this case Taylor and Blum, 1995).

Students are asked to prepare a final report focusing on the following questions: Are soils products of erosion and weathering, or are they being formed in place by weathering alone? Under what circumstances can we expect erosion to dominate over weathering and visa versa? Students first prepare figures and then use them to develop an an outline (reviewed by the instructor) for their report. Students prepare a draft and engage in peer review (one review each). Students revise their reports, based on the peer review comments, and submit their final report.
Designed for a geomorphology course

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The goal of this laboratory is to help students understand that burning fossil fuels, which results in an increase in the acidity of ocean waters, has a detrimental impact on marine life (specifically coral but also other organisms that have calcium carbonate based shells).

(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.)

Students evaluate the energy sources used to generate electricity in their state, then consider ways in which their energy infrastructure is vulnerable to extreme weather and rising sea level. Students then consider ways that their local energy grid can be made more resilient.

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:

"Africa contains some of the most species-rich regions in the world. The tropical zone of this continent, for example, harbors the second largest extent of rain forest after the Amazon basin. However, tropical Africa is in the midst of major ecological shifts in response to human pressure and global climate change. Unfortunately, an incomplete understanding of plant diversity in this fragile region may hinder conservation efforts. In an attempt to remedy this, an international team of scientists created the RAINBIO database, a compilation of data gathered from the vast worldwide network of herbaria – or libraries of dried plant specimens. The researchers analyzed over 600,000 specimens for collecting date, geographic occurrence, and growth form (think: trees, herbs, and vines). The results provide an important perspective on plant species richness across the African tropics. For example, Cameroon, Tanzania, and the Democratic Republic of Congo are estimated to be the most species-rich countries..."

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

This is a short activity that uses Google Earth to explore sea-level change as measured by tidal gauges around the world

This activity introduces students to the Arctic and Arctic climate. Through a virtual exploration of the geography of the Arctic students become familiar with the region. They are then introduced to meteorological parameters that Arctic research teams use.

In this activity, students examine global climate model output and consider the potential impact of global warming on tropical cyclone initiation and evolution. As a follow-up, students read two short articles on the connection between hurricanes and global warming and discuss these articles in context of what they have learned from model output.

In this lesson, students will learn about the water cycle and how energy from the sun and the force of gravity drive this cycle.

Climate change and environmental justice class activity. Designed for students to understand the justice issues surrounding climate change on a global and domestic level.

Why do some organisms go extinct? What impact do humans play in the extinction of animals? What can we do about it? If something is extinct is it truly gone forever? These are some of the major questions that conservation biologists are currently asking. Extinction is when a species no longer has any living members in the wild or in captivity. Extinction can happen for a number of reasons including habitat loss, overhunting, and climate change. Mass extinction is widespread extinction across many species. Right now, we are experiencing the sixth mass extinction event on Earth and it has been primarily caused human activity. Conservation biologists have been hard at work coming up with solutions to prevent extinction of organisms at risk, however, extinction still occurs. But does it have to be permanent? This module walks students through the major processes that cause extinction, what strategies conservation has used so far to prevent extinction, what de-extinction is, and what consequences de-extinction may have through the use of videos, research, and a class debate. 

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:

"Managing wastewater is a major logistical puzzle that impacts the environment, the climate, and public health. While metropolitan wastewater typically undergoes complex processing and sanitation, rural livestock wastewater is often simply composted for fertilizer, but composting can release harmful contaminants like ammonia, CO₂, and methane. One way to still capture the nutrients with fewer harmful byproducts is by cultivating microalgae, which actually absorb CO₂ via photosynthesis rather than producing it. But how do microalgae impact pathogens? A recent pilot study using raw piggery wastewater found that microalgae cultivation dramatically reduced the pathogen load while also triggering a dramatic shift in the overall bacterial community composition. Further investigation using the most abundant pathogen, Oligella, found that the microalgae weren’t impacting Oligella directly. Rather, microalgae cultivation reduced Oligella abundance through a network of other bacterial species..."

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

The Extreme Events Game is an in-person role-playing game that allows participants the experience of building community resilience in the face of disaster. Players work together to make decisions and solve problems during a fast-paced disaster simulation.

This short video clip is part of a longer video series titled How Climate Effects Community Health. This clip focuses on human health risks from extreme heat events caused by increasing global temperatures.

In this activity, students investigate how scientists monitor changes in Earth's glaciers, ice caps, and ice sheets. The activity is linked to 2009 PBS Nova program entitled Extreme Ice.