http://serc.carleton.edu/NAGTWorkshops/climatechange/activities/49897.html#discussion http://serc.carleton.edu/NAGTWorkshops/climatechange/activities/49897.html#post13271 Concerns about data availability - the model calculates the outputs and the data from the figure may not be easily available (chapter 2).

Will need to double check and look for available data.
Would need a relative transfer model to quantify on your own and that may not be easily available.

A possible adjustment:
Have each group focus on a value and assert the value they are most confident about.

The goal is to show students that the final sum is not an additive effect, but that there are feedbacks and interactions among the variables.

Alternative could be to have students go to the references mentioned in Chapter 2 of the IPCC report.



]]> Suzanne Pierce 1288027740 http://serc.carleton.edu/NAGTWorkshops/climatechange/activities/49897.html#post13271 http://serc.carleton.edu/NAGTWorkshops/climatechange/activities/49897.html#post13273 Have you seen the UNEP Java Climate 'model'?

http://www.astr.ucl.ac.be/users/matthews/jcm/

Instead of having your students look up data in the IPCC, you might have them run this model - it basically puts out results based on IPCC results - but would also give students a chance to experiment and tinker with a model. I think the model has both a 'simple' and an 'advanced' version. (It's been awhile since I used it in class - maybe there are now only the 'older' and 'newer' versions of the model). Using this model would (I think) get students toward your goals of understanding that climate change is non-linear and having the quantitative appreciation of the radiative forcing.

If you are doing this as a 2-hr lab, you will probably need to have everything spelled out for them (in terms of what parameters they need to tinker with, and what they should be looking for in the results). As this is an upper division course, I could see this as a longer term assignment (1-2 weeks for a homework), where students do mini-research assignments (they develop a question and answer it with the model - or with data from IPCC)...This would get at the higher order thinking skills (developing a new experiment; evaluating/synthesizing model output...)...You could still use the group structure you've outlined above - have each group investigate the effect of a different forcing...Then have groups report out at the next class meeting (or at the end of class, if there's time)...]]> Cindy Shellito 1288031760 http://serc.carleton.edu/NAGTWorkshops/climatechange/activities/49897.html#post13273 http://serc.carleton.edu/NAGTWorkshops/climatechange/activities/49897.html#post13274
I like the premise of this activity - students should realize what the big factors are, and how even small variables can have an important effect.

I think that students will have an easy time finding numbers for each forcing. And because students are excellent at doing internet searches, they will find the IPCC table that has the "answers." So, I would make the emphasis not on just reconstructing the numbers but working with them in some way. The Java model looks promising, or even an excel spreadsheet would work. Basically, students need a way to fiddle with the numbers and see how that affects the total picture.

It would also be interesting to assign each group two variables to research. One large variable and one small one. That way they could work on both ends of the spectrum and see how variables can operate at different magnitudes.]]> Karin Kirk 1288041480 http://serc.carleton.edu/NAGTWorkshops/climatechange/activities/49897.html#post13274 http://serc.carleton.edu/NAGTWorkshops/climatechange/activities/49897.html#post13275 Karin Kirk 1288041540 http://serc.carleton.edu/NAGTWorkshops/climatechange/activities/49897.html#post13275