Turning Misinformation into Educational Opportunity Climate Change: Lesson 3 Past vs. Present Climate Change

Climate has varied in the past, but today's climate change rate is much more drastic due to human activity. Students explore past climate cycle graphs and compare the cycles with the current rate of change.

Go To:

https://ncse.ngo/past-vs-present-climate-change

National Center for Science Education

Notes From Our Reviewers

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Teaching Tips

Supplemental material helps teachers adapt the lesson for various levels can be found on the resource website

This website houses the larger unit with links to additional materials and to the other lessons in the unit: [link https://ncse.ngo/supporting-teachers/classroom-resources]

Students may need guidance in use of animations for complete understanding.

Many examples of how to amend the activity to accommodate learning styles and grade levels are included.

About the Science

This activity has students explore past climate change and Milankovitch cycles. It includes connections to current climate change and asks students to analyze some claims from climate change deniers.

This lesson will engage students with evidence for past climate change in order to help them see the context for our understanding of modern climate change, the same way that scientists use this data to determine the mechanisms and extent of human impacts today.

Comments from expert scientist: This resource is science-based, has useful concepts, and is an interesting activity. Although, the instructions are a little general and could use more clarity. The supporting video is also somewhat out of date.

About the Pedagogy

Students use an interactive animation to explore the Milankovitch cycles, and compare past cycles with current rates of climate change. Individual work and class discussion is used to come to conclusions.

Manipulation of the animation provides opportunity to explore rates of change. Many examples of how to amend the activity to accommodate learning styles and grade levels are included.

Supplemental materials allow for teachers to adapt the activity to various student abilities.

Technical Details

Some of the links are broken in the PDF version but can be found in the Google doc version included in the Google Drive folder on the resource website

Here are two links that don't work in the PDF:

[link https://geology.utah.gov/map-pub/survey-notes/glad-you-asked/ice-ages-wh...

[link https://explainingclimatechange.com/applets/HistoricClimateChange/histor...

Link to Climate Trends Learning Tool in Extend is inactive. Data is here:
[link https://explainingclimatechange.com/applets/HistoricClimateChange/histor...

Students may need guidance is using the animation effectively.