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Earth Sciences of Climate for Middle School

A collection of resources for middle school students to learn about the earth science aspects of the climate and climate change. Cover image credit Government of Canada.

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Assessing Drought in the United States
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Educational Use
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This easy-to-understand video animation describes drought and explains the different categories of drought used by the drought monitor. It discusses the effects of and contributions to drought, what the implications of the different drought levels are, and puts the drought maps into context to understand how the impacts vary geographically (e.g. drought in Nevada vs Kansas - one could affect tourism, the other agriculture). It also touches on how the development of maps/drought severity is determined and how it might vary geographically. The animation provides a basic overview of statistics and percentiles and the concept of '100 year events.'

Subject:
Agriculture
Applied Science
Atmospheric Science
Career and Technical Education
Economics
Environmental Science
Environmental Studies
Physical Science
Social Science
Material Type:
Diagram/Illustration
Reading
Provider:
CLEAN: Climate Literacy and Energy Awareness Network
Provider Set:
CLEAN: Climate Literacy and Energy Awareness Network
Author:
CoCoRaHS
Colorado Climate Center
Date Added:
06/25/2019
Atlas of Change
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In this activity, students explore the web-based U.S. Forest Service Climate Change Atlas to learn about projected climate changes in their state and how suitable habitat for tree and bird species is projected to change by 2100.

Subject:
Applied Science
Career and Technical Education
Ecology
Environmental Science
Environmental Studies
Life Science
Physical Science
Material Type:
Activity/Lab
Provider:
CLEAN: Climate Literacy and Energy Awareness Network
Provider Set:
CLEAN: Climate Literacy and Energy Awareness Network
Author:
PINEMAP Project
University of Florida, Project Learning Tree
Date Added:
09/24/2018
Attacks on a Protective Canopy
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Educational Use
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This is a photo essay linked to a New York Times story about climate-related stressors on forests -- including mountain pine beetles, forest fires, forest clearance, and ice storms -- and the importance of protecting forests as an important carbon sink.

Subject:
Applied Science
Biology
Career and Technical Education
Ecology
Environmental Science
Environmental Studies
Life Science
Physical Science
Material Type:
Diagram/Illustration
Reading
Provider:
CLEAN: Climate Literacy and Energy Awareness Network
Provider Set:
CLEAN: Climate Literacy and Energy Awareness Network
Author:
Josh Haner
The New York Times
Date Added:
05/15/2012
Baking the Breadbasket: Persistent Drought in the Heartland
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In this video, NOAA's Deke Arndt, Chief of the Climate Monitoring Branch at the National Climatic Data Center, recaps the temperature and precipitation data for the continental US in summer 2012. It describes how these conditions have led to drought and reduced crop yields.

Subject:
Agriculture
Applied Science
Atmospheric Science
Career and Technical Education
Environmental Science
Environmental Studies
Physical Science
Provider:
CLEAN: Climate Literacy and Energy Awareness Network
Provider Set:
CLEAN: Climate Literacy and Energy Awareness Network
Author:
Deke Arndt
NOAA
Date Added:
09/24/2018
Beat the Uncertainty: Planning Climate-Resilient Cities
Conditional Remix & Share Permitted
CC BY-NC-SA
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This learning activity explores the concept of resiliency. It allows students to make city planning decisions and then employs a game to test their resilience decisions against potential impacts from severe weather, climate change, and natural hazards.

Subject:
Applied Science
Career and Technical Education
Environmental Science
Environmental Studies
Oceanography
Physical Science
Material Type:
Activity/Lab
Provider:
CLEAN: Climate Literacy and Energy Awareness Network
Provider Set:
CLEAN: Climate Literacy and Energy Awareness Network
Author:
Astrid Kause
Dinh Thai Hung
NOAA
Peg Steffen
Susan Fox
Tarlise Townsend
Than Ngo Duc
Vinh Nguyen Li Ai
Date Added:
09/24/2018
Beetle Outbreaks and Climate Change
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This interactive shows the extent of the killing of lodgepole pine trees in western Canada. The spread of pine beetle throughout British Columbia has devastated the lodgepole pine forests there. This animation shows the spread of the beetle and the increasing numbers of trees affected from 1999-2008 and predicts the spread up until 2015.

