Name of Resource: Global Warming Impacts
Climate Change Theme: Regional Impacts
Sponsoring Organization: EPA
Intended use: Background Material, Learning Activity
Intended audience: Educators and Learners
URL: http://yosemite.epa.gov/oar/globalwarming.nsf/content/Impacts.html
Average Review Ratings (Poor to Excellent, 1-5 scale):

Description: Students would be able to see what possible changes would occur in different biomes, but they need to be self motivated to move through all the biomes. If the students use the quiz, it appears to take them to all the different biomes. However, students could scan for the answer and miss other information. The site does not give any background in why these changes could occur, so would need to be prefaced by previous learning on climate change.It was last updated in 2000, so information may have changed. However, the wording is couched as possibilities depending on how precipitation patterns go etc. (ED)

Summary of Reviews

Reviewer: Carrie Morrill

Reviewer: Kirsten Butcher
Comments: There is a large amount of information here, organized by region of impact. The site is easy to navigate and quite expansive. However, it would have been nice to see predicted impacts tied more directly and logically to relevant data. Better coupling of data and impacts likely would be more convincing to learners. Divorcing impacts from data does a disservice to learners; they are left wondering what impacts are more or less likely and how scientists draw these conclusions.
Read entire review: link text (Acrobat (PDF) 48kB Jun21 05)

Reviewer: Ellen DeBacker
Comments: Good for ideas of how biomes would change, but not tied to how the data was gathered. The changes are given as many possibilities which helps, but with numbers the possibilities would seem as fact to students. The quiz can be helpful, but there is no overall view of how it is set up for the teacher to use as background. The quiz seems to be an after-thought.
Read entire review: link text (Acrobat (PDF) 46kB Jun21 05)