In this activity students make biodiesel from waste vegetable oil and develop a presentation based on their lab experience. Parts of the activity include creation of bio-diesel from clean vegetable oil, creation of bio-diesel from waste vegetable oil, chemical analysis of biodiesel, purification of biodiesel, and creation of soap from glycerin.

DASHlink is a virtual laboratory for scientists and engineers to disseminate results and collaborate on research problems in health management technologies for aeronautics systems. Managed by the Integrated Vehicle Health Management project within NASA's Aviation Safety program, the Web site is designed to be a resource for anyone interested in data mining, IVHM, aeronautics and NASA.

This visualization tool shows sea ice data from 1978 to the present. Selected data can be animated to show changes in sea ice extent over time. Data is added by the National Snow and Ice Data Center as it becomes available.

Students research electricity, its sources, how energy grids function, how to make grids most efficient, and how to bring different types of energy generation together to diversify grids. Students debate the costs and benefits of moving to a modernized Smart Grid.

This humorous short video uses the 'single-cause fallacy' to debunk the myth that current changes in the Earth's climate are a result of natural phenomenon. The video is one of several in the 'Cranky Uncle' series.

This video illustrates the Keeling curve as evidence to establish man's role in global climate change.

This 10 minute video builds connections between topics that are important in climate science such as: the impact of variations in Earth's orbit and wobble on it's axis on climate; how the cores being sampled fit into the bigger climate picture; connecting greenhouse gases to melting ice and sea level changes; the sensitivity of the ice melt / sea level rise relationship; and computer model simulations showing connections between ice sheets and sea level.
The companion website provides resources, an extensive list of activities, teacher guides, posters, and more.

SYNOPSIS: In this lesson, students learn about deforestation and climate change and respond by writing an ode or an elegy.

SCIENTIST NOTES: This lesson empowers students to understand what deforestation entails and how they can write poems to express their feelings of grief, respect, emotion, and valor in combating deforestation in their community. All materials used in the lesson have been verified and are suitable for teaching. In this light, this lesson is credible and recommended for the classroom.

POSITIVES:
-This lesson can be used as a standalone or as a lesson in a poetry unit.
-Students are given voice and choice.
-Students create their own poetic response to a real-world challenge.

ADDITIONAL PREREQUISITES:
-Students should have some basic understanding of poetry.
-Students should have a basic understanding of deforestation and its connection to climate change.

DIFFERENTIATION:
-This lesson is easily adaptable to Advanced Placement or honors level classes by including other literary and language elements in the poems such as juxtaposition, oxymoron, consonance, assonance, enjambment, alliteration, and personification.
-Students can write each stanza in a different meter or rhyme. Examples include iambic pentameter or ABBA rhyme scheme.
-Teachers can split the lesson in two and focus on an ode in the first lesson and an elegy in the second.
-Students can write both an ode and an elegy and compare the differences in writing, tone, and overall effect.
-Social studies, civics, and economics classes can extend this topic to social justice, socioeconomic class, and cultural impacts of deforestation within each specific region.
-Student poems can be shared outside of the classroom in the school newspaper or a community newsletter, on a class or teacher website, on school display boards, or in extracurricular poetry or environmental clubs.

This NASA animation on land cover change zooms into Rondonia, Brazil. It starts with a Landsat satellite image taken in 1975 and dissolves into a second image of the same region taken in 2009 that illustrates a significant amount of land use change.

In this activity, students are introduced to tree rings by examining a cross section of a tree, also known as a 'tree cookie.' They discover how tree age can be determined by studying the rings and how ring thickness can be used to deduce times of optimal growing conditions. Next, they investigate simulated tree rings applying the scientific method to explore how climatic conditions varied over time.

SYNOPSIS: In this lesson, students explore different methods of desalination.

