Clearing the Air

PINEMAP Project, University of Florida, Project Learning Tree

In this activity, students learn about the scientific evidence supporting climate change, use this information to evaluate and improve conclusions some people might draw about climate change, and participate in a role-play to negotiate solutions to climate change.

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Notes from our reviewers

The CLEAN collection is hand-picked and rigorously reviewed for scientific accuracy and classroom effectiveness. Read what our review team had to say about this resource below or learn more about how CLEAN reviews teaching materials.

Be sure to watch the "Tour the Activity (2)" video before you begin. View the Teacher Comments at the bottom of the Activity 2 home page [link http://sfrc.ufl.edu/extension/ee/climate/section1/activity2/]. The Fact or Fiction exercise would be useful at the beginning of any unit on climate change. The PowerPoint presentations may be simplified by reducing the number of slides. Teachers may want to include more data analysis aspects to the activity.
Produced by Climate Learning Tree/University of Florida with materials from the US Forest Service. Activity deals with understanding and attempting to reconcile different perceptions of climate change in spite of a common body of scientific evidence. Comments from expert scientist: Scientific strengths: Excellent resource - I would use this for any level of teaching climate change! - Presentation shows figures and plots of variety of climate data such as temperature, precipitation, sea ice, sea level, extreme weather events - Great explanation of why climate change is occurring in the evidence powerpoint - Future implications explained clearly Suggestions: - Greenhouse gas concentrations should be updated to most recent years
Alternative teaching strategies are given to address different ability levels of students. On the home page [link http://sfrc.ufl.edu/extension/ee/climate/section1/activity2/], there are three important teacher tools: A video "Tour of the Activity" that lays out objectives and tell instructors exactly what students will be doing and identifies videos or other media teachers should review, a Check Your Knowledge--Interactive Quiz for educators, and Systems Exercises that can be incorporated. Teacher tips are given in the "Tour of Activity" video. Excellent additional activities (with graphs and riddles) on systems terms and help with understanding why different views on climate change exist.