The ONLY climate change lab: What to teach if you only have one lab period to cover climate change

Topic: Climate change

Description

Group Activity

1. Assign each group of students an anonymous ice core location, only lat/long is given as a clue to its identity. The ice cores have temperature and CO₂ (or any other greenhouse gas, if CO₂ is unavailable) data available from 18,000-7000 years ago obtained from the NOAA Paleoclimatology website (more info) .
2. The data (CO₂ and temperature) will be given to the students in an Excel spreadsheet at the beginning of the lab and the students must make a graphical representation of the data to analyze and interpret.
3. The students also will use the NOAA website and the lat/long that was given to determine where their core is from and when it was collected.
4. The students will then present all of their data and interpretations to the class.
5. After the presentations, the groups will use data from the Carbon Dioxide Information Analysis Center to make a graphical representation of the current available atmospheric CO₂ concentrations nearest to their specific location and will compare it to the past levels found in ice cores.
   
6. Students will answer several questions in writing throughout the lab.

Goals

• Understand the link between CO₂ (or greenhouse gases) and temperature
  
• Be able to work with real data
  
• Be confident in searching the NOAA website
  
• Create graphs in Excel
  
• Perform qualitative analysis and interpretation of the ice core data

Assessment

The assessment will be done on the questions answered by each group throughout the lab.

1. What correlation did you find between temperature and CO₂ from the ice core data?
   
2. What fluctuations did you see in your core?
   
3. How did your data compare with the other groups' data?
   
4. What are the implications on future temperatures based on the current CO2 levels seen in your ice core data?

References

NOAA website: Paleoclimate home page (more info) ; data access (more info)
Excel Program
CDIAC (for modern CO₂ levels)