Currently, only 2.1% of global warming is felt on continents, while over 93% is felt in the oceans. The fourth lesson in the series of 21 on global warming is composed of three activities that build off one another. In the first activity, groups pick a city and examine temperature trends over a 14-year period. Then they use monthly surface clear sky LW downward flux to extrapolate the data for a full 22 years. The final activity consists of groups coming together to place everything into a global context of weather and climate change.

Concepts

latitude and longitude, temperature, radiation, climate change

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Additional Tags

science

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Instructional Ideas

• Expand the timelines to include more recent data as well

Classroom Considerations

• Requires prior knowledge of the greenhouse effect, latitude and longitude, Microsoft Excel, and graphing
• Builds on the prior lessons in the series, and it should not be completed out of order

 

Pros

• Aligns to the National Science Education Standards, National Education Technology Standards, National Council of Teachers of Mathematics Education Standards, Climate Literacy Principles, and Energy Literacy Principles
• Includes ideal answers to every essential question
• Provides a long list of links for pre-lesson, lesson, and post-lesson

Cons

• None

Common Core

RST.9-10.1 RST.9-10.3 RST.9-10.4 RST.9-10.7 RST.9-10.9 RST.11-12.1 RST.11-12.3 RST.11-12.4 RST.11-12.7 RST.11-12.9