Build Your Own Earth

David Schultz, University of Manchester

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 26, 2017

Summary

Build Your Own Earth is a freely available web site to explore the factors that affect Earth's climate. Climate model simulations reveal the annual distributions of 50 different quantities. An accompanying homework for undergraduates is included that could be adapted for other students.

Global Change and Climate | Middle (6-8), High School (9-12), College Lower (13-14), College Upper (15-16), Graduate/Professional

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Context

Audience

Middle school, high school, and undergraduate courses in atmospheric science, climate science, environmental science, or Earth science.

Skills and concepts that students must have mastered

Reading and interpreting maps of the Earth.
Basic controls on Earth's climate (solar input, atmospheric composition, land/ocean differences).

How the activity is situated in the course

Standalone exercise and supporting lecture content.

Goals

Content/concepts goals for this activity

Get students to understand how climate data is mapped on Earth.
What factors control the Earth's climate in the past, present, and future.

Higher order thinking skills goals for this activity

Analysis of graphical data.
Formulation of hypotheses.
External reading of scientific literature.
Synthesis of ideas.
Understanding how computer models of the climate function.

Other skills goals for this activity

writing
searching the web
using a web-based plotting tool

Description and Teaching Materials

Sample homework for first-year undergraduates in an Earth science course.
Homework for Build Your Own Earth (Acrobat (PDF) 1.2MB Apr11 17)

Teaching Notes and Tips

Assessment

Successful completion of the homework assignment.

References and Resources

http://www.buildyourownearth.com
This is the web site associated with the homework assignment.

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