The students carry out an experiment to ascertain how the thermal expansion of seawater contributes to sea level rise.
The students debate the role played by sea ice in the Earth’s climate and carry out an experiment to understand the importance of the cryosphere as a surface with a high albedo.
The students perform an experiment to understand the link between acidity and pH, and also between CO2 concentration in the atmosphere and ocean acidification.
The students carry out two experiments to determine how differences in the density of seawater (which depend on salinity and temperature differences) can drive ocean currents.
Through a documentary analysis and an experiment, the students learn about the role of the ocean’s thermal inertia (compared to the land) in climate regulation.
Lesson D1 - Consequences of Climate Change on Ecosystem Services MAIN SUBJECTS Natural sciences
Through a role-playing game, the students explore polar and marine food webs.
Through documentary research and / or an artwork / ar- tistic performance, students learn about the cultural importance of the ocean and cryosphere for human populations across history.
The students use a carbon footprint calculator to assess their carbon footprint and discuss what they can do to reduce it.
The students discuss topics that raise the issue of climate justice.
Through a role-playing game, students discover the inequalities between countries with respect to wealth and greenhouse gas emissions.
The students realise that there are many solutions to deal with climate change, either through adaptation or mitigation, and that many people and organisations are already taking action.
The lesson activity titles are:
What are systems? (Purpose: to have students understand what a "system" is, in the broadest sense)
How is the natural environment of the tribal community a system? (Purpose: to tie what students learned during the year about the tribal community and its natural environment to the concept of what a "system" is)
How did settlers of European descent change the tribe's ecosystem? (Purpose: to explore the connections between what European settlers did to the tribe's ecosystem and what the effects have been on the ecosystem)
What can be done? What should be done? (Purpose: to explore and evaluate policy options for future environmental sustenance)
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The Lifestyle Project is a way for students to learn about environmental alternatives by modifying their own lifestyles. It is a three-week exercise for students to reduce their impact on the environment by changing the way in which they live from day to day. The project has fairly rigid parameters, allowing students to achieve a gradual but definitive change in their everyday habits. Students choose three categories from a list of six: heat, garbage, electricity and water, driving, eating, and activism. For each category the rules are clearly defined, such as turning down the heat three degrees or eliminating the use of the car. Each week the project becomes more rigorous, because students will have to meet the requirements more frequently. They write about their experiences in journals, which are incredibly insightful, illustrating just how profoundly the project affects them.
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The project is used in two courses, both with the theme of understanding the environmental implications of our use of energy, exploring personal energy use, and learning about the types of energy available to Canadians. One is a face-to-face course for Education majors, the other is an on-line course available to all upper-level (3rd and 4th year) students.
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Freshmen enrolled in the Spaceship Earth Living Learning Community conduct research on a real project that is formulated and conducted during a 2-semester academic year.
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Students are introduced to the structure, function and purpose of locks and dams, which involves an introduction to Pascal's law, water pressure and gravity.
In this lab students will explore first hand what sorts of processes occur when scientists and engineers try to identify a landing site for a mission to Mars. This will mimic the process used to select the MER rover landing sites, and what will be used for future missions. First, students briefly become a planetary geologist, engineer or astrobiologist. Second, from the point of view the students feel is appropriate for their new position, and using the same constraints employed by the scientific teams preparing for forthcoming Mars missions, students will identify their top list of candidate landing sites and submit a short report describing them to me by the following class period. Third, in the following class period, all three groups of experts will work together to narrow down the site selection to a top candidate. Where would you send the next lander if the choice was up to you?
Each student group, constituted randomly, is provided with the appropriate role-playing sheet from the lab assignment.
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The Office for Climate Education (OCE) launches an innovative online course: an opportunity for teachers all over the world to learn how to teach about climate change online and for free.
Dissolved ions are present in all freshwater systems, but humans can change the chemical composition of freshwater in several ways. In this activity, students will examine the concentration of major ions in freshwater systems over time and reason about potential drivers of these changes.
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