Oceans and Climate Debate

Branwen Williams, Claremont McKenna-Pitzer-Scripps Colleges

This activity is part of the On the Cutting Edge Peer Reviewed Teaching Activities collection.

This activity was selected for the On the Cutting Edge Reviewed Teaching Collection

This activity has received positive reviews in a peer review process involving five review categories. The five categories included in the process are

Scientific Accuracy
Alignment of Learning Goals, Activities, and Assessments
Pedagogic Effectiveness
Robustness (usability and dependability of all components)
Completeness of the ActivitySheet web page

For more information about the peer review process itself, please see https://serc.carleton.edu/teachearth/activity_review.html.

This page first made public: May 31, 2013

Summary

This activity orally tests students understanding of the links between ocean processes and global climate change. It is set up as a debate with students serving as the science experts and volunteer faculty serving as the opposition team.

Global energy balance, Atmospheric gases, Atmospheric and oceanic ...(more) | College Upper (15-16)

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Context

Audience

This activity was designed for a small upper level undergraduate global climate change class but could just as easily be adapted to an oceanography class that includes some coverage of climate issues. The topic could be adapted to any other oceanographic issue that can be debated.

Skills and concepts that students must have mastered

Students should have an understanding of:

Earth's energy budget
Greenhouse gases
Ocean-atmosphere interactions
Ocean circulation
Carbon cycle
Anthropogenic climate change

How the activity is situated in the course

This activity is designed to be carried out as stand-alone, capstone activity completed toward the end of a semester.

Goals

Content/concepts goals for this activity

To test student's applied understanding of the role of the oceans in natural and anthropogenic climate variability.

Higher order thinking skills goals for this activity

This activity provides motivation for the students to learn and retain course material in a setting that is very different from a written exam. Students are required to synthesize information in real time to support specific discussion points.

Other skills goals for this activity

This activity includes oral presentation of prepared and unprepared material in a high stress situation.

Description and Teaching Materials

Example outline for debate activity (Microsoft Word 2007 (.docx) 18kB May31 13)

Teaching Notes and Tips

Students can find this activity stressful since they are on the hot seat in front of other professors. I work very hard to keep the atmosphere of the activity friendly. This includes very carefully choosing the faculty involved, ensuring that the students have sufficient head's up about this activity by talking it up throughout the semester, and providing snacks for post-activity while we discuss how the debate went.