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Deforestation and Climate Change (Water Cycle, Deforestation, and Climate Change #3)

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In this lesson, students learn how climate change and deforestation are linked to the water cycle. Step 1 - Inquire: Students view an Indigenous perspective on deforestation and learn how climate change can lead to deforested areas. Step 2 - Investigate: Students complete a hands-on activity to investigate the effects of deforestation on erosion and watch a video on deforestation and climate change. Step 3 - Inspire: Students create a cause and effect diagram about erosion and the water cycle.

Material Type: Lesson, Lesson Plan

Author: Mallory Swafford

Environmental studies: Climate Change

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TED Studies, created in collaboration with Wiley, are curated video collections — supplemented by rich educational materials — for students, educators and self-guided learners. In Climate Change, speakers give talks that boldly illuminate the nature and scale of current-day climate science, policy and ethics. They explore the economics and psychology of individual and collective action — or inaction — on climate change in order to assess the costs of our choices and opportunities for change. Relevant areas of interest, study and coursework include: ecology, atmospheric science, oceanography, glaciology, energy development, environmental policy, science in the media, political science, ethics, sociology, behavioral psychology and cultural studies.

Material Type: Lecture, Reading, Teaching/Learning Strategy

Authors: Kanmani Venkateswaran, Maxwell Boykoff

ClimateSim - a climate-change simulation app from ScienceBySimulation

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ClimateSim is a fast and simple climate modeling and simulation tool. It is a web app that is freely available to anyone interested in climate science. ClimateSim allows users to model scenarios of greenhouse gas emissions in the current century and simulates the first-order response of the earth system. ClimateSim makes climate simulation accessible in a simplified form and provides an easy-to-use simulation platform for performing virtual climate experiments. ClimateSim is primarily targeted as a science education tool for undergraduate and advanced high-school students in physics, environmental science and related courses. Instructors can use ClimateSim to illustrate climate-change concepts, demonstrate dynamic relationships between climate variables, and assign simulation-based exercises as part of their courses. It is also an appropriate and accessible tool that policymakers, journalists and others can use to get a better understanding and working knowledge of the basics of climate science.

Material Type: Activity/Lab, Assessment, Homework/Assignment, Interactive, Simulation

Author: Kumar Venkat

Remix

How are Humans Affecting Water Quality?

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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

Authors: Kim Kerns, Lydia Campos

The Food We Eat Can Have a Positive Impact on Climate Justice

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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

Author: Deepti Karkhanis

Climate Change as Simulated by NCAR

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This animation depicts global surface warming as simulated by NCAR's Community Climate System Model (CCSM) Version 3. It shows the temperature anomalies relative to the end of the 19th century, both over the entire globe and as a global average. The model shows the temporary cooling effects during 5 major volcanic eruptions and estimates future temperature trends based on different amounts of greenhouse gas emissions.

Author: National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR)

Communicating Climate 1: The Science of Climate Change

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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

Authors: InTeGrate, SERC, Jennifer Hanselman (Westfield State University), Jennifer Silko (Pennsylvania State University), Laura Wright (Western Carolina University), Rick Oches (Bentley University)

Communicating Climate 2: Literary Representations of Climate Change

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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

Authors: InTeGrate, SERC, Jennifer Hanselman (Westfield State University), Jennifer Silko (Pennsylvania State University), Laura Wright (Western Carolina University), Rick Oches (Bentley University)

Dendrochronology - Trees: Recorders of Climate Change

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In this activity, students are introduced to tree rings by examining a cross section of a tree, also known as a 'tree cookie.' They discover how tree age can be determined by studying the rings and how ring thickness can be used to deduce times of optimal growing conditions. Next, they investigate simulated tree rings applying the scientific method to explore how climatic conditions varied over time.

Material Type: Activity/Lab

Author: NCAR - National Center for Atmospheric Research

High School Assessment - Carbon Footprint

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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

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