Learning Activities

In this activity, students research changes to the environment in the Arctic/Bering Sea over time using oral and photographic histories. Developed for Alaska Native students, this activity can be customized for other regions.

Learners research the effects of melting sea ice in the Bering Sea Ecosystem. They create research proposals to earn a place on the scientific research vessel Healy and present their findings and proposals to a Research Board committee.

This is a five-activity module that explores the evidence for and impacts of melting glacial ice, with resources from major institutions and scientists who study glaciers -- primarily in Arctic areas. The suite of activities includes both glaciers and melting ice, as well as the impact of melt water downstream. Each activity follows the 5E model of Engagement, Exploration, Explanation, Elaboration, and Evaluation.

In this activity learners work in pairs or small groups to evaluate energy use in their school and make recommendations for improved efficiency. Students create and use an energy audit tool to collect data and present recommendations to their class. Further communication at the school and district level is encouraged.

In this activity, students reconstruct past climates using lake varves as a proxy to interpret long-term climate patterns. Students use data from sediment cores to understand annual sediment deposition and how it relates to weather and climate patterns.

An applet about the Milankovitch cycle that relates temperature over the last 400,000 years to changes in the eccentricity, precession, and orbital tilt of Earth's orbit.

In this interactive game, students solve the challenges that their community faces during the course of an extreme flooding event by using available individual and community resources. Students work in three zone response teams to determine the responses they will take in each round as the flood situation evolves.

This is a static image created in ArcGis from the Livelihoods Knowledge Exchange Network non-profit that juxtaposes the risk of 18 natural hazards (as defined by Federal Emergency Management Agency) with the areas of state and federally recognized tribes in the USA.

This resource utilizes an easy-to-use tool to discuss energy justice and household energy burdens. The lesson plan covers a variety of different topics that discus the complexity of energy use and socioeconomics. It is hands on while using the tool, yet also includes discussion based activities and several extensional activities that can engage students in different ways of learning.

This activity engages students through an exploration using real data of paleoclimate proxies, such as ice cores, tree rings, and sedimentary analysis that provide evidence for past climates.