Unit 2: Earth's Atmosphere and Its Influence on Temperature part of Earths Thermostat
Allison Dunn, Worcester State University; Phil Resor, Wesleyan University; Bob Mackay, Clark College
This unit investigates the role of the atmosphere on incoming solar and outgoing terrestrial radiation and analyzes modern trends in greenhouse gas concentrations. Students first investigate radiation spectra to ...

Did Early Farmers Alter Climate? part of Teaching Activities
Sue Swanson, Beloit College
The overarching goal of this exercise is for students to explore the early anthropogenic hypothesis, which claims that early agriculture had a substantial impact on greenhouse gases and global climate thousands of ...

Global Warming in 5 Steps part of Oceanography:Activities
Stephen Taylor, Kauai Community College
Scientists say the planet is warming because of human activities, namely the greenhouse effect from carbon dioxide released to the atmosphere when burning fossil fuels. But, how do we know? How do scientists know? ...

Forest Management and the Carbon Cycle part of CLEAN:CLEAN Network:Teaching Materials
Sarah Brylinsky, Second Nature, Inc.
This activity is part of the community collection of teaching materials on climate and energy topics. These materials were created by faculty as part of the CLEAN Climate Workshop, held in May, 2012 and are not ...

Modeling the Complexities of the Carbon Cycle Utilizing Excel part of CLEAN:CLEAN Network:Teaching Materials
Andrea Bixler, Clarke University; Lindsay Dubbs, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill; Dave Finster, Wittenberg University; Harold Geller, George Mason University; Jeanne Troy, National Academy of Sciences
This activity is part of the community collection of teaching materials on climate and energy topics. These materials were created by faculty as part of the CLEAN Climate Workshop, held in May, 2012 and are not ...

Comparing Carbon Calculators part of Starting Point-Teaching Entry Level Geoscience:Teaching with Data:Examples
Mark McCaffrey
Carbon calculators, no matter how well intended as tools to help measure energy footprints, tend to be black boxes and can produce wildly different results, depending on the calculations used to weigh various ...

Understanding the Carbon Cycle: A Jigsaw Approach part of Climate Change:Activities
David Hastings, Eckerd College
In this "jigsaw" exercise, each student is assigned one of five geochemical processes in the carbon cycle to research, fully understand, and then explain to others in groups of five. At the end of class ...

Vostok Ice Core: Excel (Mac or PC) part of Starting Point-Teaching Entry Level Geoscience:Mathematical and Statistical Models:Mathematical and Statistical Models Examples
Professor Stephanie Pfirman, Barnard College. Based on data of J. Chapellaz, Laboratoire de Glaciologie et Geophysique de l'Environment, Grenoble. Archived at: Lamont-Dohert Earth Observatory ( This site may be offline. ) . Starting Point page organized by R.M. MacKay.
Students use Excel to graph and analyze Vostok ice core data (160,000 years of Ice core data from Vostok Station). Data includes ice age, ice depth, carbon dioxide, methane, dust, and deuterium isotope relative ...

Using a Mass Balance Model to Understand Carbon Dioxide and its Connection to Global Warming part of Quantitative Skills:Activity Collection
Bob Mackay, Clark College
Students explore the increase in atmospheric carbon dioxide over the past 40 years with an interactive on-line model.

What is the fate of CO2 produced by fossil fuel combustion? part of Quantitative Skills:Activity Collection
Paul Quay
A box model is used to simulate the build up of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere during the industrial era and predict the future increase in atmospheric CO2 levels during the next century.