Unit 6: Hydrologic Balance and Climate Change part of Modeling Earth Systems
In this unit, students create a STELLA model of the Owens River chain of lakes in eastern California and then experiment with different climate change scenarios to simulate the Pleistocene history of lake filling ...

Unit 8: Thermohaline Circulation part of Modeling Earth Systems
In this module, students first review some background material on density-driven deep currents in the oceans, and then create a STELLA model of the thermohaline circulation in the North Atlantic Ocean. The model ...

Unit 9: Carbon Cycle and Ocean Chemistry part of Modeling Earth Systems
In this module, students first review some background material on the terrestrial, marine, and anthropogenic processes involved in the storage and transfer of carbon in the Earth system. The students then build a ...

Unit 3: Simple Climate Models part of Modeling Earth Systems
Students will explore Earth's radiation budget using several versions of a simple climate model often referred to as a "layer model." Earth receives energy from the sun, some of which is reflected ...

Unit 5: Growth and Decay of Ice Sheets part of Modeling Earth Systems
Large continental ice sheets, such as the Laurentide Ice Sheet from the last glaciation, as well as Antarctica and Greenland of today, are some of the most important features of the global climate system — they ...

Unit 4: Daisyworld part of Modeling Earth Systems
Students explore Daisyworld, a model of a self-regulating system incorporating positive and negative feedbacks. Daisyworld is a planet on which black and white daisies are the only things growing. The model ...

Unit 2: Climate Forcings part of Regulating Carbon Emissions
This unit uses systems thinking to explore how carbon emissions affect the global climate system. It includes an introduction to the greenhouse effect and climate modeling. Students engage in a small group activity ...

Unit 3: Energy Flows and Feedback Processes part of Earths Thermostat
In this unit, we use energy flows within the climate system to introduce climate feedbacks and system diagrams. The class session uses an interactive lecture approach having students work on multiple tasks ...

Modeling Rare Plant Distributions Using ArcGIS part of Teach the Earth:Teaching Activities
In this activity, students work with rare plant occurrence data from the Nature Reserve of Orange County, California to create species distribution maps in ArcGIS. Students are given shapefiles of species ...

Paleoclimate part of IODP School of Rock 2020:Teaching Activities
This is a unit plan for project-based learning. Students will learn about paleoclimate proxies and their importance in understanding past climates. Students will focus on one region-specific aspect of paleoclimate ...

Unit 3: Warm with a Chance of Melting part of Ice and Sea Level Changes
How are recent air temperature trends influencing Greenland's ice mass? Are ice mass changes in Greenland spatially and temporally uniform? In this unit, students use atmospheric and geodetic data (GRACE, ...

Case Study 4.1- Reflecting on What is Happening to Greenland's Ice part of Climate of Change
In this activity, students consider Greenland reflectivity changes from 2000 to 2012. Some students receive yearly albedo data for low elevations, while other students receive high-elevation data. After each ...

Case Study 5.1 - Interactions: Climate's Tangled Web part of Climate of Change
I designed this activity as a role-playing game to help students understand both the concept of climate modeling and how the climate system works. Students take on the role of a climate system component, examining ...

Recognizing Patterns in Earth's Climate History - Digital Student Workbook part of IODP School of Rock 2020:Teaching Activities
This activity is a digital student workbook that compliments the "Recognizing Patterns in Earth's Climate History" Lesson. Students will make observations and note patterns they see in sediment ...

Voyage of the Arctic Project part of IODP School of Rock 2020:Teaching Activities
This is a two-week long project geared towards middle school earth science teachers. This should be used towards the end of a school year when students have background knowledge on the following topics: plate ...

Ocean Circulation Playlist part of IODP School of Rock 2020:Teaching Activities
This activity is a Google Slides playlist that will introduce fluctuations in thermohaline circulation, and potential impacts of changes in these patterns. This playlist is suitable for use in remote, hybrid, or ...

Earth's Climate System part of IODP School of Rock 2020:Teaching Activities
This activity will help students to identify and analyze factors contributing to Earth's climate systems.

Arctic Climate Curriculum, Activity 3: Exploring Arctic Climate Data part of Activities
Students dig into authentic Arctic climate data to unravel some causes and effects related to the seasonal melting of the snowpack. In particular, students learn about albedo and its relationship to snowmelt. This ...

Lab 6: Future of the Cryosphere part of EarthLabs for Educators:Climate and the Cryosphere
The lab activity described here was developed by Erin Bardar and Sarah Hill of TERC and Betsy Youngman for the EarthLabs project. Summary and Learning Objectives In this culminating activity, students will ...

Northwestern Indiana Landscape Unit part of Teach the Earth:Teaching Activities
In this lesson, students will investigate the question, what is the effect of climate on glacial landscape processes? Students will be guided through understanding how climate factors, such as temperature and ...