Updating search results...

CLEAN: Climate Literacy and Energy Awareness Network

CLEAN: The Climate Literacy and Energy Awareness Network supports educators in building climate literacy as outlined in the U.S. Climate Change Science Program framework, “Essential Principles of Climate Literacy” by providing a collection of educational resources that facilitate learning about climate issues. The CLEAN collection is a free online database of ~1,000 free, peer-reviewed, and ready-to-use educational resources for teaching elementary, middle, high school, and undergraduate students about climate and energy. The collection contains activities, demonstrations, experiments, visualizations, and videos—everything you need to create data-rich and authentic lessons on climate and energy. Climate and energy topics include the climate system, causes of climate change, measuring and modeling climate, impacts of climate change, human responses and solutions to climate change, energy use, mental health, environmental justice, and many more. Resources are rigorously reviewed for scientific accuracy and pedagogic relevancy, making the CLEAN collection of high enough quality to steward the NOAA Teaching Climate database.

885 affiliated resources

Search Resources

View
Selected filters:
Global Snow Cover Changes
Read the Fine Print
Educational Use
Rating
0.0 stars

Students use an online mapping tool to investigate changes in global snow cover, develop a problem statement about global snow cover, and then use the tools to investigate a problem or question of their own design.

Subject:
Applied Science
Career and Technical Education
Environmental Science
Environmental Studies
Physical Science
Material Type:
Activity/Lab
Provider:
CLEAN: Climate Literacy and Energy Awareness Network
Provider Set:
CLEAN: Climate Literacy and Energy Awareness Network
Author:
Missy Holzer
PolarTrec
Date Added:
12/24/2020
Global Temperatures
Unrestricted Use
CC BY
Rating
0.0 stars

In this activity, students create graphs of real temperature data to investigate climate trends by analyzing the global temperature record from 1867 to the present. Long-term trends and shorter-term fluctuations are both evaluated. The data is examined for evidence of the impact of natural and anthropogenic climate forcing mechanisms on the global surface temperature variability. Students are prompted to determine the difficulties scientists face in using this data to make climate predictions.

Subject:
Physical Science
Material Type:
Activity/Lab
Provider:
CLEAN: Climate Literacy and Energy Awareness Network
Provider Set:
CLEAN: Climate Literacy and Energy Awareness Network
Author:
Robert MacKay
SERC Starting Point and Columbia University Earth and Environmental Science Faculty
Date Added:
06/19/2012
Global Warming: Carbon Dioxide and the Greenhouse Effect
Read the Fine Print
Rating
0.0 stars

This video segment demonstrates carbon dioxide's role in the greenhouse effect and explains how increasing concentrations of C02 in the atmosphere may be contributing to global warming. Video includes an unusual demonstration of C02's heat-absorbing properties, using infrared film, a researcher's face, and a stream of C02 between them.

Subject:
Atmospheric Science
Physical Science
Provider:
CLEAN: Climate Literacy and Energy Awareness Network
Provider Set:
CLEAN: Climate Literacy and Energy Awareness Network
Author:
FRONTLINE/NOVA
Teachers' Domain
WGBH Educational Foundation
Date Added:
10/27/2014
Global Warming: It's All About Carbon
Read the Fine Print
Rating
0.0 stars

A sequence of five short animated videos that explain the properties of carbon in relationship to global warming, narrated by Robert Krulwich from NPR.

Subject:
Applied Science
Atmospheric Science
Career and Technical Education
Environmental Science
Environmental Studies
Physical Science
Provider:
CLEAN: Climate Literacy and Energy Awareness Network
Provider Set:
CLEAN: Climate Literacy and Energy Awareness Network
Author:
NPR and National Geographic
Robert Krulwich
Date Added:
09/24/2018
Global Warming Webquest
Read the Fine Print
Rating
0.0 stars

In this Webquest activity, students assume roles of scientist, business leader, or policy maker. The students then collaborate as part of a climate action team and learn how society and the environment might be impacted by global warming. They explore the decision making process regarding issues of climate change, energy use, and available policy options. Student teams investigate how and why climate is changing and how humans may have contributed to these changes. Upon completion of their individual tasks, student teams present their findings and make recommendations that address the situation.

Subject:
Physical Science
Material Type:
Activity/Lab
Provider:
CLEAN: Climate Literacy and Energy Awareness Network
Provider Set:
CLEAN: Climate Literacy and Energy Awareness Network
Author:
Marian Koshland Science Museum - National Academy of Sciences
Date Added:
10/27/2014
Global patterns in Green-up and Green-down
Read the Fine Print
Rating
0.0 stars

In this classroom activity, students analyze visualizations and graphs that show the annual cycle of plant growth and decline. They explore patterns of annual change for the globe and several regions in each hemisphere that have different land cover and will match graphs that show annual green-up and green-down patterns with a specific land cover type.