Subject:
Life Science
Provider:
CLEAN: Climate Literacy and Energy Awareness Network
Provider Set:
CLEAN: Climate Literacy and Energy Awareness Network
Author:
American Museum of Natural History
Date Added:
10/27/2014
Bering Sea Expedition
Unrestricted Use
CC BY
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Learners research the effects of melting sea ice in the Bering Sea Ecosystem. They create research proposals to earn a place on the scientific research vessel Healy and present their findings and proposals to a Research Board committee.

Subject:
Agriculture
Applied Science
Biology
Career and Technical Education
Ecology
Environmental Science
Environmental Studies
Life Science
Physical Science
Material Type:
Activity/Lab
Provider:
CLEAN: Climate Literacy and Energy Awareness Network
Provider Set:
CLEAN: Climate Literacy and Energy Awareness Network
Author:
Alaska Sea Grant
Alaska Seas and Rivers Curriculum
Date Added:
06/19/2012
The Big Melt
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This is a collection of five short videos that show how climate change is affecting fishing, native populations and access for the oil and gas industry in the Arctic. The videos include personal reflections by writers Andrew C. Revkin and Simon Romero, scientists, and residents about their experience of the impacts of the climate change in the Arctic.

Subject:
Applied Science
Career and Technical Education
Ecology
Economics
Environmental Science
Environmental Studies
Life Science
Oceanography
Physical Science
Social Science
Provider:
CLEAN: Climate Literacy and Energy Awareness Network
Provider Set:
CLEAN: Climate Literacy and Energy Awareness Network
Author:
Andrew C Revkin
Simon Romero
The New York Times
Date Added:
09/24/2018
'The Blob' - The Story of the Pacific Heatwave
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Educational Use
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This video explores the affect on seabirds of a three year ocean warming event (2013-16) in the NW Pacific. With ocean warming, a massive die off occurred based on the decline of food resources.

Subject:
Applied Science
Biology
Career and Technical Education
Ecology
Environmental Science
Environmental Studies
Life Science
Physical Science
Material Type:
Diagram/Illustration
Reading
Provider:
CLEAN: Climate Literacy and Energy Awareness Network
Provider Set:
CLEAN: Climate Literacy and Energy Awareness Network
Author:
Ascentios
Ben M. Collins
Date Added:
11/29/2020
C-ROADS: World Climate Simulator
Unrestricted Use
CC BY
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C-ROADS is a simplified version of a climate simulator. Its primary purpose is to help users understand the long-term climate effects (CO2 concentrations, global temperature, sea level rise) of various customized actions to reduce fossil fuel CO2 emissions, reduce deforestation, and grow more trees. Students can ask multiple, customized what-if questions and understand why the system reacts as it does.

Subject:
Applied Science
Atmospheric Science
Ecology
Environmental Science
Life Science
Oceanography
Physical Science
Material Type:
Simulation
Provider:
CLEAN: Climate Literacy and Energy Awareness Network
Provider Set:
CLEAN: Climate Literacy and Energy Awareness Network
Author:
Climate Interactive
Date Added:
06/19/2012
Can wildlife adapt to climate change? - Erin Eastwood
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Educational Use
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This video focuses on animals that have quickly evolved in order to meet their needs from the impacts of climate change.

Subject:
Applied Science
Biology
Career and Technical Education
Ecology
Environmental Science
Environmental Studies
Life Science
Physical Science
Material Type:
Diagram/Illustration
Reading
Provider:
CLEAN: Climate Literacy and Energy Awareness Network
Provider Set:
CLEAN: Climate Literacy and Energy Awareness Network
Author:
Erin Eastwood
TEDEd
Date Added:
08/01/2022
The Carbon Cycle Game
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Educational Use
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In this activity, students develop concept maps of the carbon cycle through a die-rolling game that simulates carbon reservoirs and fluxes. By the end of this activity, students should be able to describe and explain how the carbon cycle has changed in the last 250 years.

