Chicago Botanic Garden
Historical Climate Cycles
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...
Chicago Botanic Garden
Climate Change Around the World
Look at climate change around the world using graphical representations and a hands-on learning simulation specified to particular cities around the world. Using an interactive website, young scientists follow the provided...
National Wildlife Federation
Get Your Techno On
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...
Chicago Botanic Garden
Historical Climate Cycles
Scientists use ice core samples to obtain temperatures of the earth from 400,000 years ago! The third of five lessons instructs pupils to interpret historical climate data to see changes over time. In part I, participants interpret...
Curated OER
Arkansas: A Changing Climate, a Changing Land
Here is a lesson plan on the climate zones and geography of Arkansas. In it, learners look at maps (embedded) of different climate zones found throughout Arkansas. They engage in discussions regarding how global warming and climate...
Nuffield Foundation
Investigating the Effect of Temperature on the Activity of Lipase
How does temperature affect lipase activity? Young scholars conduct an experiment to collect data on the interaction of lipase at different temperatures. They add lipase to a solution of milk, sodium carbonate, and phenolphthalein and...
Curated OER
Comparing Graphs of Temperature and Radiation
Students study plots and use a Live Access Server to generate plots. In this temperature lesson students examine the process of incoming and outgoing radiation.
Curated OER
Climate Change in My City
Students investigate the climate changes occurring locally, regionally and globally over the last one hundred years. They brainstorm and predict whether the current year's weather was warmer or colder than last year then check the...
Curated OER
Surface Air Temperature Trends of the Caribbean
Students use real satellite data to determine the changes in near-surface air temperature at different times of the year over the Caribbean Sea. They discover how Earth's tilt causes seasonal differences in incoming solar energy. They...
Rainforest Alliance
Climate Educator Guide
Climate change is a hot topic in the news. Class members examine carbon dioxide data to analyze trends of our atmospheric makeup over time. They also discuss climate and climate change, and determine how these changes are affecting life...
Chicago Botanic Garden
Causes and Effects of Climate Change
Wrap-up a unit on global climate change with a lesson that examines the causes and effects of climate change. Learners fill out a chart that represents what they think causes climate change—natural and human-based—and what they think...
Curated OER
Changing Planet: Withering Plants - Stressing Over Lost Water
Expectant earth scientists examine the bottom side of a leaf and learn the role of the stomata. They consider the gas exchange that occurs through these structures and relate how the climate is changing to its impact on food crops. This...
Virginia Department of Education
Weather Patterns and Seasonal Changes
Get your class outside to observe their surroundings with a lesson highlighting weather patterns and seasonal changes. First, learners take a weather walk to survey how the weather affects animals, people, plants, and trees during...
Bonneville
Passive Solar Water Heating
Put empty milk jugs to good use. Scholars consider the characteristics they might change about a milk jug to improve light absorption. They design a passive solar water heater using the milk jug and then measure the temperature change in...
Wild BC
Is Climate Change Good for Us?
Is it really that big of a deal if the global climate undergoes a little change? Young environmentalists consider this very question as they discuss in small groups the impact of different climate change scenarios on their lives,...
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
Is Grandpa Right, Were Winters Colder When He Was a Boy?
Students compare current weather data to historic data to see if there is a temperature change. For this weather lesson students complete a lab activity and determine average changes in temperature, precipitation and cloud cover.
NASA
Climate Change Inquiry Lab
With global temperatures on the rise faster than ever recorded, the effects of a heating planet could be devastating. Allow learners to discover just what the world is in store for if the warming continues through a series of videos, a...
Chicago Botanic Garden
Impacts of Climate Change
Scholars become experts on the eight major impacts of climate change through a jigsaw and grand conversation. They then research and present what they learned about effects specific to their region.
Curated OER
Dissolved Oxygen and Temperature
Young scholars are shown how temperature affects dissolved oxygen and they create a graph showing this relationship. They think about the adaptations of animals to live in different water temperatures. Students test four different water...
Chicago Botanic Garden
Historical Climate Cycles
Ice core samples give scientists access to climates of old—those from more than 800,000 years ago. Through an analysis of various temperature graphs from ice cores, tree rings, and weather stations, scholars compare historical climates...
Curated OER
A Day at the Beach
Help learners determine the rate of change for the temperature of sand. They will collect data on the temperature of wet and dry sand over time with a heat lamp overhead. Then make a scatter plot of the data and find a linear model to...
Curated OER
A Sweet Drink
Students investigate reaction rates. In this seventh or eighth grade mathematics lesson, students collect, record, and analyze data regarding how the temperature of water affects the dissolving time of a sugar cube. Studetns...
Center Science Education
Hurricanes and Climate
Feeling under the weather? This lesson on hurricanes can whip things up! With professionally designed maps and handouts, teach your future weathermen (or women) where, when, and how hurricanes occur. They identify hurricane regions and...