It's About Time
How Do Plate Tectonics and Ocean Currents Affect Global Climate?
What do plate tectonics and ocean currents have to do with global climate? This fourth installment in a six-part series focuses on how plate tectonics and ocean currents affect global climate, both now and in the past, outlines an...
NOAA
Currents
Learn how ocean currents are vital to humans and marine life. The eighth installment of a 23-part NOAA Enrichment in Marine sciences and Oceanography (NEMO) program, focuses on ocean currents and how they affect global climate. The...
Curated OER
Factors Affecting Ocean Currents
Students design and conduct an experiment to determine the effect of salinity and temperature changes in the movement of ocean currents. In this earth science lesson, students record observations and collect data. They share their...
PBS
The Ocean and Climate: Heat Redistribution
Here on Earth, heat goes with the flow! Young climatologists dive in to the connection between ocean currents and heat distribution during a science lesson. Scholars work with interactive and print resources to create a thorough...
Curated OER
Ocean Circulation
In this physical oceanography PowerPoint, viewers learn about ocean circulation, sea surface temperatures, and salinity. Relationships among these aspects are explained, as well as their impact on the atmosphere and climate. Each slide...
Scholastic
Study Jams! Waves & Currents
Ocean lovers hang ten as they watch this film about waves and currents. What causes waves? What is a current? Learn this and more from Sam as he explains why RJ was struggling to surf the gnarly waves. Have your class watch this at home...
NOAA
A Laboratory Simulation of Ocean Surface Currents
Stimulate interest in ocean currents with a simulation. The first installment of a five-part middle school series teaches future oceanographers about the forces that interact to cause ocean currents. A simulation shows how wind and the...
Curated OER
Ocean Currents
Students examine ocean currents. In this investigative lesson, students examine ocean currents and the relationship between the ocean, our atmosphere, and the weather. They will create a model of an ocean current.
PBS
Ocean Circulation in the North Atlantic
Swirling and churning, the waters of the North Atlantic play a vital role in Earth's climate! Discover the many factors that produce circulation using a multimedia instructional activity from PBS's Weather and Climate series for high...
Port Jefferson School District
Climate Patterns
Young climatologists explore the factors that contribute to a region's climate in this two-part earth science activity. To begin, learners are provided with a map of an imaginary planet and are asked to label global wind and ocean...
Curated OER
Weather and Climate
It's hot today, but is that the weather or the climate? This colorful presentation isolates both concepts to allow for better understanding by covering the positioning of the planet, making comparisons of land versus water, and looking...
NOAA
Climographs
In the second lesson of a five-part series, young climatologists use provided temperature and precipitation data to create climographs of three different cities. They then analyze these climographs to develop a general understanding of...
Curated OER
Currently Warm
Seventh graders investigate how ocean currents affect climate. In this earth science lesson, 7th graders draw and label the current in their assigned ocean. They discuss how currents from the poles differ from the equator.
Curated OER
Changing Planet: The Case of the Leaky Gyre
The fascinating video "Changing Planet: Fresh Water in the Arctic," introduces your oceanographers to the world's gyres. They learn that melting sea ice is making the gyres larger, and that the changes could, in turn, contribute even...
Curated OER
Oceanography Worksheet #1
If you are teaching physical oceanography to middle school earth scientists, here is a terrific multiple choice worksheet. Learners look at a diagram of a landscape created by glacial sediment deposition and the resulting ocean floor....
It's About Time
Present-Day Climate in Your Community
So what exactly is climate? This first installment of a six-part series introduces the concept of climate using real-world data tables and topographic maps. The timely lesson includes a comprehensive overview of climate, as well as...
Curated OER
Currents and Climate
In this ocean currents instructional activity, students will compare two different currents found in the Atlantic Ocean to determine how currents affect the climate in these regions. This instructional activity has 3 short answer questions.
Curated OER
Driving Currents
Students conduct a variety of investigations to see how water, heat, and salinity affect the flow of the world's ocean currents,as well as, explore many factors that affect the flow of the world's ocean currents. They also describe in...
Mr. E. Science
Climate and Climate Change
What factors make up climate? How does longitude and latitude affect climate? What is causing Earth's climate to change? These questions are the topic of a presentation that explains characteristics of climate and climate change.
Chicago Botanic Garden
Causes and Effects of Climate Change
It's time for your class to literally show what they know! Pupils illustrate what they learned about the causes and effects of climate change by filling out a graphic organizer to complete the 5-part series of lessons. They discuss them...
Curated OER
Water Layering and Circulation
Young scholars examine relationships and interactions between different types of water. They experiment with colored water of different temperature and salinity and discuss how the results relate to real ocean currents.
Curated OER
Weather, Sea Level Rise and Climate Change
Students differentiate weather and climate. In this earth science lesson, students compare weather and climate in different regions of the world. They interpret weather graphs and compare isotherm lines of northern and southern hemisphere.
NOAA
The Climate Team: Make a Solar Heat Engine
Learners investigate how solar energy is converted into heat in part two of the 10-part Discover Your Changing World series. They build and test homemade solar cookers to boil water and cook rice. Pupils consider the impact of heat...
NOAA
Tracking a Drifter
Be shore to use this drifter resource. The third installment of a five-part series has learners using the NOAA's Adopt-a-Drifter website to track to movement of a drifter (buoy) in the ocean. Graphing the collected data on a map allows...