InTeGrate Modules and Courses >Earth's Thermostat > Student Materials
InTeGrate's Earth-focused Modules and Courses for the Undergraduate Classroom
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These materials are part of a collection of classroom-tested modules and courses developed by InTeGrate. The materials engage students in understanding the earth system as it intertwines with key societal issues. The collection is freely available and ready to be adapted by undergraduate educators across a range of courses including: general education or majors courses in Earth-focused disciplines such as geoscience or environmental science, social science, engineering, and other sciences, as well as courses for interdisciplinary programs.
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For the Instructor

These student materials complement the Earth's Thermostat Instructor Materials. If you would like your students to have access to the student materials, we suggest you either point them at the Student Version which omits the framing pages with information designed for faculty (and this box). Or you can download these pages in several formats that you can include in your course website or local Learning Managment System. Learn more about using, modifying, and sharing InTeGrate teaching materials.

Student Materials

Welcome Students!

Climate change is one of the most critical issues facing society today, and understanding the underlying solar, atmospheric, cryospheric, and oceanic processes governing Earth's climate are an essential component of climate change literacy. Our module is designed to help you understand Earth's energy balance and climate, its sensitivity to changes in its drivers, and how it interacts with Earth's other systems with interactive student centered activities which are designed to engage you in scientific exploration of data and model results.

Here's what you will need for each unit:

Unit 1

What's happening with Earth's temperature? Is it really changing? Is this because of changes in the Sun, or is there some other reason behind the temperature patterns we see?

In this unit you will use data from NASA to see how Earth's temperature has changed since measurements began in 1880. You will also analyze a record of solar irradiance to investigate if changes in incoming solar radiation are behind the temperature pattern you observed.

Materials used:

If you're interested in learning more about temperature measurements like the ones used here, you might enoy the following article from Wired, which explains how temperature data are collected: How We Know 2014 Was the Hottest Year, by Marcus Woo. Note that this article is out of date, since 2015 has now surpassed 2014 as the hottest year, and 2016 is on pace to outpace both!

Unit 2

How does the atmosphere influence radiation as it enters and leaves the Earth system? What is the greenhouse effect, and why might we be concerned about changes in greenhouse gases on Earth?

In this activity you will examine how the atmosphere absorbs different wavelengths of energy as they both enter and leave the Earth, and learn how this process (the greenhouse effect) warms the Earth and makes it habitable. You will use atmospheric CO2 data collected by NOAA in Hawaii to examine how CO2 is changing in the atmosphere, and relate these findings to what you learned about global temperature patterns in Unit 1.

Materials:

Unit 3

Handout for interactive lesson

  • Unit 3 Student Handout (Microsoft Word 2007 (.docx) 989kB Nov15 16); also available as a PDF (Acrobat (PDF) 1024kB Nov15 16)

PowerPoint slide shows used in class. These are good resources for later reference, especially when working on the capstone project in unit 6.

Volcanic Assignment to do at home in preparation for in-class group work:
  • Large Eruption Part A (Microsoft Word 2007 (.docx) 162kB Nov18 16); also available as a PDF (Acrobat (PDF) 310kB Nov18 16)

Unit 4: Balancing the Radiation Budget: A Jigsaw Exploration of the Global Climate System (Part 1)

In this unit you will learn how the components of earth's radiation budget vary across the globe by interpreting maps of radiation data from NASA's Earth's Radiation Budget Experiment (ERBE).

Materials from class

  • Student Basemap (Microsoft Word 2007 (.docx) 1.1MB Nov18 16), also available as a PDF (Acrobat (PDF) 1.1MB Nov18 16).
Optional questions

Additional resources

Unit 5: Balancing the Radiation Budget: A Jigsaw Exploration of the Global Climate System (Part 2)

In this unit you will work with your classmates to determine the radiation balance from the ERBE data you analyzed in Unit 4 and learn how atmospheric circulation acts to balance the radiation budget.

Materials from class

  • Synthesis Sketch Sheet (Microsoft Word 23kB Nov18 16), also available as a PDF (Acrobat (PDF) 762kB Nov18 16) (note that the synthesis sketch sheet contains 4 pages, one for each of the suggested longitudinal lines).
Optional questions handout and maps with cloud effects.

Additional resources

Optional Activity: Circulation in the atmosphere - a map and cross section based jigsaw

In this optional activity you will learn how atmospheric circulation acts to balance the radiation budget by exloring maps of global wind patterns.

Materials from class

Materials for optional questions

Additional resources

Unit 6

Volcanic Assignment to do at home in preparation for in-class group work:

  • Team Guidelines (Microsoft Word 2007 (.docx) 152kB Nov18 16); also available as a PDF (Acrobat (PDF) 197kB Nov18 16)
  • (same as in Unit 3 above) Large Eruption Part A (Microsoft Word 2007 (.docx) 162kB Nov18 16); also available as a PDF (Acrobat (PDF) 310kB Nov18 16)
Capstone project
  • Capstone Project (Microsoft Word 2007 (.docx) 829kB Nov18 16); also available as a PDF (Acrobat (PDF) 968kB Nov18 16)
  • PowerPoint introducing the Capstone Project Unit 6 Part B PowerPoint (PowerPoint 2007 (.pptx) 4.6MB Sep1 16)
Other Resources

Mt Toba

Concept maps/sketches

System diagrams (Causal Loop Diagrams)

Conceptual models


     

These materials are part of a collection of classroom-tested modules and courses developed by InTeGrate. The materials engage students in understanding the earth system as it intertwines with key societal issues. The collection is freely available and ready to be adapted by undergraduate educators across a range of courses including: general education or majors courses in Earth-focused disciplines such as geoscience or environmental science, social science, engineering, and other sciences, as well as courses for interdisciplinary programs.
Explore the Collection »