Here students use data from the NOAA carbon dioxide monitoring sites, such as Mauna Loa, to graph the Keeling Curve for themselves on large sheets of paper. Each group graphs one year, and the graphs are joined at the end to reveal the overall upward trend. The explanation describes the carbon cycle and how human activities are leading to the overall trend of rising carbon dioxide.

Our Coast, Our Future (OCOF) is a collaborative, user-driven project focused on providing coastal California resource managers and land use planners locally relevant, online maps and tools to help understand, visualize, and anticipate vulnerabilities to sea level rise and storms.

In this video, a team of paleontologists, paleobotanists, soil scientists, and other researchers take to the field in Wyoming's Bighorn Basin to document how the climate, plants, and animals there changed during the Paleocene- Eocene Thermal Maximum (PETM). During this time a sudden, enormous influx of carbon flooded the ocean and atmosphere for reasons that are still unclear to scientists. The PETM is used as an analog to the current warming. The scientists' research may help inform our understanding of current increases in carbon in the atmosphere and ocean and the resulting impact on ecosystems.

In this lesson students will learn about evaporation, fossil fuels, greenhouse gases, and the greenhouse effect. Patterns in nautre are discussed, including what is happening over time and why we should care.

NGSS: 5-ESS2-1, 5-ESS3-1

Time: 55 minutes - 1 hour

Materials: laminated patterns in nature photos (photos included), plastic cups, rulers, Sharpies

This video highlights the Pentagon's focus on climate change as the military examines potential risks, strategic responses, and impacts of climate change on future military and humanitarian missions. In 2010, for the first time, the Pentagon focused on climate change as a significant factor in its Quadrennial Defense Review of potential risks and strategic responses. Rear Admiral David Titley, Oceanographer of the Navy, explains why the US military sees clear evidence of climate change and how those changes will affect future military and humanitarian missions.

This collection of learning activities allows students to explore phenology, phenological changes over time, and how these changes fit into the larger context of climate change. Students explore patterns of solar radiation and seasons as well as phenological cycles and ecological affects of these patterns.

SYNOPSIS: In this lesson, students engage in activities and experiments to explore the concept of physical changes, and apply their learning to understand climate change-induced sea level rise.

SCIENTIST NOTES: The lesson introduces students to the physical changes of state from solid-liquid-gaseous phase. All materials, including artcicles and simulations, are well-sourced and relevant to improve students' ability in understanding the impact of physical changes in ice caps and its ambient environment and how they could take action to limit these changes. This lesson has passed our science credibility process and is recommended for teaching.

Positive

-Students work collaboratively in groups and with partners to share diverse ideas and perspectives.
-Students participate in hands-on learning to aid in understanding and participation.
-Students learn through a variety of pathways including kinesthetic, auditory, visual, etc. to engage with different learning.
-Students are given a variety of optional extensions to create the most meaningful change in their communities.

ADDITIONAL PREREQUISITES:
-It is recommended that teachers use this as a multi-day lesson in 5 parts. Use the Multi-Day Schedule Visual to determine appropriate stopping points for each day.
-Materials needed for the Physical Change Activity include the following:
-Ice
-Cup
-Playdough (one container per group)
-Different shaped cookie cutters (two per group)
-Materials needed for each group for the Investigate section experiment include the following:
-Two identical, clear, plastic containers (e.g., 6x6 inches)
-Clay, playdough, or small rocks
-Tray of ice cubes
-Ruler
-Cold water
-Piece of paper
-Permanent marker (optional)
-Materials may be substituted as necessary
-Students must create free accounts on the CK-12 website to participate in the simulations.

DIFFERENTIATION:
-All activities, experiments, and simulations can be completed in differentiated groups or as demonstrations at the discretion of the teacher.
-The article may be read aloud in groups or as a class to aid in understanding at the discretion of the teacher.
-Student Document questions may be completed individually, in mixed ability groups, or as a whole group led by the teacher.
-Videos may be paused and discussed in short segments.
-As noted in the TED video, the economic influences on climate change cannot be ignored. An extension to this lesson may be to include a social studies educator to teach students about the local economic elements and issues that contribute to climate change.

Students explore the life of pikas, tiny mammals that live in alpine areas, and how they are being impacted by climate change. After a brief introduction which includes a reading, a short video, and a story that includes a mathematical model, students engage in a kinesthetic simulation to gain first-hand experience of life as a pika and how the animals can be impacted by shrinking habitat. Students then create line graphs with data from the simulation and analyze them.

In this activity, students use measurement and area skills to learn about remote detection of wildfires from space. After detecting mock wildfires with mobile devices, students then study satellite-data visualizations to determine the start dates of actual California wildfires.

This video describes the foundation Plant for the Planet, a foundation created by a 9-year-old German boy, Felix. This foundation has planted more than 500,000 trees in Germany, which he says help sequester carbon and reduce greenhouse gas emissions. The student rallies, first his community and then other children, to plant millions of trees to offset our energy-use emissions.

In this classroom activity, students measure the energy use of various appliances and electronics and calculate how much carbon dioxide (CO2) is released to produce that energy.

In this 45-60 minute high-stakes board game, everyone wins or everyone loses. As they play, groups of three to four children ages 8 to 13 build an understanding of how human actions impact global change. As teams, children play a game in which chance and choice determine the fate of a lone polar bear on an ice floe.

Using a combination of clickable 360 degree landscapes, 2D and 3D videos, animations, interviews with scientists, and mini-games, the Polar Lab takes players onto the glacier ice and into the lab in search of evidence to answer big questions about Earth's climateâpast, present, and future. They search for plant and animal fossils that can reveal what this Arctic and Antarctic environment was like 50 million years ago. Students examine two kinds of clues that act as time capsules for exploring the past: mud cores and ice cores. Finally, students examine the rapid retreat of the massive glaciers and sea ice to better understand how changing ice conditions affect animals.

In this video from the Polaris Project Website, American and Siberian university students describe their research on permafrost.

Students learn how a bill becomes law in the U.S. Congress and research legislation related to global warming.

This short video explains how climate change can lead to more extreme precipitation events and more frequent flooding. Information from the CDC has succinct information about the health downsides of extreme precipitation events, including mental health impacts.

In this activity, students investigate soil erosion and how a changing climate could influence erosion rates in agricultural areas. This activity is part of a larger InTeGrate module called Growing Concern.

In this exercise learners use statistics (T-test using Excel) to analyze an authentic dataset from Lake Mendota in Madison, WI that spans the last 150 years to explore ice on/ice off dates. In addition, students are asked to investigate the IPCC Likelihood Scale and apply it to their statistical results.

Students describe the steps in a product life cycle assessment and suggest ways to reduce the environmental impacts of engineered products.

This resource provides an easy-to-read table summary of solutions to decrease anthropogenic releases of CO2 to the atmosphere. The sources in the data set are clickable for a deeper look into the emission source, references, and a list of additional resources.