In this lesson students will learn about the human demands of freshwater and how clean drinking water is being impacted. Students will analyze the issues of cause and effect between human activities and water sustainability. Students will demonstrate this knowledge by create a presentation illustrating the effects of human activities on water resources.
Material Type: Lesson Plan, Reading
How does climate change lead to an increase in size, intensity, and frequency of wildfires in California? Students will use the phenomenon of wildfire intensity increasing in California to explore the causes, effects and solutions to climate change in California.
Material Type: Unit of Study
In this unit, students will explore how global climate change impacts marine ecosystems (especially kelp forests and coral reefs) and the survival and migration patterns of species within marine ecosystems. Students will examine how marine resources and fisheries upon which humans depend (especially marginalized and vulnerable human populations) are being affected by ocean warming and what we can learn from Indigenous peoples on how to mitigate the effects of ocean warming. Lastly, students will learn about innovative solutions to addressing the impacts of ocean warming and propose their own solution to the problem.
Material Type: Unit of Study
Students will understand how ocean warming can cause certain weather patterns, as well as an increase in frequency and intensity of weather phenomena.
Material Type: Unit of Study
In this psychology real-life investigation, students investigate the food on their plates, identify the source location of the foods they consume on a regular basis, and calculate their carbon footprint. The goal is to identify their diet (its source of origin – where was it grown, packaged, shipped from, etc.), its impact on their subjective well-being (also known as "happiness"), and its impact on their health as well as climate justice. Students conduct research to identify one potentially problematic ingredient that they frequently ingest. The idea here is for the students to investigate their carbon footprint and reflect on their current dietary choices, and also consider food ingredient(s) that might be detrimental to their well-being, such as increasing the vulnerability to certain diseases such as COVID-19, cancer, diabetes, etc. The goal is to widen students' awareness and encourage them to make up their own minds about their dietary choices while considering new directions to take. Furthermore, with the encouragement of a TED Talk on the power of talking about climate change with others, students are asked to create/design an infographic to effectively engage with the larger community on the issues of climate change and climate justice, and then use the infographic to talk to friends and family about what you are learning about climate change and climate justice.
Material Type: Activity/Lab
In this activity, students use climate data to develop a simple graph of how climate has changed over time and then present the result in a blog, emphasizing effective science communication.
Material Type: Activity/Lab
This activity explores how the topic of climate change is represented in various forms of writing, from scholarly articles to opinion pieces and works of fiction. While the content does not emphasize climate science itself, it instead allows students to focus on how the science is being portrayed.
Material Type: Activity/Lab
This video is the second of three short videos showcasing the dramatic changes in Alaska's marine ecosystems. The video highlights the marine mammals and birds and how they depend on Arctic sea ice, as well as questions about how these animals will cope in the face of climate change.
This video on phenology of plants and bees discusses the MODIS satellite finding that springtime greening is happening one half-day earlier each year and correlates this to bee pollination field studies.
In this activity, students explore past examples of climate variability in three locations: the Peruvian and Bolivian Andes, Central America, and coastal Greenland, and consider differences between climate variability and climate change.
Material Type: Activity/Lab
How might Earth's temperature change in the future? Use this model to explore how changing human emissions of greenhouse gases might affect the temperature. The model incorporates positive and negative feedback loops. Ice cover and cloud cover change in response to the level of water vapor and temperature in the model.
Material Type: Simulation
This task by ClimeTime educators, is designed for high school students studying the impacts of human activities on the carbon cycle and/or global warming. Given two people with different human activities, students compare and contrast the behaviors that impact climate change. This resource includes a student task document, teacher guide, and task facilitation slides.
Material Type: Assessment
This performance assessment aligns with NGSS Performance Expectation 5.LS1.1 and is intended to be used as an interim assessment. Interim assessments can either be used summatively, as an end of learning activity, or formatively, utilizing student responses to identify areas of instruction.
Material Type: Activity/Lab, Assessment
This performance assessment aligns with NGSS Performance Expectation 4.ESS3.2 and is intended to be used as an interim assessment. Interim assessments can either be used summatively, as an end of learning activity, or formatively, utilizing student responses to identify areas of instruction.
Material Type: Activity/Lab, Assessment
This performance assessment aligns with NGSS Performance Expectation 5.PS3.1 and is intended to be used as an interim assessment. Interim assessments can either be used summatively, as an end of learning activity, or formatively, utilizing student responses to identify areas of instruction.
Material Type: Activity/Lab, Assessment
This performance assessment aligns with NGSS Performance Expectation 3.LS2.1 and is intended to be used as an interim assessment. These assessments can either be used summatively, as an end of learning activity, or formatively, utilizing student responses to identify next instructional steps.
Material Type: Activity/Lab, Assessment
This performance assessment aligns with NGSS Performance Expectation 1.ESS1.2 and is intended to be used as an interim assessment. These assessments can either be used summatively, as an end of learning activity, or formatively, utilizing student responses to identify next instructional steps.
Material Type: Activity/Lab, Assessment
This performance assessment aligns with NGSS Performance Expectation 4.ESS1.1 and is intended to be used as an interim assessment. These assessments can either be used summatively, as an end of learning activity, or formatively, utilizing student responses to identify next instructional steps.
Material Type: Activity/Lab, Assessment
This performance assessment aligns with NGSS Performance Expectation 5.LS2.1 and is intended to be used as an interim assessment. These assessments can either be used summatively, as an end of learning activity, or formatively, utilizing student responses to identify next instructional steps.
Material Type: Activity/Lab, Assessment
This performance assessment aligns with NGSS Performance Expectation 1.PS4.3 and is intended to be used as an interim assessment. These assessments can either be used summatively, as an end of learning activity, or formatively, utilizing student responses to identify next instructional steps.
Material Type: Activity/Lab, Assessment
