Lesson Plan
National Wildlife Federation

It's All in the Name: Weather Versus Climate

For Students 5th - 8th Standards
What goes up when rain comes down? An umbrella! Activity eight in the series of 12 explores weather and climate. In pairs, participants analyze maps, watch a short video, create a weather forecast, and complete a reading to determine the...
Lesson Plan
1
1
Chicago Botanic Garden

Historical Climate Cycles

For Teachers 5th - 6th Standards
What better way to make predictions about future weather and climate patterns than with actual climate data from the past? Young climatologists analyze data from 400,000 to 10,000 years ago to determine if climate has changed over...
Lesson Plan
K20 LEARN

The Parched Plains: Weather And Climate

For Teachers 6th - 8th
How do meteorologists differentiate between droughts and dry spells? Introduce the concepts of weather forecasting and prediction with an insightful research-based lesson from the K20 series. Partners synthesize individual research from...
Lesson Plan
K20 LEARN

Back To The Future

For Teachers 6th - 8th Standards
Satellite photographs prove the dramatic changes to the environment over long periods of time. Young scientists observe photographs and make hypotheses. They then check real data on weather and climate patterns to better understand the...
Lesson Plan
National Wildlife Federation

The Tide is High, but I’m Holding On… Using ICESat Data to Investigate Sea Level Rise

For Teachers 9th - 12th Standards
Based on the rate of melting observed from 2003-2007 in Greenland, it would take less than 10 minutes to fill the Dallas Cowboys' Stadium. The 17th lesson plan in a series of 21 has scholars use the ICESat data to understand the ice mass...
Lesson Plan
1
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NASA

The Big Climate Change Experiment Lesson 3: Climate Change Lines of Evidence

For Teachers 9th - 12th Standards
Consider the preponderance of evidence when making a verdict. The third of five lessons in Unit 1: The Big Climate Change Experiment focuses on the evidence for climate change. Learners study graphs, diagrams, and pictures regarding...
Lesson Plan
National Wildlife Federation

Stifling, Oppressive, Sweltering, Oh My!

For Teachers 9th - 12th Standards
Looking for a hot date? Pick any day in August, statistically the hottest month in the United States. The 15th lesson in the series of 21 instructs pupils to investigate the August 2007 heat wave through NASA data, daily temperature...
Lesson Plan
National Wildlife Federation

I Speak for the Polar Bears!

For Teachers 9th - 12th Standards
Climate change and weather extremes impact every species, but this lesson focuses on how these changes effect polar bears. After learning about the animal, scholars create maps of snow-ice coverage and examine the yearly variability and...
Activity
US Department of Energy

The Pacific and El Niño

For Teachers 6th - 8th
El Niño and the climate changes that go along with it are the focus of this Earth Science lesson. Learners pay particular attention to the wind patterns established on Earth, nd look at weather maps to see how El Niño can alter and...
Lesson Plan
National Wildlife Federation

Get Your Techno On

For Teachers 9th - 12th Standards
Desert regions are hotter for multiple reasons; the lack of vegetation causes the sun's heat to go straight into the surface and the lack of moisture means none of the heat is being transferred into evaporation. This concept, and other...
Lesson Plan
1
1
Chicago Botanic Garden

Are Global CO2 Levels Changing?

For Teachers 10th - 12th Standards
According to the Mauna Loa observatory, carbon dioxide levels increased by 3 ppm in our atmosphere between 2015–2016. Individuals analyze carbon dioxide data from around the world and then share this with a home group in lesson...
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Feeling the Heat

For Teachers 5th - 8th
Pupils record temperatures at different locations around campus. They examine the results and draw conclusions about how materials and colors affect the amount of heat produced. They also analyze Los Angeles' temperature records over a...
Lesson Plan
National Wildlife Federation

Branching Out – Exploring Dendrochronology

For Teachers 9th - 12th Standards
Tree rings from North America give a continuous history of El Nino intensity over the last 1,100 years. Scholars learn how scientists use tree rings to create timelines demonstrating variations in weather patterns. The cumulative...
Activity
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NOAA

The Incredible Carbon Journey: Play the Carbon Journey Game

For Students 6th - 8th Standards
Class members explore the carbon cycle in the final installment of the 10-part Discover Your Changing World series. They play a simulation game where they walk through the steps carbon takes as it cycles through the different layers...
Lesson Plan
NASA

Earth's Global Energy Budget

For Teachers 6th - 8th
Introduce your earth science enthusiasts to the earth's energy budget. Teach them using an informative set of slides that include illuminating lecturer's notes, relevant vocabulary, embedded animations, colorful satellite maps, and a...
Lesson Plan
EngageNY

Relationships Between Two Numerical Variables

For Teachers 9th - 10th Standards
Is there another way to view whether the data is linear or not? Class members work alone and in pairs to create scatter plots in order to determine whether there is a linear pattern or not. The exit ticket provides a quick way to...