In this activity, students view a Quicktime video animation based on data from the North American Volcanic and Intrusive Rock Database (NAVDAT) to learn about the history of volcanism in the western U.S. during the last 65 million years. Students are guided through the complex data-rich animation with a series of instructions and study questions which highlight time-space-composition relationships and link to plate tectonics.

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This activity engages learners in exploring the impact of climate change on arctic sea ice in the Bering Sea. They graph and analyze sea ice extent data, conduct a lab on thermal expansion of water, and then observe how a scientist collects long-term data on a bird population.

With this game, students explore the connection between climate, genetic variation and the transmission of hantavirus. A board and game pieces are provided. The resource is supported by teacher background information, assessments, and a scoring rubric. This is Activity 1 of the learning module, Human Health, Climate and Disease: A Critical Connection, part of the lesson series, Potential Consequences of Climate Variability and Change.

Learn about the Chandra X-Ray Observatory's telescope system, science instruments, and spacecraft system in this interactive activity adapted from NASA.

Students are presented with a graph of atmospheric becomes CO² values from Mauna Loa Observatory, and are asked to explore the data by creating a trend line using the linear equation, and then use the equation to predict future becomes CO² levels. Students are asked to describe qualitatively what they have determined mathematically, and suggest reasons for the patterns they observe in the data. A clue to the reason for the data patterning can be deduced by students by following up this activity with the resource, Seasonal Vegetation Changes. The data graph and a student worksheet is included with this activity. This is an activity from Space Update, a collection of resources and activities provided to teach about Earth and space. Summary background information, data and images supporting the activity are available on the Earth Update data site.

Students run a simplified computer model to explore how climate conditions can affect caribou, the most abundant grazing animal in the Arctic.

In this assignment students receive six air photos of a 4 km stretch of Fountain Creek in El Paso Country, Colorado (38.7 N, 104.715 W) taken between 1989 and 2006 and are asked to evaluate and discuss how Fountain Creek has changed through the years. The main nuts and bolts of the assignment are an analysis of these repeat air photos and production of a map that depicts how the course of the river (or its cut-banks, point bars and bank-to-bank width) changes through time. To make this map, students can use trace paper/Mylar, or software such as ArcGIS or Adobe Photoshop or Illustrator, but whatever their method they use they need to be able to establish a scale allowing them to measure and calculate rates of change. What change to quantify is purposely left open ended - students typically focus on measuring rates of cut-bank erosion, point bar migration, bank-to-bank width changes, channel length or sinuosity variation over the prescribed study area - and is usually linked directly to what they decide to map, such as the course of the river or the extent of the 'active' channel. After producing their map and making measurements, the final part of the assignment is synthesis. In the final questions, students are asked to summarize and describe in words what's happening to the channel through time, with reference to their map and calculations, and to consider the environmental conditions that are driving the changes observed.

(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.)

This animation illustrates how the hardiness zones for plants have changed between 1990 and 2006 based data from 5,000 National Climatic Data Center cooperative stations across the continental United States.

In this activity, students research changes to the environment in the Arctic/Bering Sea over time using oral and photographic histories. Developed for Alaska Native students, this activity can be customized for other regions.

This activity requires construction of a simple salinity tester. Students will create their own calibration scale during this experiment, and look at the change in salinity that would arise if freshwater was suddenly dumped into the ocean. Materials needed for this investigation include a DC mill ampere meter, 2 D-cell batteries and holder, bronze sheeting, #18 solid wire, salt, deionized water, and a stream table or pan apparatus to create a hydrologic model of ice-ocean interaction. Included is a student worksheet to guide interpretation of data. The resource is supported by teacher background information, assessment suggestions, and a scoring rubric. This is Activity 3 of the learning module, Water: Here, There, and Everywhere, part of the lesson series, The Potential Consequences of Climate Variability and Change.

Key figure from the 2007 Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report that shows changes in global average surface temperature, global average sea level, and Northern Hemisphere snow cover from as far back as 1850.

In this video adapted from the Arctic Athabaskan Council, learn how warmer temperatures in the Arctic are transforming the landscape, triggering a host of effects such as permafrost thawing and insect infestations.

This video looks at the impact of changing climate on animal habitats around the world, showing how different creatures are responding to changing temperatures and precipitation patterns.

This activity engages students in the analysis of climate data to first find areas in the southern United States that are now close to having conditions in which the malaria parasite and its mosquito hosts thrive and then attempt to forecast when areas might become climatically suitable.

This video addresses the impact of climate change on several butterfly populations. Warming temperatures lead to shifts in location of populations of butterflies or die-offs of populations unable to adapt to changing conditions or shift to new locations.

This video provides a comprehensive introduction to the role of coral reefs, the physiology of corals, and the impacts of ocean warming and acidification on coral survival. It highlights experts from the Bermuda Institute of Ocean Sciences and the University of Miami.

This Changing Planet video documents scientists' concerns regarding how melting Arctic sea ice will increase the amount of fresh water in the Beaufort Gyre, which could spill out into the Atlantic and cause major climate shifts in North America and Western Europe. The video includes interviews with scientists and a look at the basics of how scientists measure salinity in the ocean and how ocean circulation works in the Arctic.

This video illustrates conditions under which two infectious diseases - cholera and dengue fever - flourish, and how climate change is likely to exacerbate those conditions. Note: you may need to scroll down the Changing Planet video page to get to this video.

This NBC Learn video features climate scientists doing their research on Mt. Kilimanjaro to study the climate of the past. The scientists put the recently observed changes on the glacier into perspective by comparing past climate fluctuations, stressing that the current observed rate of change is unprecedented. Note: you will need to scroll down the Changing Planet video page to get to this video.

This video addresses acidification of the ocean and the ecological and economic implications of the resulting pH change on marine life. It includes information about how ocean acidification resulting from increased absorption of CO2 from the atmosphere is affecting ocean species such as sea urchins and oysters. Scientists from the University of California at Santa Barbara discuss their experiments with sea creatures in acidic sea water. There is an associated lesson plan and classroom activity that has students test the effects of CO2 on water pH.