This activity uses two interactive simulations to illustrate climate change, 1) at the micro/molecular level - modeling the impact of increasing concentrations of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere on surface temperature and 2) at the macro level - modeling changes in glacier thickness and flow as a result of rising surface temperature.

This sequence of activities using real-world data to explain the importance of coral reefs and the relationship of coral reef health to the surrounding environment. Unit includes five activities.

This activity has students use an Earth Systems perspective to identify the various causes associated with changes to Earth's forests as they review Landsat imagery of site locations from around the world.

This is a sequence of 5 classroom activities focusing on the El NiÃo climate variability. The activities increase in complexity and student-directedness. The focus of the activities is on accessing and manipulating real data to help students understand El NiÃo as an interaction of Earth systems.

In this activity learners investigate the link between ocean temperatures and hurricane intensity, analyze instrumental and historical data, and explore possible future changes.

This video reviews the benefits and drawbacks associated with growing corn to make ethanol.

This resource is a video abstract of a research paper created by Research Square on behalf of its authors. It provides a synopsis that's easy to understand, and can be used to introduce the topics it covers to students, researchers, and the general public. The video's transcript is also provided in full, with a portion provided below for preview:

"A research team at MIT has spent years trying to unravel how climate change will affect Earth’s habitability in the future. Using sophisticated computer simulations, they’ve shown that extreme heatwaves will sweep across a region spanning southwest and south Asia, potentially rendering some areas inhospitable to human life. Now, in the third part of this ongoing study, they’ve shifted focus to China – currently the largest emitter of greenhouse gases in the world. Using regional climate models that examine how irrigation impacts surface conditions, the team found that the current pace of greenhouse gas emissions will leave North China Plain, an intensely irrigated region that is presently home to about 400 million people, vulnerable to extreme heatwaves, making it difficult for humans to survive in what is now one of the most densely populated regions on Earth. The reason? Irrigation exacerbates heatwave conditions, worsening the impact of climate change..."

The rest of the transcript, along with a link to the research itself, is available on the resource itself.

Boston strives for carbon neutrality by 2050, but faces hurdles with its reliance on fossil fuels. Buildings contribute most to emissions, driven by electricity and natural gas. Decarbonizing the grid and eliminating natural gas are vital for success. While progress has been made, meeting targets remains uncertain. Priorities include electrifying buildings, local energy planning, coastal resilience, and climate justice.

This short video illustrates how warming ocean temperature is a major factor in climate change, particularly the increase in severity of extreme weather (notably storms and drought).

This video is an episode of Above the Noise from PBS Digital Studios that engages students in thinking about drought and water shortages worldwide. Supporting materials include background reading on water shortages, a transcript of the video, a handout for viewing Above the Noise episodes (not specific to water shortages), teaching tips, activities, and discussion questions. The video is an engaging introduction to the topic and is best used as part of a larger lesson plan.

This video is part two of a seven-part National Academies series, Climate Change: Lines of Evidence. The video outlines, with the use of recent research and historical data, how we know that the Earth is warming.

Data-centric activity where students explore the connections between an observable change in the cryosphere and its potential impact in the hydrosphere and atmosphere. Students analyze the melt extents on the Greenland ice sheet from 1992-2003. Students also learn about how scientists collect the data.

SYNOPSIS: In this lesson, students examine the nutritional value and environmental impact of non-dairy alternatives as a replacement to traditional dairy.

SCIENTIST NOTES: Milk sourced from cows has, by far, the largest environmental impact of all of the milk options. But when it comes to the non-dairy competitors, there is no clear winner, as this lesson investigates. All of the resources in this lesson have passed the scientific review process.

POSITIVES:
-Students undergo the process of identifying a possible issue, gathering evidence to prove or deny it, and proposing a solution to it.
-Students have a voice in their school environment and culture.
-Students learn about new foods and lifestyles.

ADDITIONAL PREREQUISITES:
-Teachers may need to prepare for the possibility of their students presenting to the school administration and/or board.
-Teachers may need to clarify the meaning of “dairy” and “non-dairy” to students.

