On Tuesday, November 19, NOAA sea level rise expert William Sweet answered questions in a Climate.gov tweet chat about sea level rise and U.S. high-tide flooding.
This is a short experiment to demonstrate the concept of thermal expansion of water when heated, as an analogy to thermal expansion of oceans due to global warming.
This activity allows students to examine graphs of sea level rise data as well as global temperature data. They calculate amounts and rates of sea level rise for various time periods and answer questions discussing the data. They then compare the sea level rise trends to those in a graph of temperature data.
Students use long term sea-level rise data set to create models and compare short-term trends to long-term trends. They then determine whether sea-level rise is occurring based on the data.
This very short video introduces the concept of sea level rise and ties it back to global warming. The video is brief, basic, and clear. It can be used for a quick introduction, but nothing deeper than that.
This activity allows students to demonstrate the thermal expansion of water for themselves using water bottles and straws. The discussion allows them to explore the connection between this concept and sea level rise due to climate change.
