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Coastal Hazards

Impacts—Coastal Hazards

Summary: Extreme weather events have significant impacts on coastal environments, and scientists look for patterns to determine how climate change is affecting the frequency and intensity of extreme weather events. Storm surges, high winds, and heavy precipitation can alter coastal physical environments, affect water quality, and result in coastal habitat loss. In this topic guide, students examine coastal water quality data collected around storm events, and predict the impacts of extreme weather events on coastal ecosystems.

Concepts to teach:

Goals:

  1. Precipitation from intense coastal storms affects water quality in estuaries
  2. Sea level rise contributes to the coastal flooding and erosion seen with extreme storm events
  3. Extreme weather events can lead to loss of coastal habitat
  4. Understanding the effects of extreme weather events on coastal ecosystems can help scientists better predict climate change impacts

Standards: NGSS Performance Expectations

  • HS-LS2-6. Evaluate the claims, evidence, and reasoning that the complex interactions in ecosystems maintain relatively consistent numbers and types of organisms in stable conditions, but changing conditions may result in a new ecosystem.

Specific Objectives:
Students will be able to:

  1. Predict how major storm events affect NERRS reserves in the U.S.
  2. Investigate and interpret changes in water quality in an estuary due to a severe weather event.
  3. Determine the relationship between the characteristics of an extreme weather event (heavy wind, torrential rains and storm surge) and the subsequent change in water quality over time.

Activity Links and Resources:

  • See The New Waterfront topic guide
  • Readings:
    • The Oregon Climate Change Adaptation Framework, 2010—Assessment of Likely risks associated with climate change, and short-term Action Items for addressing these risks
      • Coastal erosion and flooding (p. 44-48)
      • Change in species distribution (p. 49-54)
      • Loss of wetland ecosystems (p. 62-69)
  • Activity: NOAA Estuaries—Earth Science Module Activity 4: Extreme Weather and Estuaries. This three-part lesson plan focuses on how hurricanes affect estuaries, and begins with a focus on a National Estuarine Research Reserve in North Carolina. Similarly, how might winter storms affect estuaries in the Pacific Northwest affect estuaries? Includes teacher guide and student worksheets.
    • Extension: Use System Wide Monitoring Program (SWMP) data from the South Slough National Estuarine Research Reserve to explore the effect winter storms have on that estuary system. What parameters would be most helpful to target?
  • Online activity: How do storms affect coastlines? Online activity exploring coastal changes using examples from hurricanes and El Niño events

Assessment:

  • REPORT: Assign each student or group of students a community on the Oregon coast. Students identify how an extreme weather event has in the past impacted that community. How is climate change predicted to affect future extreme weather events and their impacts in this community? Potential impacts may affect natural ecosystems, human activities, or both.
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ENSO and Climate Variability

Science Concepts—ENSO and Climate Variability

Summary: A major source of climate variability in the Pacific Northwest comes from the El Niño / Southern Oscillation (ENSO). Although ENSO is defined by shifts in ocean currents and winds off the western coast of South America, the resulting changes in sea surface temperature (SST) affects our weather in Oregon. In El Niño years, an increase in SST leads to warmer winters and below average rainfall, snowpack, and streamflow in Oregon. As scientific understanding and forecasting of ENSO improves, communities can better plan for short term climate variability.

Concepts to teach:

Goals:

  1. Oregon’s climate is affected by ocean processes centered at distant locations
  2. Complex factors combine to produce patterns of climate variability that can be predicted
  3. The relationship between ENSO and global climate change is not yet well understood

Standards:

Specific Objectives:
Students will be able to:

  1. Describe the El Niño / Southern Oscillation and its affect on Oregon
  2. Use real-time data and forecasts to explain the effects of ENSO on the current year

Activity Links and Resources:

Assessment:

  • Search available resources to find out the forecast for ENSO for the current year. What evidence is used to support forecast predictions?
  • Can We Blame El Niño for Wild Weather includes questions at the end of each section
  • El Niño from NOAA Ocean Explorer includes online quizzes at the end of each section
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Ocean Circulation

Science Concepts—Ocean Circulation

Summary: Ocean currents redistribute heat around the world and affect the world’s climate. Thermohaline circulation (THC) is a system of both surface and deep currents that transports water through all ocean basins. Complex interactions between wind, the rotation of the earth, temperature and density drives ocean currents and affect weather and climate. In this topic guide, students learn about some of the driving factors behind ocean circulation, and use a model to describe how ocean circulation affects Earth’s climate.

Concepts to teach:

Goals:

  1. The ocean plays a major role in regulating the weather and climate of the planet
  2. Wind and rotation of the earth drive surface currents
  3. Temperature and density drive deep the global conveyor belt or Thermohaline Currents (THC)

Standards:

Specific Objectives:
Students will be able to:

  1. Identify major ocean current systems and describe how they affect climate in various parts of the globe.
  2. Give an example of how sea surface temperature affects weather on land
  3. Describe factors that could disrupt the Global Conveyor Belt (THC).

