In this set of activities, students learn about impacts of drought through news videos of communities facing serious water shortages, analyze drought data and models, and research and evaluate potential solutions. This lesson works well as a component within a larger unit on climate change, its impacts, and ways to address the resulting issues.

Through this set of lessons, students learn about the impacts of water shortages due to drought, make connections to climate patterns, and explore community resiliency solutions. The lessons engage students in evaluating solutions for a particular case study community. Students will need to do additional research on solutions, but by the end of the lesson, students will be able to articulate how drought, although a localized problem, has far-reaching impacts, and to suggest solutions to a problem that is projected to intensify as the climate continues to change.

SYNOPSIS: In this lesson, students practice civic engagement by researching and writing a proposal for climate resiliency and scarce water allocation in the Deschutes River Watershed and presenting it in a mock Town Hall meeting.

SCIENTIST NOTES: The lesson allows students to propose ways to solve water scarcity in their local communities and engage with key stakeholders and policymakers to design policies that will enable local communities in Oregon to manage their water resources while building their resilience to climate change. The lesson and all the accompanying materials were reviewed and are suitable for teaching.

POSITIVES:
-Students engage in a mock Town Hall and learn how to build community while voicing community concerns.
-Students practice listening skills and engage in discourse over an important issue.
-Students learn to collaborate with different stakeholders and diverse voices, working together to find a solution that best fits a community.
-Students practice using local research to support their ideas.
-Students learn to write and present a proposal.
-The lesson can be spread out over two to four days, with a full day for research, a full day for the Town Hall, a day for voting or decision-making, and a day for letter writing and sharing in the class.

ADDITIONAL PREREQUISITES:
-Students should have an understanding of media literacy and best research practices.
-Students should have a basic understanding of rhetorical structure and devices for persuasion in oral delivery techniques.
-Teachers should review the general overview and agenda in the Town Hall Guide and make adjustments as needed.
-You will need to make a copy of the Student Slideshow for each group of students and grant them editing rights before the lesson. Students will be writing in the Student Slideshow.

DIFFERENTIATION:
-Students with little experience in persuasive speaking could use some instruction on rhetorical methods and devices using these resources:
-41 Rhetorical Devices That Will Make Your Words Memorable
-How to Use Rhetoric to Get What You Want
-PBS Literary Elements & Techniques: Imagery and Figurative Language.
-Students could develop their research into a Community Action Project proposing policy to actual stakeholders.
-Students could connect with local stream restoration projects or organizations as a hands-on learning experience.
-Students could lead a school community education campaign to spread awareness of water-saving techniques.

This series of visualizations is part of a rich multi-agency effort to showcase the usefulness of open data (i.e., data provided in a discoverable, sharable, and machine-readable format) by exploring the 16-year drought as of 2016 and its effects on the Colorado River Basin.

The Dynamic Integrated Climate Change (DICE) model assumes a single world producer must chose levels for three simultaneously determined variables: current consumption, investment, and greenhouse gases reduction. The model is freely available in both a GAMS and Excel version. DICE allows both science and economics instructors to integrate a sophisticated economic model of climate change into their courses. The simulation is for upper-division courses where students have some background in microeconomics. The principle developer is William Nordhaus at Yale University.

Using US Drought Monitor data and its classification system, this interactive tool tracks drought in the continental US by county, from 2000 to the present.

In the growing season, farmers and ranchers keep a watchful eye for any sign of drought. Early warning information can increase their range of options for dealing with the lack of water.

Students first learn about the complexities of Earth's climate system and the different factors contributing to Earth's energy balance. Then, students categorize the factors that influence climate as warming or cooling factors. Finally, students design art pieces to depict the science behind Earth's climate system and share these artistic creations with families and communities.

This video illustrates the environmental challenges and achievements since Earth Day was established in 1970. It can be used as an extension or engagement resource. However, it would need to be carefully framed with the objectives of the lesson.

Using real data, this animated video provides numerous facts comparing human behaviors and Earth characteristics related to climate change through time - from the first Earth Day in 1970, to the 50th anniversary of Earth Day in 2020.

DATA: Global Digital Elevation Model (DEM) TOOLS: GeoMapApp, Spreadsheet SUMMARY: Use GeoMapApp to search for evidence of glacial expansion and retreat. Produce a research report of your findings modeled on peer-reviewed papers in the field of glaciology.

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DATA: SHALDRIL Core Data; NOAA Pollen data TOOL: GeoMapApp SUMMARY: Import Antarctic sediment core data files into GeoMapApp to create maps and graphs. Use data to infer past climate conditions based on current vegetation distributions.

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DATA: Pollen Viewer. TOOLS: Analyzing Digital Images, Spreadsheet. SUMMARY: Study the relationship between climate and the distribution of plants across North America, import data into spreadsheet and graph.

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DATA: Forest Inventory and Analysis data, TOOLS: isee Player, Spreadsheet application. SUMMARY: Compare field collected data with results produced by a forest biomass model to understand the process and challenges scientists face when doing terrestrial carbon cycle research.

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In this virtual professional development opportunity designed for teachers, EarthGen explores two global crises taking place concurrently - the climate crisis and COVID-19. What are the connections between the two? Why are BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, People of Color) communities disproportionately affected by both? Educators receive foundational information around climate justice, analyze the variables associated with vulnerability, exposure, and risk, and explore educational resources to bring this content into their classrooms.Contact EarthGen at info@earthgenwa.org for more information.

This visualization provides an informative summary of the quarterly seasonal global weather and climate using the 3-D Science on a Sphere format. These video summaries use animations of recent NOAA data and an engaging commentary to review the climate highlights of the past 4 seasons. Topics include, El Nino/La Nina, temperature trends, extreme weather, and emerging climate research.

This monthly bulletin and animation provides regular and reliable visualizations of world weather and climate events of the previous month using NOAA data. Archives are available from October 2011 to present.

Rapid changes at Earth's surface, largely in response to human activity, have led to the realization that fundamental questions remain to be answered regarding the natural functioning of the Critical Zone, the thin veneer at Earth's surface where the atmosphere, lithosphere, hydrosphere and biosphere interact. EARTH 530 will introduce you to the basics necessary for understanding Earth surface processes in the Critical Zone through an integration of various scientific disciplines. Those who successfully complete EARTH 530 will be able to apply their knowledge of fundamental concepts of Earth surface processes to understanding outstanding fundamental questions in Critical Zone science and how their lives are intimately linked to Critical Zone health.

This video segment adapted from NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center discusses how a drought can have negative effects locally, for example by increasing the number of forest fires, and also globally, for example by impacting air quality thousands of miles away.

The Eemian age was the last time the Earth is believed to have been warmer than today. However, this warm period occurred with Greenhouse gas concentrations in the atmosphere that were similar to those during the pre-industrial era. Students will use a simplified climate model and with Eemian orbital conditions to try and reproduce this previous warm period. Students will then use modern orbital forcing but elevated greenhouse gas concentrations to look at the modern and future climates. Students will try and understand the differences between these two contrasting warm climates.
Eemian and modern warm climates (Acrobat (PDF) 241kB Nov10 16)

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