Teaching Climate

In this set of activities, high school students model changes in climate and their effects on international relations, investigate local climate impacts and solutions and observe global climate patterns and adaptations. Lessons may be standalone or done in series.

This resource is a collection of climate change-related graphs for teachers to use in their classrooms, with links to the source articles and an explanation of how to guide students through reflecting on and learning from the graphs.

This video introduces viewers to oceanic thermohaline circulation - the system of global ocean currents that cycle warm and cold water across the planet.

This is an activity designed to allow students who have been exposed to the El Niño-Southern Oscillation to analyze the La Niña mechanism and predict its outcomes in a case study format.

Through this lesson plan your students will learn that human induced climate change causes biodiversity disturbances and could be responsible for the increased risk of animal virus spillover into human populations. Thus, the use of this lesson plan allows you to integrate the teaching of a climate science topic with a core topic in Biological and Environmental Sciences. The lab allows students to explore the impact of climate change on an organism of their choice by doing a diachronic analysis of data from Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF).

This interactive visualization explains the chemical relationship between carbon dioxide, shell building, and ocean acidification.

Students are charged with thinking about what it takes to 'do science'. They are introduced to the science of dendrochronology and learn how tree-ring science is executed.

Interactive map tool to assess how rising stream temperatures could affect native fish of the Northwest. Lesson concepts include the relationship between water temperatures, dissolved oxygen levels in streams, and the impacts of changing temperatures on native fish. Focused skills include use of an interactive map to assess how stream temperatures are expected to change and the impacts on native fish.

This visualization is a series of three short animations/videos that illustrate how the changing ice sheets result in sea level rise. It uses satellite data to show how Greenland and Antarctica are losing mass at a rate of 283 gigatons per year and 145 gigatons per year, respectively. Simulation shows visualization of one gigaton and how much this translates to sea level rise.

This interactive role-playing simulation is conducted as a simulated emergency climate summit organized by the United Nations that convenes global stakeholders to establish a concrete plan that limits warming to Paris Agreement goals. This game is a fun format for large groups to explore climate change solutions and see what it would really take to address this global challenge.