Global Warming in the Field

This activity was developed for the Teaching About Earth's Climate Using Data and Numerical Models workshop, held in October 2011.
Dawn Cardace
,
University of Rhode Island, Department of Geosciences
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Summary

This field trip involves group problem solving using aspects of glacial geology, paleoclimatology, and sea-level change predictions. The strengths are in getting students in the field in coastal RI: peaty/swampy terrain meets moraines meets coastal beaches.

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Context

Audience

300-level course on climate

Skills and concepts that students must have mastered

  • Team work, note-taking, dealing with inclement weather.
  • Familiarity with past footprints of glaciers in New England, scale of ice volumes and extent, and a sense of geologic time.

How the activity is situated in the course

This is a stand alone trip taken in the mid-course. It helps students telescope out from individual perspectives to group thinking and more regional and global concepts of climate change and global warming.

Goals

Content/concepts goals for this activity

Higher order thinking skills goals for this activity

Other skills goals for this activity

  • gaining field experience
  • using pacing, survey tapes, compass, inclinometer, rudimentary map drawing to scale
  • group work

Description of the activity/assignment

Field trip handout (Microsoft Word 52kB Oct27 10)

Determining whether students have met the goals

I request scans of field notes and their field responses to On-The-Fly questions (content and concept checks at each field stop), plus a one-page reaction essay that ties the experience to their larger understanding of geology, climates, and global warming.

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