Ecosystem Relationships. Climate Change: A Wisconsin Activity Guide. Wisconsin DNR. Grades 7-12.
http://dnr.wi.gov/org/caer/ce/eek/teacher/Climateguide/PDF/03-4650-relationship.pdf. This section of the Activity Guide provides an activity and worksheets to help students understand that the living and nonliving components of an ecosystem are intricately linked to one another. It also helps students understand how climate change will impact Wisconsin.
Ocean Impacts on an El Nino Event. My NASA Data. Grades 9-12.
http://mynasadata.larc.nasa.gov/preview_lesson.php?passid=68. This lesson explores El Niño by looking at sea surface temperature, sea surface height, and wind vectors in order to seek out any correlations there may be among these three variables, using the My NASA Data Live Access Server. The lesson guides the students through data representing the strong El Niño from 1997 to 1998. In this way, students will model the methods of researchers who bring their expertise to study integrated science questions.
Learning Polar Oceanography: Ocean Currents and Climate Connections. PBS. Grades 9-12.
http://www.pbs.org/newshour/extra/teachers/lessonplans/science/jan-june08/polar_oceanography.html. This series of activities introduce students to polar oceanography, polar climate and how events that occur in oceans thousands of kilometers away affect them and the mid-latitudes using maps, images, lab experiments and online data tools. Students explore how conditions are changing in the Polar Regions and the possible impacts upon life in the United States and other mid-latitude nations.
Earth’s Energy Cycle - Albedo. National Center for Atmospheric Research. Grades 6-8.
http://eo.ucar.edu/educators/ClimateDiscovery/ESS_lesson4_10.19.05.pdf. Students perform a lab to explore how the color of materials at the Earth's surface affects the amount of warming. Topics covered include developing a hypothesis, collecting data, and making interpretations to explain why dark colored materials become hotter.
Understanding Albedo. Geophysical Institute of University of Fairbanks. Grades 6-8.
http://www.arcticclimatemodeling.org/lessons/acmp/acmp_912_ClimateChange_UnderstandingAlbedo.pdf. This activity teaches students about the albedo of surfaces and how it relates to the ice-albedo feedback effect. During an experiment, students observe the albedo of two different colored surfaces by measuring the temperature change of a white and black surface under a lamp. Using NASA NEO and ImageJ to Explore the Role of Snow Cover in Shaping Climate.
Earth Exploration Toolbook from SERC. Grades 9-12.
http://serc.carleton.edu/eet/albedo/index.html. Students download satellite images displaying land surface temperature, snow cover, and reflected short wave radiation data from the NASA Earth Observation (NEO) Web site. They then explore and animate these images using the free tool ImageJ and utilize the Web-based analysis tools built into NEO to observe, graph, and analyze the relationships among these three variables.
Global Climate Change: The Effects of Global Warming. Teachers’ Domain. Grades 9-12.
http://www.teachersdomain.org/resource/ess05.sci.ess.watcyc.lp_global2/. The activity follows a progression that examines the CO2 content of various gases, explores the changes in the atmospheric levels of CO2 from 1958 to 2000 from the Mauna Loa Keeling curve, and the relationship between CO2 and temperature over the past 160,000 years. This provides a foundation for examining individuals' input of CO2 to the atmosphere and how to reduce it.