Visualizing the Quantities of Climate Change

Matt Conlen, National Aeronautics and Space Administration, Global Climate Change Website

This visualization is a series of three short animations/videos that illustrate how the changing ice sheets result in sea level rise. It uses satellite data to show how Greenland and Antarctica are losing mass at a rate of 283 gigatons per year and 145 gigatons per year, respectively. Simulation shows visualization of one gigaton and how much this translates to sea level rise.

Click to View

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.

Educators will need to incorporate this simulation into their curriculum as they find scientific or math connections. There is no teaching guide for the presented material. The math section may need to be walked through with the students as there are pieces of it that are confusing due to the lack of notation for the variables. The videos may be better for standalone without including the text in the lesson.
The visualizations are appealing and help students conceptualize the impact that melting ice sheets have on the planet. The visualization switches between metric and imperial units. There were also some inconsistent rounding occurrences and not clearly defined variables (i.e., ice density) or references for calculated amounts. Comments from expert scientist: Provides resource links to satellite data, clearly identifies how big a gigaton is and gives helpful examples, and briefly explains why sea level rise is occurring. There might be a disconnect to students with the amount of ice melting and where that ice is actually going if not really covering the entire continental US. It could be helpful to extend the conversation to include capacity of the oceans to hold in water and the coastal land loss over time to fully paint the picture.
Visualization of large numbers and hard-to-imagine quantities is illustrated in this simulation. Opportunity to follow the math used to create the visualization is provided. The visualizations are engaging for learners because it allows them to choose which point of reference they prefer for understanding the quantities of melting (e.g. Earth vs. the Moon). There is a hide-away section that shows the math for the presented results, allowing students to understand how the numbers are calculated. The math is algebra level but relies on pre-existing understanding of different scientific units and measurements.