This visualization explains in simple and easy-to-understand visuals the causes of sea-level change.

This online quiz tests knowledge about climate change, its impacts, how we know about earth's climate, and potential solutions.

This activity is a hands-on guided inquiry activity designed to highlight the role of an ice shelf on slowing the movement of continental ice sheets in Antarctica. Students build a model of Antarctica and both continental glaciers and ice shelves using paper models of the land and slime for glaciers and ice. Students use their model to explore the impact of recent and potential ice shelf melting and break-up.

In this interactive activity students will create a very simple climate model. They use worksheets, chips/tokens, and follow rules for heat exchange. The activity only models temperature but there are instructions for adaptations of the model, such as rule changes for an atmosphere with increased levels of CO2.

This infographic provides an overview of what coral bleaching is and its causes. The resource combines short summaries of the steps of coral bleaching with more in-depth (though still succinct) explanations for what is happening to cause the coral to appear white. A short list of causes for coral bleaching is also provided.

Students act out 4 different molecules (nitrogen, oxygen, carbon dioxide and water vapor) to discover which ones are greenhouse gases and which ones are not.

This activity allows students to explore sea level rise. The experiment allows them to test whether land ice and/or sea ice contribute to sea level rise as they melt.

This classroom resource is a combination of 3 visualizations and accompanying text that illustrate how 3 key natural phenomena - cyclical changes in solar energy output, major volcanic eruptions over the last century, and El Nino/Nina cycles - are insufficient to explain recent global warming.

Two short, narrated animations about carbon dioxide and Earth's temperature are presented on this webpage. The first animation shows the rise in atmospheric CO2 levels, human carbon emissions, and global temperature rise of the past 1,000 years; the second shows changes in the level of CO2 from 800,000 years ago to the present.

This is a series of graphical animations that compare the contribution of natural factors (including orbital changes, variability in the sun's temperature, volcanic action, deforestation, ozone pollution levels, and aerosols) to the contribution of increasing atmospheric carbon dioxide, to increases in global atmospheric temperature... in a visual and concise way.

This lesson introduces why certain cities in Colorado are getting hotter using a video by the Denver Post that describes the pattern.

In this lesson, students combine art and science to interpret and illustrate graphical art. They first learn about artists who develop images based on climate graphs and then create their own.

SYNOPSIS: In this lesson, students learn about climate change, choose one impact of climate change affecting New Jersey, and write a claim-evidence-reasoning paragraph explaining why they believe it is the worst impact of climate change in New Jersey.

SCIENTIST NOTES: This lesson illustrates the impacts of climate change in New Jersey. Five video resources are presented that provide background information, answer skepticism, and explore four key implications of climate change in New Jersey. The four climate impact videos are well-sourced and address local concerns with scientists from Rutgers and the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection. Students are tasked with deciding which is the worst impact of climate change and then writing a paragraph to support their claim. This lesson is recommended for teaching.

POSITIVES:
-This lesson is terrific for teaching paragraph structure.
-The color coding of the sentences in the paragraph is really helpful, especially for concrete thinkers.

ADDITIONAL PREREQUISITES:
-This lesson shows some of the impacts of climate change. Some of these might be difficult to hear. Students may feel anger, sadness, anxiety, or grief after hearing about some of these devastating impacts. Encourage them to share their emotions.
-There is, of course, no right answer to “What’s the worst impact of climate change?” These impacts of climate change are all catastrophic in their own right.
-Encourage the students to use as many hard facts as possible in their supporting sentences. These include dates, names, places, and specific events.
-You can use 2-3 videos of impacts of climate change if you do not want to use all of them.
-Make sure students know that there are many other impacts of climate change aside from the four impacts in the four videos. Other impacts of climate change include extreme weather events, mass extinction, climate migration, etc. The goal of this lesson is to choose one of those four impacts of climate change.

DIFFERENTIATION:
-Most students will benefit from color coding their sentences. Encourage them to keep their text highlighted as they write. They can even keep their paragraphs highlighted after they finish.
-Weaker students may write only five sentences. Stronger students may expand more in their supporting sentences.
-If students are struggling with their closing sentences, ask them to read their claim sentences aloud. Sometimes this helps guide their thinking.
-Stronger students who finish early can read their paragraphs to one another, discuss the writing process, and discuss possible solutions to climate change.

In this activity students work with real datasets to investigate a real situation regarding disappearing Arctic sea ice. The case study has students working side-by-side with a scientist from the National Snow and Ice Data Center and an Inuit community in Manitoba.

This lesson has students explore what land use changes are happening and how changes in surface color affects temperatures in cities.

This video reviews how increasing temperatures in the Arctic are affecting the path of the jet stream, the severity of storms, and the length of individual weather events (rain, storms, drought).

In this short, hands-on activity, students build simple molecular models of 4 atmospheric gases (O2, N2, C02, and methane), compare their resonant frequencies, and make the connection between resonant frequency and the gas's ability to absorb infrared radiation.

This resource is a high quality video with a an engaging narrative discussing the need to cut carbon dioxide emissions in order to reduce the concentration in the atmosphere.

SYNOPSIS: This lesson encourages students to think about their food choices and where their food comes from.

SCIENTIST NOTES: The lesson introduces students to analyze the origin or source of their food and explore and track the factors that determines their food choices. This lesson provides understanding on the implications of our food choices on achieving food security. There are no scientific misconceptions in this lesson. On that account, this lesson has passed the science credibility process.

POSITIVES:
-This lesson gets students thinking about what they eat, why they eat what they do, and where some of those foods may come from.
-The guided research gives students independent time to explore where their favorite meal’s ingredients might come from.

ADDITIONAL PREREQUISITES:
-This is lesson 1 of 6 in our 6th-8th grade Climate Change, Food Production, and Food Security unit.
-Students should understand that healthy foods like fruits and vegetables provide certain vitamins and nutrients that junk food does not.
-Students should know the consequences of an imbalanced diet can include diabetes, obesity, and other health issues.
-Teachers should be mindful that some students might be sensitive to topics surrounding food tracking, diet, and body image.
-For students to access the Food Tracker, teachers can print the Google Document or assign a copy to all students digitally.

DIFFERENTIATION:
-If teachers choose to teach this lesson without teaching the following lessons in the unit, teachers can end the lesson by having students explore this climate change food calculator after completing their Food Trackers.
-Teachers can assign the Teacher Slideshow or Student Document on Google Classroom and students can submit their work independently.
-Teachers can group students for the guided research section and assign them level-appropriate resources.
-Teachers can eliminate options in the guided research section if the options are overwhelming.
-Teachers can review the Teacher Slideshow as a class and answer the questions as a whole class assignment.

This activity introduces students to plotting and analyzing phenology data. Students use 30 years of data that shows the date of the first lilac bloom and the number of days of ice cover of nearby Gull Lake.