This is the ninth and final lesson in a series of lessons about climate change. This lesson focuses on the various activities that humans can do to mitigate the effects of climate change. This includes information on current and predicted CO2 emission scenarios across the globe, alternative energy sources, and how people are currently responding to climate change. Importantly, this lesson is motivating in showing students that they can make a difference.

Watch a reaction proceed over time. How does total energy affect a reaction rate? Vary temperature, barrier height, and potential energies. Record concentrations and time in order to extract rate coefficients. Do temperature dependent studies to extract Arrhenius parameters. This simulation is best used with teacher guidance because it presents an analogy of chemical reactions.

Watch a reaction proceed over time. How does total energy affect a reaction rate? Vary temperature, barrier height, and potential energies. Record concentrations and time in order to extract rate coefficients. Do temperature dependent studies to extract Arrhenius parameters. This simulation is best used with teacher guidance because it presents an analogy of chemical reactions.

Students learn how water is used to generate electricity. They investigate water's potential-to-kinetic energy transformation in hands-on activities about falling water and waterwheels. During the activities, they take measurements, calculate averages and graph results. Students also learn the history of the waterwheel and how engineers use water turbines in hydroelectric power plants today. They discover the advantages and disadvantages of hydroelectric power. In a literacy activity, students learn and write about an innovative new hydro-electrical power generation technology.

Students learn how and why engineers design satellites to benefit life on Earth, as well as explore motion, rockets and rocket motion. Through six lessons and 10 associated hands-on activities, students discover that the motion of all objects everything from the flight of a rocket to the movement of a canoe is governed by Newton's three laws of motion. This unit introduces students to the challenges of getting into space for the purpose of exploration. The ideas of thrust, weight and control are explored, helping students to fully understand what goes into the design of rockets and the value of understanding these scientific concepts. After learning how and why the experts make specific engineering choices, students also learn about the iterative engineering design process as they design and construct their own model rockets. Then students explore triangulation, a concept that is fundamental to the navigation of satellites and global positioning systems designed by engineers; by investigating these technologies, they learn how people can determine their positions and the locations of others.

This role-playing activity allows students to learn more about the six general ways Americans respond to climate change and engage in conversations while embodying these groups. Students will be able to describe the different ways Americans respond to climate change and develop arguments to support their claims.

Through this activity, students come to understand the environmental design considerations required when generating electricity. The electric power that we use every day at home and work is usually generated by a variety of power plants. Power plants are engineered to utilize the conversion of one form of energy to another. The main components of a power plant are an input source of energy that is used to turn large turbines, and a method to convert the turbine rotation into electricity. The input sources of energy include fossil fuels (coal, natural gas and oil), wind, water, nuclear materials and refuse. This activity focuses on how much energy can be converted to electricity from many of these input sources. It also considers the impact of the by-products associated with using these natural resources, and looks at electricity requirements. To do this, students research and evaluate the electricity needs of their community, the available local resources for generating electricity, and the impact of using those resources.

Students explore whether rooftop gardens are a viable option for combating the urban heat island effect. Can rooftop gardens reduce the temperature inside and outside houses? Teams each design and construct two model buildings using foam core board, one with a "green roof" and the other with a black tar paper roof. They measure and graph the ambient and inside building temperatures while under heat lamps and fans. Then students analyze the data and determine whether the rooftop gardens are beneficial to the inhabitants.

This project looks to combine the legacies of these three titans of American history, including Theodore Roosevelt, Franklin Roosevelt, and Eleanor Roosevelt, to develop policy priorities and an action plan that will enable us to move beyond the false choice of economic growth or environmental security.

With the use of famous movie clips, Michael Webber illustrates the nexus between water supplies and energy resources, the expanding reliance between them, and how the loss of one impacts the other. He builds a case for examining the challenges this poses and how to plan for mitigating the problems and conflicts that will inevitably arise. (57 minutes0

Examine how consumer behavior is changing in response to new products and services enabled by smart technologies and what additional measures are needed to facilitate consumer acceptance and response, to engage businesses and drive the necessary commercial transactions for widespread acceptance of smart energy technology. (59 minutes)

Michael Siminovitch, Director of the California Lighting Technology Center, presents the interesting history of the compact fluorescent light. The discussion that follows includes Tim Tutt of the California Energy Commission and Michael Neils, of M. Neils Engineering. (83 minutes)

David Goldstein of the Natural Resources Defense Council takes a look at the energy use of new appliances like refrigerators compared to the continued energy inefficiency of SUVs. Goldstein is a MacArthur fellow and the author of Saving Energy Growing Jobs. The discussion includes David Greene of the Oak Ridge National Laboratory. (56 minutes)

This segment introduces the June 2010 Conference on Smart Energy Technology in California. (26 minutes)

Will smart energy technology enable the state to meet its policy goals for reducing electricity use, peak load, carbon emissions and consumer energy costs? Discover what technical advances and policy decisions must be made to truly capitalize on the energy savings that smart infrastructure can deliver. (57 minutes)

Students learn about five types of renewable energy that are part of engineering solutions to help people in rural communities use less and cleaner energy for cooking and heating. Specifically, students learn about the pollution and health challenges facing families in rural China, and they are introduced to the concept of optimization. Through an energy game, students differentiate between renewable and non-renewable sources of energy.

Fossil fuels -- coal, natural gas, and oil -- provide the large majority of our power in the United States and around the world. In this episode of TILclimate (Today I Learned: Climate), John Reilly of the MIT Joint Program on the Science and Policy of Global Change joins host Laur Hesse Fisher to demystify fossil fuels: what are the different kinds of fossil fuels, and how do they compare to each other? What is “fracking” and how did impact energy use and CO2 emissions in the United States? What kinds of decisions do we need to make to transition to clean energy, while providing electricity to a growing number of people?

In this mini-episode of TILclimate (Today I Learned: Climate), host Laur Hesse Fisher breaks down what we’re actually talking about when we use the word “energy”. In a few minutes, we cover the difference between energy and electricity, and the big picture strategy for how to reduce CO2 for each.

We hear a lot about technologies that produce carbon-free energy, but what about actually using less energy to begin with? In this episode of TILclimate (Today I Learned Climate), Harvey Michaels, lecturer at the MIT Sloan School of Management, joins host Laur Hesse Fisher to explore the three ways that energy efficiency can help us reduce carbon emissions.

Hydrogen gas acts like a fossil fuel, but with no carbon emissions. Is it the silver bullet we’ve been waiting for? Prof. Svetlana Ikonnikova of the Technical University of Munich joins us to bring light to how hydrogen works and its potential in the energy transition.