This 3-part interactive and virtual lab activity examines the life cycle of the sea urchin, and how the increasing acidity of the ocean affects their larval development.

Students will be learning about the practices of regenerative agriculture and how regenerative agriculture is a solution to climate change. Embedded in the storyline are scientific concepts relating to carbon cycling and soil microbial activity. The storyline culminates with students creating an infographic that is intended for educating the community about regenerative agricultural practices. 

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.

Coral reefs are among the most productive and biodiverse environments on the Planet. Join Scripps Oceanography marine ecologist Stuart Sandin as he describes his travels to untouched parts of the globe to conduct scientific research aimed at understanding and protecting these fragile ecosystems. Learn how he and his colleagues are working to establish the scientific basis for what constitutes a healthy coral reef and how they are probing the causes of coral reef decline. (58 minutes)

Dr. Steve Running, a Regents Professor in the College of Forestry and Conservation at the University of Montana, discusses the paradox of why forests in the West are growing faster while simultaneously suffering from higher die-off rates. Running is a member of the Nobel Peace Prize-winning Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change and was the lead author on a 2007 report analyzing North AmericaŐs contribution to atmospheric carbon dioxide and its impacts on the global climate. (58 minutes)

Join Dr. Lynne Talley as she describes how she and others are using decades of ocean observations from floats, research vessels, and merchant ships to discern the long-term signal of climate change that is recorded in our oceans. (49 minutes)

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.

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.

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 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.

This video presents predictions and solutions for range shifts (wildlife corridors) by an iconic species of North American wilderness: the wolverine.

This is an in-depth activity that focuses on Wisconsin ecosystem characteristics and energy flow within ecosystems. The activity is lengthy, but selected parts of it could be adapted to a variety of teaching situations.

In this video, students learn how scientific surveys of wildlife are performed at a site in Yosemite, California. These surveys, in conjunction with studies from the early 1900s, provide evidence that animal populations in Yosemite have shifted over time in response to rising temperatures.

This video segment features subsistence fishing and harvesting in the Northwestern US. The segment was adapted from a student video produced at Northwest Indian College in Bellingham, Washington.

This NASA video explores the relationship between climate and agriculture. The video discusses the variability of climate impacts in different regions, as well as the effects of population growth and higher demands for food in areas that already struggle to supply food for the people. The video highlights the need for accurate, continuous, and accessible data and computer models from NASA satellites to track and predict the challenges farmers face as they adjust to a changing climate.

Maps displaying global environmental data (specifically Solar Energy and Average Temperature) through the course of a year are compared in order to understand how the Earth works as a system focusing on Polar Regions. Students then explore data from schools located in Alaska and Antarctica to understand processes that drive the temperature patterns; students then visit the National Snow and Ice Data Center Web site to learn more about the Cryosphere (focusing on Albedo and Sea Ice); finally students visit NOAA's web site looking at data of Sea Ice data anomalies. (Link to the relevant pages in these web sites are listed below.)

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In this unit, students will explore the causes of sea level rise and will examine short and long-term trends using sea level rise data. In addition, they will learn about the impacts to low-lying coastal communities and they will explore mitigation strategies. Finally, students will deepen their understanding of sea level rise by writing arguments focused on impacted communities and possible solutions.

This activity is a Google Slide playlist. Students will analyze data from sediments collected off the coast of Santa Barbara, California to determine whether this information can be used to study historical climate change. This playlist is suitable for use in remote, hybrid, or in-person instruction and can easily be added to a Learning Management System.

Provenance: Molly Ludwick, Kings Mountain Middle School
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(Note: this resource was added to OER Commons as part of a batch upload of over 2,200 records. If you notice an issue with the quality of the metadata, please let us know by using the 'report' button and we will flag it for consideration.)

Our bodies are finely-calibrated, organic machines that are capable of dealing with the fluctuations of our internal systems in response to stimuli. We are able to regulate these changes through feedback loops in order to maintain the self in a prime ‘operating condition’ known as homeostasis. While deviations from homeostasis may occur, the body has processes in place to eventually return to normal. Long term or highly disruptive deviation, to the point where the body’s natural feedback loops are insufficient at correcting the error, is an indicator of something abnormal at work—be it parasite, virus, or organ malfunction.

The Earth also displays similar mechanisms of homeostasis—complex feedback loops that allow it to regulate temperature, gas concentrations, and pH. Normally, small fluctuations are regulated within the system. Negative feedback loops maintain balance through chemical processes like the sink and release of carbon gases. However, as excessive fossil fuel combustion tips the scales, it is likely that we are moving further away from the point where these feedback loops are enough to return the carbon cycle to balance.

We can see symptoms of this deviation in alteration of the climate, increased warming, and the thawing of glaciers and permafrost. The study of these indicators allow us to monitor the disease and provide insight into the underlying cause. The feedback loops found in the carbon cycle are unable to rectify the anthropogenic carbon output post Industrial revolution, leading to some alarming trends. The greater the divergence from normal the greater the impact these indicators have on the system of the planet until, like the human body, there is irreparable harm to the system.

Is this warming a fever-- a planetary self-preservation system precipitated by the intemperate combustion of fossil fuels-- that aims to overcorrect the problem before returning to homeostasis in the geological timeline? How does a ‘sick’ planet impact our own health? This unit addresses the consequence of anthropogenic carbon sourced global warming on the planetary system and human physiology.

The online Soil Biology Primer is an introduction to the living component of soil and how it contributes to agricultural productivity and air and water quality. The Primer includes chapters describing the soil food web and its relationship to soil health and chapters about soil bacteria, fungi, protozoa, nematodes, arthropods, and earthworms.

The online Primer includes all of the text of the printed original, but not all of the images of the soil organisms. The full story of the soil food web is more easily understood with the help of the illustrations in the printed version.