Stratified lakes exhibit vertical gradients in organisms, nutrients, and oxygen, which have important implications for ecosystem structure and functioning. Mixing disrupts these gradients by redistributing these materials throughout the water column. Consequently, it is critical to understand the drivers of lake mixing and thermal stratification, especially because of the sensitivity of lake thermal conditions to altered climate. In this module, students will explore spatial and temporal patterns of lake mixing using high-frequency temperature data from lakes around the world. They will also explore how increases in air temperature affect thermal stratification by interpreting output from a lake model. Project EDDIE modules are designed with an A-B-C structure to make them flexible and adaptable to a range of student levels and course structures.

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Students create a model of sea level rise based on the melting of land ice, sea ice, or grounded ice. Student predictions are recorded and models are run. Making explanations based on data, cause and effect, and asking questions are emphasized in this activity.

LandTalk is a citizen science and environmental history project that documents through interviews

how local landscapes change over time. Its goal is to provide an opportunity for conversations between generations, and a chance to learn from observers about changes they have seen.

Land Talk is a great exercise to do with students of most ages. Several lesson plans, based on the Next Generation Science and Core Curriculum standards, have been developed to complement the project. While these plans target standards for specific grade levels, they are intended to be adapted to other grades and subjects.

This reading seminar examines land, water, food, and climate in a changing world, with an emphasis on key scientific questions about the connections between natural resources and food production. Students read and discuss papers on a range of topics, including water and land resources, climate change, demography, agroecology, biotechnology, trade, and food security. The readings are supplemented by short lectures that provide context and summarize main points. The seminar provides a broad perspective on one of the defining global issues of this century. Students consider scientific controversies as well as areas of general agreement and examine practical solutions for addressing critical problems.

In this activity for undergraduates, students explore the CLIMAP (Climate: Long-Range Investigation, Mapping and Prediction) model results for differences between the modern and the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM) and discover the how climate and vegetation may have changed in different regions of the Earth based on scientific data.

This video primarily focuses on comparing the current global warming trend compared to a previous time in Earth's history when the global average temperature also increased.

In this lesson, students will learn about how volcanoes are created. Includes video links, discussion, and activity instructions.

NGSS: 2-ESS1-1

Time: 50 minutes

Materials: bucket of clay and toothpicks

Students create a web and define the word "resilience," read a blog about the resilience of one Brooklyn school community that was hit by Hurricane Sandy, and consider what being prepared and resilient might mean at their own school.

This article highlights lessons that help K-grade 5 students understand that animals and plants can only survive in certain environments.The lessons support the theme of an issue of the free online magazine Beyond Weather and the Water Cycle. The theme is "We Depend on Earth's Climate."

Three types of climate proxies -- tree rings, fossils, and ice cores -- are the subjects of lessons that will help K-5 students understand that Earth's climate has been different in the past and that scientists can reveal its history. This article is from the science lessons column of the free, online magazine Beyond Weather and the Water Cycle. The magazine is structured around the seven essential principles of climate literacy and identifies age-appropriate resources for young learners.

Concepts underlying the first of the Essential Principles of the Climate Sciences are aligned with topics typically taught in the elementary grades. This article identifies lessons that will help elementary students develop an understanding of how Sun's light warms Earth and how variations in daylight hours are associated with seasonal change. This article appears in the free, online magazine Beyond Weather and the Water Cycle.

This article includes lessons that elementary teachers can use to build the foundations of climate literacy while meeting elementary science standards. Lessons are paired with literacy activities as well.

If you follow environmental news at all, you'll be familiar with the most common cause of extinction in the world today: habitat loss. Habitat destruction threatens the survival of some the world's most charismatic organisms animals like the giant panda, the Sumatran tiger, and the Asian elephant. Humans have encroached on the wilderness in order to farm, mine, log, and build, and in the process, we've pushed the natural inhabitants of those areas into smaller and smaller refuges. Making matters worse, global climate change caused by our production of greenhouse gases is altering the environments within those refuges, forcing species to contend with new challenges. While these might seem like entirely modern problems, recent research indicates that's not the case and that current levels of habitat loss and climate change could have devastating consequences.

This activity allows students to examine graphs of sea level rise data as well as global temperature data. They calculate amounts and rates of sea level rise for various time periods and answer questions discussing the data. They then compare the sea level rise trends to those in a graph of temperature data.

In this activity, students conduct a life cycle assessment of energy used and produced in ethanol production, and a life cycle assessment of carbon dioxide used and produced in ethanol production.

With two simple classroom experiments and easy-to-read text, this original story is designed to introduce young learners to the greenhouse effect. The author provides different versions of the story for grades K-2 and 3-5, as well as different formats for differentiated instruction. The free online magazine Beyond Weather and the Water Cycle focuses on principles of climate literacy that are appropriate for young learners.

This multi-week project begins with a measurement of baseline consumptive behavior followed by three weeks of working to reduce the use of water, energy, high-impact foods, and other materials. The assignment uses an Excel spreadsheet that calculates direct energy and water use as well as indirect CO2 and water use associated with food consumption. After completing the project, students understand that they do indeed play a role in the big picture. They also learn that making small changes to their lifestyles is not difficult and they can easily reduce their personal impact on the environment.

The Lifestyle Project is a way for students to learn about environmental alternatives by modifying their own lifestyles. It is a three-week exercise for students to reduce their impact on the environment by changing the way in which they live from day to day. The project has fairly rigid parameters, allowing students to achieve a gradual but definitive change in their everyday habits. Students choose three categories from a list of six: heat, garbage, electricity and water, driving, eating, and activism. For each category the rules are clearly defined, such as turning down the heat three degrees or eliminating the use of the car. Each week the project becomes more rigorous, because students will have to meet the requirements more frequently. They write about their experiences in journals, which are incredibly insightful, illustrating just how profoundly the project affects them.

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This five-week project asks students to examine the environmental outcomes of their lifestyle choices, to investigate and try out more sustainable choices, and to write about their experiences.

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I use the Lifestyle Project in my Introduction to Environmental Issues class. This 3-week project asks students to make changes to their everyday environmental habits. This helps students realize that they have control of their lives and they can make decisions and make changes if they want to. And, given this empowerment, students can think about their impacts on Earth and their obligations to the planet and our society.

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