Introduction—How do we know the world is warming?

Summary: What is climate change? How do we know it is happening? The resources in this topic guide provide an overview to the topic of climate change. Simple explanations and analogies are presented so that students can articulate a big picture view of the issue, with the recognition that these models have been developed based on evidence collected from complex scientific research throughout a number of disciplines. Subsequent sections of the OCEP Climate Change module explore some of these factors in greater depth.

Concepts to teach:

Crosscutting Concepts	Disciplinary Core Ideas	Science Practices
Stability and Change	ESS3.D - Global Climate Change	Asking Questions, Analyzing and interpreting data, Engaging in argument from evidence

Goals:

1. Global climate change is caused by human activities that add excess greenhouse gases into the atmosphere; namely the burning of fossil fuels.
2. Scientists interpret patterns to construct explanations and come to evidence-based conclusions.
3. Climate change affects the ocean.
4. Climate change affects all of us, no matter where we live.

Standards: NGSS Performance Expectations

• HS-ESS3-5. Analyze geoscience data and the results from global climate models to make an evidence-based forecast of the current rate of global or regional climate change and associated future impacts to Earth systems.

Specific Objectives:
Students will be able to:

1. Define “global climate change”
2. Explain how scientific data provide evidence of global climate change
3. Describe relationships between the ocean and the global climate

Activity Links and Resources:

• Warming World Interactive—This interactive non-linear Power Point was created by educator LuAnn Dahlman from the NOAA Climate Program Office. Use it to explore a variety of indicators that help scientists understand that the world is warming. Each topic slide is linked to online scientific datasets. Many of the examples show specific relationships to ocean systems.
• The Very, Very Simple Climate Model—This lesson plan is from NESTA Windows to the Universe. Students use an online model to graphically visualize and predict the relationship between CO2 emissions and average global temperature.
  • Notes from CLEAN (Climate Literacy & Energy Awareness Network) about using the model
• Reading/Discussion:
  • Climate Modeling from the Oregon Climate Change Research Institute. Chapters include Why use models, Sources of uncertainty, and Degree of certainty. Includes interactive models.
  • Definitions from NC State University: ‘global warming’ vs. ‘climate change’
  • Climate: Fact v. Fiction—A two-page handout from Leonard Gelland Center that addresses several misconceptions about climate change, and includes a list of possible discussion questions for students.

Assessment:

• Interpret a graph from the Warming World Interactive power point and describe how the data serve as an indicator of climate change. What are the limits of the data? What other information would be helpful to have?
• Describe three ways the ocean is affected by global climate change.
• Explain “global climate change” in terms a layperson can understand, using one or more of the following: 1) oral presentation, in less than one minute, 2) one written paragraph, or 3) an infographic