SCIENTIST NOTES: This lesson teaches students about potable water scarcity and then explores desalination as a possible solution in water-stressed areas. Desalination technologies are introduced, and energy and environmental costs of desalination are discussed. A video resource explores a novel desalination technology, the Solar Dome, being built in Saudi Arabia. Students are tasked with designing and building their own solar still, and opportunity is given for design optimization. This lesson is recommended for teaching.

POSITIVES:
-This lesson can be multidisciplinary and can be completed in engineering, computer science, digital art, English or science classes.
-Students and teachers are given voice and multiple areas of choice in this lesson.
-Students become agents of change in their own communities, identifying problems and solutions.
-Students and teachers can make this conceptual, practical, or hands-on.
-This lesson can be spread out over several days and be considered a mini-unit.

ADDITIONAL PREREQUISITES:
-Students should be familiar with the basics of climate change.
-Students should be familiar with the basic scientific concepts of osmosis.
-Students should be familiar with basic engineering concepts like scaling and design.

DIFFERENTIATION:
-Students can work independently or in a group with adjusted requirements.
-Teachers can use subject and grade level vocabulary already being worked on or learned in class. Teachers can add vocabulary words in the glossary slide of the Teacher Slideshow.
-To further develop practical science or engineering skills, students can work together to create and implement a workable desalination solution at the school, home, or community level. Students can lead a workshop for family, an environmental club, or the community.
-Some students may wish to communicate their advocacy via social media. Make sure to follow all school rules and monitor students’ progress if you allow this in the classroom.

This multi-part activity introduces users to normal seasonal sea surface temperature (SST) variation as well as extreme variation, as in the case of El NiÃo and La NiÃa events, in the equatorial Pacific Ocean. Via a THREDDS server, users learn how to download seasonal SST data for the years 1982 to 1998. Using a geographic information system (GIS), they visualize and analyze that data, looking for the tell-tale SST signature of El NiÃo and La NiÃa events that occurred during that time period. At the end, students analyze a season of their own choosing to determine if an El NiÃo or La NiÃa SST pattern emerged in that year's data.

Learning how to develop a sequence of lessons based on an inquiry-based learning from the first lesson to the last.

This activity engages students with the concept of Direct Air Capture. Students watch an engaging film, participate in a reading and writing activity, and then model carbon dioxide adsorption/desorption in an exciting lab.

In this unit, students will analyze how climate change affects migration around the world and the policies that could be effective in addressing the issue. To start, students will investigate what motivates people to move in general. Then students will read “The Great Climate Migration” by Abrahm Lustgarten and Meridith Kohut, where they will be introduced to how climate change may affect migration in the future. Students will then investigate how climate change is impacting migration by reading and presenting about specific scenarios around the globe. Finally, students will begin to research how policy can address climate migration to avoid disastrous outcomes in the future.

This page presents a strategy for addressing a common climate misconception in the classroom, derived from The Debunking Handbook, by John Cook and Stephan Lewandowsky. This material was created by faculty as part of the CLEAN Climate Communications Workshop, held in April, 2012.

A collection of repeat photography of glaciers from the National Snow and Ice Data Center (NSIDC). The photos are taken years apart at or near the same location, and at the same time of year. These images illustrate how dramatically glacier positions can change even over a relatively short period in geological time: 60 to 100 years. Background essay and discussion questions are included.

This video provides a good introduction to the field of attribution science. Beginning with an introduction to weather and climate, it describes how severe weather might be linked to climate change and the science behind attribution studies. It gives a good explanation behind how scientists use climate models to study whether severe weather events were influenced by climate change. It also discusses the question, "does climate change cause extreme weather?" and provides an introduction to the concepts of probability, causation, and correlation in regards to attribution science (how much climate change influenced an event verses normal variations in weather).

This resource has students role-play an Indigenous climate summit. It includes handouts about each Indigenous group and their concerns about climate change.

This page presents a strategy for addressing a common climate misconception in the classroom, derived from The Debunking Handbook, by John Cook and Stephan Lewandowsky. This material was created by faculty as part of the CLEAN Climate Communications Workshop, held in April, 2012.