Subject:
Applied Science
Career and Technical Education
Environmental Science
Environmental Studies
Physical Science
Material Type:
Activity/Lab
Provider:
CLEAN: Climate Literacy and Energy Awareness Network
Provider Set:
CLEAN: Climate Literacy and Energy Awareness Network
Author:
GLOBE Program
Date Added:
08/17/2018
Global temperature projections with increasing and decreasing greenhouse gas emissions.
Read the Fine Print
Educational Use
Rating
0.0 stars

This animation shows predicted changes in temperature across the globe, relative to pre-industrial levels, under two different emissions scenarios in the COP 17 climate model. The first is with emissions continuing to increase through the century. The second is with emissions declining through the century.

Subject:
Applied Science
Atmospheric Science
Career and Technical Education
Environmental Science
Environmental Studies
Physical Science
Material Type:
Reading
Simulation
Provider:
CLEAN: Climate Literacy and Energy Awareness Network
Provider Set:
CLEAN: Climate Literacy and Energy Awareness Network
Author:
Met Office Hadley Centre
Date Added:
05/15/2012
Google Earth Tours of Glacier Change
Unrestricted Use
CC BY
Rating
0.0 stars

A detailed Google Earth tour of glacier change over the last 50 years introduces this topic in an engaging way. Students are then asked to select from a group of glaciers and create their own Google Earth tour exploring key characteristics and visible changes in that glacier.

Subject:
Applied Science
Environmental Science
Physical Science
Material Type:
Activity/Lab
Provider:
CLEAN: Climate Literacy and Energy Awareness Network
Provider Set:
CLEAN: Climate Literacy and Energy Awareness Network
Author:
Mauri Pelto
SERC - On the Cutting Edge Collection
Date Added:
06/19/2012
Graphing Ocean Acidification
Read the Fine Print
Rating
0.0 stars

This applet is an ocean acidification grapher that allows user to plot changes in atmospheric C02 against ocean pH, from 1988 to 2009, in the central North Pacific.

Subject:
Applied Science
Career and Technical Education
Environmental Science
Environmental Studies
Physical Science
Material Type:
Simulation
Provider:
CLEAN: Climate Literacy and Energy Awareness Network
Provider Set:
CLEAN: Climate Literacy and Energy Awareness Network
Author:
King's Center for Visualization in Science
Date Added:
09/24/2018
Graphing Sea-Level Trends
Read the Fine Print
Educational Use
Rating
0.0 stars

Students use long term sea-level rise data set to create models and compare short-term trends to long-term trends. They then determine whether sea-level rise is occurring based on the data.

Subject:
Applied Science
Career and Technical Education
Environmental Science
Environmental Studies
Oceanography
Physical Science
Material Type:
Activity/Lab
Provider:
CLEAN: Climate Literacy and Energy Awareness Network
Provider Set:
CLEAN: Climate Literacy and Energy Awareness Network
Author:
Jet Propulsion Laboratory
National Aeronautics and Space Administration
Date Added:
06/25/2019
Graphing the Extent of Sea Ice in the Arctic and Antarctic
Read the Fine Print
Rating
0.0 stars

In this activity, students learn about sea ice extent in both polar regions (Arctic and Antarctic). They start out by forming a hypothesis on the variability of sea ice, testing the hypothesis by graphing real data from a recent 3-year period to learn about seasonal variations and over a 25-year period to learn about longer-term trends, and finish with a discussion of their results and predictions.

Subject:
Applied Science
Career and Technical Education
Environmental Science
Environmental Studies
Oceanography
Physical Science
Material Type:
Activity/Lab
Provider:
CLEAN: Climate Literacy and Energy Awareness Network
Provider Set:
CLEAN: Climate Literacy and Energy Awareness Network
Author:
Randy Russell
Windows to the Universe
Date Added:
06/19/2012
Great Energy Debate
Unrestricted Use
CC BY
Rating
0.0 stars

This is a debate-style learning activity in which student teams learn about energy sources and are then assigned to represent the different energy sources. Working cooperatively, students develop arguments on the pros and cons of their source over the others.

Subject:
Career and Technical Education
Environmental Studies
Physical Science
Physics
Material Type:
Activity/Lab
Provider:
CLEAN: Climate Literacy and Energy Awareness Network
Provider Set:
CLEAN: Climate Literacy and Energy Awareness Network
Author:
National Energy Education Development (NEED)
Date Added:
06/19/2012
Green Careers for a Changing Climate
Read the Fine Print
Educational Use
Rating
0.0 stars

This video showcases eight green STEM careers by interviewing people working in different sectors helping to solve climate change issues.

