ALEX Classroom Resource

  

Our Change to Make!

  Classroom Resource Information  

Title:

 Our Change to Make!

URL:

 https://www.nationalgeographic.org/lesson/our-change-make/

Content Source:

 National Geographic
Type: Lesson/Unit Plan

Overview:

Students explore the human effects of climate change and global strategies for mitigation and adaptation. Next, they track their own carbon footprint and interview school community members to identify key carbon-emitting behaviors. Finally, students design and present a Climate Change Challenge Pledge to help others in the school community commit to reducing their climate impact. This lesson is part of the Climate Change Challenge unit.

Content Standard(s):
Science
SC2015 (2015)
Grade: 9-12
Environmental Science
12 ) Analyze and interpret data and climate models to predict how global or regional climate change can affect Earth's systems (e.g., precipitation and temperature and their associated impacts on sea level, glacial ice volumes, and atmosphere and ocean composition).

Unpacked Content
Scientific And Engineering Practices:
Analyzing and Interpreting Data
Crosscutting Concepts: Cause and Effect
Disciplinary Core Idea: Earth and Human Activity
Evidence Of Student Attainment:
Students:
  • Analyze and interpret data (e.g., graphs) from global climate models (e.g., computational simulations) and regional climate observations to predict how any changes may affect the physical parameters or chemical composition of the atmosphere, geosphere, hydrosphere, cryosphere, and/or biosphere.
Teacher Vocabulary:
  • global climate change
  • abiotic reservoirs
  • biotic reservoirs
  • photosynthesis
  • cellular respiration
  • Greenhouse Effect
  • Industrial Revolution
  • carbon sequestration
  • non-fossil fuel energy sources
  • carbon footprint
  • sea level variations
  • temperature
  • precipitation
  • chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) = refrigerants, aerosols, foams, propellants, solvents
  • methane
  • nitrous oxide
  • water vapor
  • Kyoto Protocol
  • IPCC
  • The Paris Agreement
  • UNFCCC
Knowledge:
Students know:
  • Gases that absorb and radiate heat in the atmosphere are greenhouse gases.
  • Increasing greenhouse gases increases global temperature that may result in climate change.
  • Climate change can produce potentially serious environmental problems that affect Earth's systems.
  • Global awareness and policies have been established in response to the potential threats caused by global climate change.
  • Examples of evidence for climate change (such as precipitation and temperature) and their associated impacts (e.g., affects on sea level, glacial ice volumes, and atmospheric and oceanic composition).
  • The outcomes predicted by climate models depend on the amounts of greenhouse gases added to the atmosphere each year and by the ways in which these gases are absorbed by the hydrosphere and biosphere.
Skills:
Students are able to:
  • Compare and contrast greenhouse gas production in developed and developing countries.
  • Analyze the data and identify and describe relationships within the datasets, including changes over time on multiple scales and relationships between quantities in the given data.
  • Analyze data using tools, technologies, and/or models in order to make valid and reliable scientific claims about global climate change.
  • Analyze the data to describe a selected aspect of present or past climate and the associated physical parameters (e.g., temperature, precipitation, sea level) or chemical composition.
  • Analyze the data to predict the future effect of a selected aspect of climate change on the physical parameters (e.g., temperature, precipitation, sea level) or chemical composition (e.g., ocean pH) of the atmosphere, geosphere, hydrosphere, or cryosphere.
  • Describe whether the predicted effect on the system is reversible or irreversible.
  • Identify sources of uncertainty in the prediction of the effect in the future of a selected aspect of climate change.
  • Identify limitations of the models that provided the data and ranges used to make the predictions.
Understanding:
Students understand that:
  • Important discoveries are still being made about how the ocean, the atmosphere, and the biosphere interact and are modified in response to changing climate conditions.
  • Scientific knowledge is based on empirical evidence, and scientific arguments are strengthened by multiple lines of evidence supporting a single explanation.
  • The magnitudes of human impact are greater than they have ever been, and so too are human abilities to model, predict, and manage current and future impacts .
  • Change and rates of change to systems can be quantified over short or long periods of time, and some system changes are irreversible.
AMSTI Resources:
ASIM Activities include:
Global Carbon; Global Climate Change: Human Impact
Science
SC2015 (2015)
Grade: 9-12
Environmental Science
13 ) Obtain, evaluate, and communicate information based on evidence to explain how key natural resources (e.g., water sources, fertile soils, concentrations of minerals and fossil fuels), natural hazards, and climate changes influence human activity (e.g., mass migrations).

Unpacked Content
Scientific And Engineering Practices:
Obtaining, Evaluating, and Communicating Information
Crosscutting Concepts: Cause and Effect
Disciplinary Core Idea: Earth and Human Activity
Evidence Of Student Attainment:
Students:
  • Obtain and evaluate valid and reliable information based on evidence that explains how human activity is influenced by key natural resources, natural hazards, and climate.
  • Use multiple formats to communicate scientific ideas of specific cause and effect relationships between environmental factors and features of human societies, including population size and migration patterns.
  • Communicate how technology in modern civilization has mitigated some of the effects of natural hazards, climate, and the availability of natural resources on human activity.
Teacher Vocabulary:
  • natural hazards - earthquake, volcano, tsunami, soil erosion, hurricane, drought, flood
  • natural resources - fresh water, fertile soil, minerals, fossil fuels
  • climate change
  • acid precipitation
  • acid shock
  • biodegradable material
  • greenhouse gases
  • demographic change
  • desalinization
  • ecological footprint
  • fuel cell
  • hydroelectric energy
  • land use planning
  • leachate
  • limiting resource
  • migration
  • natural selection
  • nuclear energy
  • solar heating
  • petroleum
  • sustainability
  • urbanization
  • urban sprawl
Knowledge:
Students know:
  • Examples of natural resources, natural hazards, and climate changes.
  • Over time, historical technological advances have been made in response to limited natural resources, increasing natural hazards, and climate change.
  • Resource availability has guided the development of human society.
  • Natural hazards have shaped the course of human history and have altered the sizes and distributions of human populations.
Skills:
Students are able to:
  • Gather, read, and evaluate scientific and/or technical information from multiple authoritative sources, assessing the evidence and usefulness of each source.
  • Analyze and interpret data regarding human activity over time, including how features of human societies have been affected by availability of natural resources and how human populations have depended on technological systems to acquire natural resources and modify physical settings.
  • Describe the reasoning for how the evidence allows for the distinction between causal and correlational relationships between environmental factors and human activity.
Understanding:
Students understand that:
  • Resource availability has guided the development of human society.
  • Natural hazards, changes in climate, and the availability of natural resources have had and will continue to have an effect on the features of human society, including population sizes and migration patterns.
  • Technology has changed the cause and effect relationship between the development of human society and natural hazards, climate, and natural resources.
Alabama Alternate Achievement Standards
AAS Standard:
SCI.AAS.ES.HS.13- Recognize natural resources (e.g., water sources, fertile soil) and natural hazards (e.g., volcanoes, erosion) that influence human activity.
Tags: adaptation, climate change, human impact, mitigation
License Type: Custom Permission Type
See Terms: https://www.nationalgeographic.org/terms-of-service/
For full descriptions of license types and a guide to usage, visit :
https://creativecommons.org/licenses
Accessibility
Comments

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  This resource provided by:  
Author: Stephanie Carver
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