Subject:
Applied Science
Biology
Career and Technical Education
Chemistry
Environmental Science
Environmental Studies
Geology
Life Science
Physical Science
Material Type:
Activity/Lab
Provider:
CLEAN: Climate Literacy and Energy Awareness Network
Provider Set:
CLEAN: Climate Literacy and Energy Awareness Network
Author:
Cheryl Manning
The National Association of Geoscience Teachers
Date Added:
06/27/2022
Carbonated Communities
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Educational Use
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This series of two lessons uses cutting-edge scientific research on the effects of climate change on communities in the intertidal. Through a combination of a dynamic presentation and several videos, students are introduced to the effects of climate change on the ocean (ocean acidification and temperature increase) and what is known about how ocean organisms are affected. Then students read and interpret graphs and construct a scientific explanation based on data from this research.

Subject:
Applied Science
Career and Technical Education
Ecology
Environmental Science
Environmental Studies
Life Science
Oceanography
Physical Science
Material Type:
Activity/Lab
Provider:
CLEAN: Climate Literacy and Energy Awareness Network
Provider Set:
CLEAN: Climate Literacy and Energy Awareness Network
Author:
Lacey Moore
Shape of Life, Sea Studios Foundation
Date Added:
03/02/2020
Ch-Ch-Ch-Changes
Unrestricted Use
CC BY
Rating
0.0 stars

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.

Subject:
Applied Science
Biology
Career and Technical Education
Ecology
Environmental Science
Environmental Studies
Life Science
Oceanography
Physical Science
Material Type:
Activity/Lab
Full Course
Provider:
CLEAN: Climate Literacy and Energy Awareness Network
Provider Set:
CLEAN: Climate Literacy and Energy Awareness Network
Author:
Alaska SeaGrant
Alaska Seas and Rivers Curriculum
Date Added:
06/19/2012
Changes Ahoof: Could Climate Change Affect Arctic Caribou?
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Students run a simplified computer model to explore how climate conditions can affect caribou, the most abundant grazing animal in the Arctic.

Subject:
Applied Science
Biology
Career and Technical Education
Ecology
Environmental Science
Environmental Studies
Life Science
Physical Science
Material Type:
Activity/Lab
Provider:
CLEAN: Climate Literacy and Energy Awareness Network
Provider Set:
CLEAN: Climate Literacy and Energy Awareness Network
Author:
Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History
Date Added:
06/19/2012
Changes in Hardiness Zones
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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.

Subject:
Agriculture
Applied Science
Biology
Career and Technical Education
Ecology
Environmental Science
Environmental Studies
Life Science
Physical Science
Provider:
CLEAN: Climate Literacy and Energy Awareness Network
Provider Set:
CLEAN: Climate Literacy and Energy Awareness Network
Author:
Arbor Day Foundation
Date Added:
09/24/2018
Changing Planet: Adaptation of Butterflies
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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.

Subject:
Applied Science
Biology
Career and Technical Education
Ecology
Environmental Science
Environmental Studies
Life Science
Physical Science
Provider:
CLEAN: Climate Literacy and Energy Awareness Network
Provider Set:
CLEAN: Climate Literacy and Energy Awareness Network
Author:
National Earth Science Teachers Association
Windows to the Universe/NBC Learn
Date Added:
09/24/2018
Changing Planet: Fading Corals
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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.

Subject:
Applied Science
Biology
Career and Technical Education
Ecology
Environmental Science
Environmental Studies
Life Science
Physical Science
Provider:
CLEAN: Climate Literacy and Energy Awareness Network
Provider Set:
CLEAN: Climate Literacy and Energy Awareness Network
Author:
NBC Learn/Windows to the Universe
Date Added:
09/24/2018
Changing Planet: Ocean Acidification
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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.

Subject:
Oceanography
Physical Science
Provider:
CLEAN: Climate Literacy and Energy Awareness Network
Provider Set:
CLEAN: Climate Literacy and Energy Awareness Network
Author:
NBC News
Windows to the Universe
Date Added:
10/27/2014
Changing Planet: Ocean Temperatures
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This video follows Bermuda scientists into the field as they collect data that documents a warming trend in ocean temperatures. BIOS Director Tony Knapp discusses some of the impact of warming temperatures on sea levels, storms, and marine ecosystems.

Subject:
Applied Science
Career and Technical Education
Environmental Science
Environmental Studies
Oceanography
Physical Science
Provider:
CLEAN: Climate Literacy and Energy Awareness Network
Provider Set:
CLEAN: Climate Literacy and Energy Awareness Network
Author:
NASA/Windows on the Universe
NBC Learn
Date Added:
10/27/2014