Subject:
Applied Science
Career and Technical Education
Environmental Science
Environmental Studies
Physical Science
Material Type:
Diagram/Illustration
Reading
Provider:
CLEAN: Climate Literacy and Energy Awareness Network
Provider Set:
CLEAN: Climate Literacy and Energy Awareness Network
Author:
Climate Generation: A Will Steger Legacy
Date Added:
03/05/2020
Green Revolution
Read the Fine Print
Educational Use
Rating
0.0 stars

This is a series of 10 short videos, hosted by the National Science Foundation, each featuring scientists, research, and green technologies. The overall goal of this series is to encourage people to ask questions and look beyond fossil fuels for innovative solutions to our ever-growing energy needs.

Subject:
Applied Science
Career and Technical Education
Environmental Science
Environmental Studies
Physical Science
Material Type:
Diagram/Illustration
Reading
Provider:
CLEAN: Climate Literacy and Energy Awareness Network
Provider Set:
CLEAN: Climate Literacy and Energy Awareness Network
Author:
National Science Foundation
S2N Media
Date Added:
05/15/2012
Greenhouse Effect Video - Scott Denning
Read the Fine Print
Rating
0.0 stars

In this short video, atmospheric scientist Scott Denning gives a candid and entertaining explanation of how greenhouse gases in Earth's atmosphere warm our planet.

Subject:
Applied Science
Atmospheric Science
Career and Technical Education
Environmental Science
Environmental Studies
Physical Science
Physics
Provider:
CLEAN: Climate Literacy and Energy Awareness Network
Provider Set:
CLEAN: Climate Literacy and Energy Awareness Network
Author:
Changing Climates project at Colorado State University UCAR with portions from Windows to the Universe
UCAR Center for Science Education
Date Added:
09/24/2018
Greenhouse Emissions Reduction Role-Play Exercise
Unrestricted Use
CC BY
Rating
0.0 stars

In this role-play activity, students take the roles of various important players in the climate change policy negotiation including politicians, scientists, environmentalists, and industry representatives. Working in these roles, students must take a position, debate with others, and then vote on legislation designed to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in the United States. Can be used in a variety of courses including writing and rhetoric, and social sciences.

Subject:
Applied Science
Environmental Science
Physical Science
Political Science
Social Science
Material Type:
Activity/Lab
Provider:
CLEAN: Climate Literacy and Energy Awareness Network
Provider Set:
CLEAN: Climate Literacy and Energy Awareness Network
Author:
K.M. Theissen
Pedagogy in Action Collection from SERC
University of St. Thomas
Date Added:
06/19/2012
Greenhouse Gas Equivalencies Calculator
Read the Fine Print
Rating
0.0 stars

This straightforward calculator provides conversions from one unit of energy to the equivalent amount of CO2 emission expected from using that amount.

Subject:
Atmospheric Science
Career and Technical Education
Environmental Studies
Physical Science
Material Type:
Simulation
Provider:
CLEAN: Climate Literacy and Energy Awareness Network
Provider Set:
CLEAN: Climate Literacy and Energy Awareness Network
Date Added:
09/24/2018
Greenhouse Gas Molecules
Read the Fine Print
Educational Use
Rating
0.0 stars

This is an interactive table with a comprehensive list of 29 greenhouse gases, their molecular structures, a chart showing a time series of their atmospheric concentrations (at several sampling sites), their global warming potential (GWP) and their atmospheric lifetimes. References are given to the data sets that range from the mid-1990s to 2008.

Subject:
Atmospheric Science
Career and Technical Education
Environmental Studies
Physical Science
Material Type:
Reading
Simulation
Provider:
CLEAN: Climate Literacy and Energy Awareness Network
Provider Set:
CLEAN: Climate Literacy and Energy Awareness Network
Author:
Beloit College
George Lisensky
Date Added:
05/15/2012
Greenhouse Gases: A Closer Look
Read the Fine Print
Rating
0.0 stars

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.

Subject:
Atmospheric Science
Physical Science
Material Type:
Activity/Lab
Provider:
CLEAN: Climate Literacy and Energy Awareness Network
Provider Set:
CLEAN: Climate Literacy and Energy Awareness Network
Author:
King's Centre for Visualization in Science
Date Added:
10/27/2014
Greenhouse Gases - IR Spectra
Read the Fine Print
Rating
0.0 stars

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.

Subject:
Atmospheric Science
Career and Technical Education
Environmental Studies
Physical Science
Provider:
CLEAN: Climate Literacy and Energy Awareness Network
Provider Set:
CLEAN: Climate Literacy and Energy Awareness Network
Author:
Amanda Thompson
Katrina Genuis
King's Center for Visualization in Science
P. Mahaffy
Date Added:
08/17/2018