Teaching Climate

Healthy ecosystems can reduce the negative impacts of climate change. For instance, coastal habitats like mangroves provide natural flood defenses, well-protected lakes retain water sources during droughts, and healthy forests reduce the risk of devastating wildfires.

An unusually warm winter damaged Georgia's peach crop in 2023. As climate change continues, researchers are working to develop a peach that will be more resilient to warmer weather.

Nelson from Kipnuk, Alaska invites us to see how climate change is melting permafrost and causing coastal erosion in his hometown.

This video introduces the components necessary to describe climate adaptation and mitigation projects as nature-based.

This video concisely describes the way in which the absorption of infrared energy by greenhouse gases in the atmosphere controls the temperature of the planet.

This comprehensive resource presents an entire 6 part unit for understanding major themes in climate change including common misperceptions, global and seasonal trends, and disproportionate risk to climate change by category.

In this lesson students test the ability of cold and warm water to take up carbon dioxide, and they learn about ocean acidification. They explore the role of the ocean in the climate system and one tool scientists use to understand ocean warming. Then, they are challenged to communicate one of the Ocean Literacy Principles to a chosen audience.

This activity provides opportunities for students to embed themselves in the process of science as they follow the efforts of the scientist collecting field data. Although data is not provided with this activity, students analyze an array of current readings and videos about the topic of wildfires. References are provided for those seeking extensions to learning about the impact of wildfires on ecosystems.

This activity contains lesson plans aimed at teaching about water resources, water use and conservation, and the importance of personal and household choices regarding water use.

This lab activity teaches students about isotopes in ice cores and how different isotopes can tell us about the past climate. Students measure the mass of pennies as a proxy for different isotopes and build an understanding of how they oscillate through time. Students will then compare their results with the actual isotopes from real ice cores.