This lesson covers the definitions of differences between weather and climate. Students will discuss local climates in Washinton state, then they will dicsuss climates around the world and collaborate to determine distinct attributes of different climates. For this lesson, the focus will be on the ice block activity to demonstrate how a changing climate affects the local ecosystem.

In this video segment adapted from NOVA: Becoming Human, learn how the analysis of rock layers and ocean sediments supports the theory that rapid climate change may have jump-started human evolution two million years ago.

This resource aims to promote climate literacy across disciplines by exploring and documenting the many ways in which climate has impacted, and continues to influence life on Earth. To do so, this resource focuses on connecting historical events and works of art, literature and music, among other aspects of human society and culture, to specific climate events in Earth’s history, and explains the science behind the climatic changes.

As we move into an increasingly uncertain future, understanding the effects of past climate fluctuations is becoming more important for coping with present and future climate changes initiated and accelerated by human activities.

Earth Systems and Changes from Educational Service District 123, provides professional learning resources for K-5 teachers around elementary Earth Science and Climate Science related standards content.

It also provides learning to assist in the development of classroom tasks: Claims, Evidence Reasoning, and Models and Explanations, that can be used formatively to elicit student ideas and to support changes in student thinking over time.

License: License: Commons Attribution 4.0 (CC BY)
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The purpose of this resource is to have students observe their lilac plants and identify the five phenophases (first leaf, full or 95% leafed, first bloom, full bloom and end of bloom) for each lilac plant. During the growing season, students will observe their lilac plants and identify the five phenophases (first leaf, full or 95% leafed, first bloom, full bloom and end of bloom) for each lilac plant.

Learn about cloud formations over the Sierra Nevada Mountains in this video from Nature.

This professional development article identifies resources that show young learners (K-grade 5) how scientists study Earth's climate and make predictions. The online lessons either allow students to collect and analyze data or learn about tools and technologies that make data collection possible. The lessons are aligned with national content standards for science education. The article appears in the free, online magazine Beyond Weather and the Water Cycle, which examines the recognized essential principles of climate literacy and the climate sciences for elementary teachers and their students.

This article lists common misconceptions about weather, climate change, and the polar regions. It provides formative assessment probes and information about teaching for conceptual change.

This article from the free online magazine Beyond Weather and the Water Cycle provides appropriate science lessons for Grades K-5. The focus is on acquainting young learners with climate-change concepts that are not too complex for their grade level and will not frighten them. In each issue, the magazine develops articles around one of the seven essential principles of climate science. The author believes early lessons about water availability and extreme weather events will prepare students for complex climate concepts they will encounter in later grades.

We design and create objects to make our lives easier and more comfortable. The houses in which we live are excellent examples of this. Depending on your local climate, the features of your house have been designed to satisfy your particular environmental needs: protection from hot, cold, windy and/or rainy weather. In this activity, students design and build model houses, then test them against various climate elements, and then re-design and improve them. Using books, websites and photos, students learn about the different types of roofs found on various houses in different environments throughout the world.

This activity proposes different small experiments and discussions to show that in the summer it is cooler by the sea than on the land and that water cools off more slowly than soil.

Think science has all the answers? Think again. This course will use real, authentic data to explore and investigate modern controversies in Earth Sciences. Use tide gauge records to understand how countries around the world attempt to protect themselves from tsunami events. Process seismic data to predict earthquake recurrence in the New Madrid seismic zone, right here in the breadbasket of the US. Sort through the millions of years of the geologic timeline to shed some light on what actually did, and did not, kill the dinosaurs. Finally, use global atmospheric data to understand how misrepresentation of data can be used to paint a distorted view of past, present, and future climate.

The concepts that underlie the fourth essential principle of climate literacy ("Climate varies over space and time through both natural and man-made processes.") are too complex for students in early and upper-level elementary school, but the foundational knowledge can be taught within existing curriculums and standards. This foundational knowledge will lead to understanding in later years. The author shows the correlation to the national science education standards, identifies misconceptions among elementary school students, suggests formative assessment probes, and identifies lessons and activities to make curriculum connections. The free, online magazine Beyond Weather and the Water Cycle is based on the seven essential principles of the climate sciences.

In this lesson, students find their location on a map using Latitude and Longitudinal coordinates. They determine where they should go to be rescued and how best to get there.

In this classroom activity, students record the temperatures in and around a walk-in refrigerator or freezer to see how cold air behaves when it meets warmer air. The printable five-page handout includes a series of inquiry-based questions to get students thinking about how the temperature of air changes its density, detailed experiment directions and a worksheet that helps students use the experiment results to obtain insight into the wind patterns of Antarctica.

In this lesson, students learn watercolour techniques, identify their target audience and create a rubric, and complete their artwork.

Step 1 - Inquire: Students analyze Jill Pelto works of art, learn how colours create emotion, and practice their watercolour techniques.

Step 2 - Investigate: As a class, students identify their target audience and create a corresponding rubric.

Step 3 - Inspire: Students complete their artwork.

In this lesson, students analyze data, create line graphs, conduct research, and plan their data art project.

Step 1 - Inquire: Students analyze their own data from the previous lesson.

Step 2 - Investigate: Students create a line graph and conduct research on their topic.

Step 3 - Inspire: Students plan their data art project.

In this video segment adapted from Navajo Technical College, meet a dendroclimatologist who studies the relationship between precipitation and tree growth in the Navajo Nation.

This article provides links to web sites that describe the Arctic and Antarctica in terms of geography, climate, and ecosystems.

This jigsaw activity introduces students with Arctic weather data using a role-playing activity that has students read and interpret graphs while considering the optimal time to plan a research mission to the Arctic.