DIFFERENTIATION:
-Students work in small groups, providing multiple opportunities for students to problem solve before asking the teacher.
-Teachers can have students explore the more advanced table in the science article or look through FoodData Central if that is too advanced.

In essence, this is an opportunity for students to practice calculating trends with uncertainties to draw conclusions about whether or not there is a trend in hurricane intensity. It follows closely with the IPCC AR4 findings, and is guided so that students will know exactly what they have to do - step by step. Please see the attached document for the bulk of the activity. There are some additional instructor's notes that give a little more background on the concepts involved with confidence intervals and trends. There is also an excel file with all of the necessary data already tabulated for the exercise - so you don't need to go find it yourself unless you want to.

(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.)

SYNOPSIS: In this lesson, students learn about greenwashing, watch a series of videos, and write a paragraph arguing if an advertisement is greenwashing or not.

SCIENTIST NOTES: This lesson introduces the concept of greenwashing and ways students can spot greenwashing by companies. The videos and accompanying materials embedded in the lesson are suitable to explain this concept. This lesson has passed our review process, and it is recommended for classroom use.

POSITIVES:
-This lesson teaches students to critically examine digital media. As digital citizens, they must be aware of how to tell fact from fiction.
-Students get voice and choice in this lesson. Students select their own videos and are able to argue if it is greenwashing or not.

ADDITIONAL PREREQUISITES:
-Students will most likely argue that all the videos are examples of greenwashing.
-Encourage students to dig around the corporation’s website to see if the claims are actually true.
-Encourage students to scroll to the bottom of the corporations' websites. Students can usually find a site map, including pages like "sustainability."
-Students can use the "More Resources on Greenwashing" slide to help them understand greenwashing.

DIFFERENTIATION:
-In their paragraphs, weaker students can focus on music, the tone of the narrator’s voice, or imagery in the videos.

-You can push stronger students to include more concrete evidence in their paragraphs.
-Most students will benefit from color coding their sentences. Encourage them to keep their text highlighted as they write. They can even keep their paragraphs color coded after they finish.
-Weaker students may write only five sentences. Stronger students may write more sentences by adding context to their supporting evidence sentences.
-If students are struggling with their closing sentences, ask them to read their claim sentences aloud. Sometimes this helps guide their thinking.
-Stronger students who finish early can edit one another's paragraphs for mechanical errors, read their paragraphs out loud to one another, or discuss their chosen videos and greenwashing in general.
-Students may be interested in reading a series of fact sheets on greenwashing in the aviation industry, like this one on electric flight.

Students use climate model output to compare past, present and future climate and consider the impacts of human activity on climate.

SYNOPSIS: This lesson gives students the opportunity to experience a simplified version of how mathematicians and scientists use data analysis and statistics to determine how much our planet is warming due to climate change. Students will create a data table and scatter plot and use linear regression to make predictions about the future.

SCIENTIST NOTES: This lesson develops students' statistical skills to analyze weather data, compute trends and variance, and fit scatter plots in regression to understand climate variability in U.S. cities. All materials embedded in the lesson are thoroughly sourced. Accordingly, this lesson is recommended for classroom use.

POSITIVES:
-This lesson fosters independence by letting students choose their city, find their own data, create their own data table and graph, and analyze their data using guiding questions.
-Students get to use what they learned in the lesson to practice discussing climate change with people who might be skeptical or misinformed.

ADDITIONAL PREREQUISITES:
-Students need access to their own computer (or teachers could have students work in partners if devices are limited).
-Students should be familiar with graphing in Google Sheets.

DIFFERENTIATION:
-Teachers could use this lesson as a mini-project to assess students' understanding of graphing, data analysis, and/or linear regression.
-For lower levels, teachers can instruct all students to select the same city (use the city from the example graph if you want to make sure there is a positive association).
-For higher levels, students can look at multiple cities in different regions and compare their scatter plots.
-This article can be used as an extension or follow up activity for early finishers or students who are interested in learning more.

This lesson explores if it is normal that world temperatures are rising at the currently observed fast pace.

In the wake of a hurricane and beset by an economic recession, the University of Texas Medical Branch on Galveston Island rebuilt for future resilience.