This video production is a part of a four-panel report from the National Academies' America's Climate Choices project. The video maps out the realm of our accumulated knowledge regarding climate change and charts a path forward, urging that research on climate change enter a new era focused on the needs of decision makers.

This activity covers the causes, effects, and mitigation of urban heat in New York City. Students use data sets, graphs, maps and images to create their own plan for mitigation in their area. Robust satellite images, city data, tables, maps, and graphs are included in the resource for students to explore.

This short video describes how the compression of Antarctic snow into ice captures air from past atmospheres. It shows how ice cores are drilled from the Antarctic ice and prepared for shipment and subsequent analysis.

What would happen if a portion of the Antarctic Ice Sheet were to melt? This video segment adapted from NOVA uses animations to show the effect of a 6-meter sea-level rise on coastal cities across the world.

This short video examines the recent melting ice shelves in the Antarctica Peninsula; the potential collapse of West Antarctic ice shelf; and how global sea levels, coastal cities, and beaches would be affected.

Citizen scientist Anya, an indigenous Siberian girl, witnesses the changes in her community as a result of climate change after working with Woods Hole scientist Max Holmes' research team aboard her father's ship. She gets involved in collecting water samples to learn, and teach her schoolmates about, global warming.

Living Atlas Indicators of the Planet provide the user with up-to-date data, maps, graphs, charts, animation and other visuals to explore the science of climate and environmental change. 18 indicators from Air Quality to Women in Parliament can be explored.

Learn about the effects of a changing climate on the Arctic ecosystem and four of its well-known mammals: the polar bear, the walrus, the Arctic fox and the beluga whale.

This video, along with a background essay, focuses on impacts of climate change on the lives of Native Alaskans around Barrow, Alaska. Specific changes include the timing of the changes in the formation and breakout of sea ice and the impacts on subsistence living.

This animation shows the Arctic sea ice September (minimum) extents from 1979-2016. Accessible from http://nsidc.org/cryosphere/sotc/sea_ice.html

This visualization shows static and animated images of changes in Arctic sea ice 1984-2016.

In this audio slideshow, an ecologist from the University of Florida describes the radiocarbon dating technique that scientists use to determine the amount of carbon within the permafrost of the Arctic tundra. Understanding the rate of carbon released as permafrost thaws is necessary to understand how this positive feedback mechanism is contributing to climate change that may further increase global surface temperatures.

In this short video, host Dr. Ryan interviews graduate student Amy Steiker at the Institute of Arctic and Alpine Research about her research, using isotopes of nitrous oxide, connecting human activity to greenhouse gas emissions.

In this lesson, students investigate whether other parts of the world are changing and getting hotter just like Colorado.

SYNOPSIS: In this lesson, students discover how climate change could be making extreme winter weather worse.

SCIENTIST NOTES: This is a great lesson that explains key drivers of winter storms. Students will learn about the polar vortex and lake effect snow and how they influence the jet stream, air circulation, and polar and mid-latitude climates. The cascading effect is worrisome, especially in vulnerable communities. The class activity will inspire students to communicate ways communities could respond to these weather events. The videos, materials, charts, and datasets embedded in the lesson were fact-checked, and this lesson has passed our science review process.

POSITIVES:
-Connecting climate change and extreme winter weather can feel counterintuitive, which will challenge students' critical thinking skills.
-The lesson provides many opportunities for students to share ideas with their peers.
-This lesson can be taught in an environmental science class.

ADDITIONAL PREREQUISITES:
-Advertisements may play before some of the videos.
-Students should be familiar with climate change, the difference between weather and climate, and the various types of extreme weather.
-Teachers should make it clear that on average, global temperatures are rising even if there is sometimes more extreme cold and snowy weather.
-Teachers should make sure students understand that this lesson is not about if anthropogenic climate change is real. Instead, this lesson is looking at the specific connections between climate change and the polar vortex and lake effect snow.

DIFFERENTIATION:
-For students who may need more support in the Investigate section, classes can create their explanations of the polar vortex and lake effect snow together.
-This lesson could be split over two class periods. In the first class, students would complete the Inquire section and the first half of the Investigate section about the polar vortex. In the second class, students would complete the second half of the Investigate section about lake effect snow and the Inspire section.

This activity engages students in learning about ways to become energy efficient consumers. Students examine how different countries and regions around the world use energy over time, as reflected in night light levels. They then track their own energy use, identify ways to reduce their individual energy consumption, and explore how community choices impact the carbon footprint.

This article and slide show from the New York Times, features several scientists from the University of Alaska, Fairbanks, who study the effects of thawing permafrost in Alaska.

This easy-to-understand video animation describes drought and explains the different categories of drought used by the drought monitor. It discusses the effects of and contributions to drought, what the implications of the different drought levels are, and puts the drought maps into context to understand how the impacts vary geographically (e.g. drought in Nevada vs Kansas - one could affect tourism, the other agriculture). It also touches on how the development of maps/drought severity is determined and how it might vary geographically. The animation provides a basic overview of statistics and percentiles and the concept of '100 year events.'

In this activity, students explore the web-based U.S. Forest Service Climate Change Atlas to learn about projected climate changes in their state and how suitable habitat for tree and bird species is projected to change by 2100.