Activity Links and Resources:

  • Ocean Conveyor Belt Kit from C-MORE—These hands on and computer based experiments introduce fundamental oceanography concepts. All the lesson plans and slide shows that come with these kits are available for download from the C-MORE website. Additionally, educators who are near a participating lending facility can check out a kit to use in the classroom.
    • Lesson One—Water Stratification
    • Lesson Two—Deep Ocean Circulation
    • Lesson Three—Using Data to Explore Ocean Processes
    • Lesson Four—Nutrients and Ocean Circulation
  • NOAA Multimedia Discovery Mission Lesson 8: Ocean Currents
    • The Video Lesson provides narrated animations describing surface currents and deep ocean currents, and the Global Impact sections describes how increased ice melt in the Arctic could slow deep ocean circulation.
  • Online image: Major Ocean Currents viewer from NOAA National Weather Service JetStream webpages

Assessment:

  • The C-MORE Ocean Conveyor Belt kit includes pre and post assessments
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Climate vs Weather

Science Concepts—Climate vs Weather

Summary: Sometimes people who are trying to understand climate change have asked the question, “How could the planet be warming given that it is so cold outside today?” Weather and climate are not the same thing. Weather is what’s happening outside your window; atmospheric conditions that you can see, feel or measure. In contrast, climate is an area’s long-term weather patterns, and understanding climate requires looking at data taken over a longer period of time. This topic guide contains activities and resources to help students better understand the the difference between weather and climate, and recognize that it takes time to compile a climate record. They then explore factors that influence local climate.

Concepts to teach:

Goals:

  1. Climate is an area’s long term weather patterns; generally the record is at least 30 years.
  2. Single weather events represent only part of a climate record and don’t tell us if the climate is changing.
  3. Climate is affected by a variety of factors, including latitude, elevation, proximity to bodies of water and mountain ranges, etc.

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. Use climate data to determine how the temperature of the Earth has changed during a recent ~50 year period.
  2. Explore, analyze and interpret climate patterns of several different cities, and
  3. Analyze differences between weather and climate patterns.

Activity Links and Resources:

  • Comparing Climate and Weather—This Power Point was created by educator LuAnn Dahlman from the NOAA Climate Program Office. It begins with a story of a personal observation and leads to interpretation of long term datasets. The presentation ends with a Climate? or Weather? quiz.
  • Activity: Investigating Weather and Climate with Google Earth from the Environmental Initiative at Lehigh University (Gr. 8) – This lesson plan includes a power point, kmz files, student guides, worksheets and implementation suggestions. Students use Google Earth to explore some factors that affect weather. They will use Google Earth to determine how latitude, elevation, proximity to bodies of water, and mountain ranges affect a location’s climate. They will also explore, analyze, and interpret weather patterns in 7 different U.S. cities.
  • Online activity: What factors control your local climate?—This online activity from McDougal-Littel’s textbook Exploring Earthinvites students to compare climate graphs from different cities and asks them to describe factors that influence climate.
  • Reading: Weather and Climate—EPA Climate Change Indicators in the US. Explore the headings to see how long term temperature and precipitation data are used to indicate climate change.
  • Video: Weather vs. Climate—The second video of the CoCoRaHS Educational Series in collaboration with NOAA and NSF. Learn about the differences in this fun video.

Assessment:

  • Comparing Climate and Weather Power Point: Climate? or Weather? quiz at the end
  • Describe the difference between weather and climate.
  • Compare and contrast the climate and weather patterns of 2 or more cities. What factors influence climate and weather in these cities?
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Reduce Emissions

Mitigation—Reduce Emissions

Summary: Global climate change is caused by the buildup of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere that come from human activities such as the burning of fossil fuels. An important solution to the problem of global climate change is for humans to significantly reduce the amount of carbon we emit into the atmosphere. In this topic guide, students examine the potential effects that reducing carbon emissions will have on affect atmospheric CO2 levels, and examine industrial-scale behavioral changes and technologies that can help communities reduce carbon emissions. See the middle school module for personal actions everyone can take.

Concepts to teach:

Crosscutting Concepts Disciplinary Core Ideas Science Practices
Stability and Change ESS3.C – Human Impacts on Earth Systems
ETS1.B – Developing Possible Solutions		 Developing and Using Models,Constructing Explanations and Designing Solutions

Goals:

  1. Although the effects of climate change are already underway, reducing carbon emissions will make a difference to the rate and impact of climate change
  2. There exist both promising large-scale mechanisms within different sectors that could lead to a reduction in carbon emissions (urban planning, transportation, economic markets, etc)

Standards: NGSS Performance Expectations

  • HS-ESS2-4. Use a model to describe how variations in the flow of energy into and out of Earth’s systems result in changes in climate.
  • HS-ESS3-4. Evaluate or refine a technological solution that reduces impacts of human activities on natural systems.

Specific Objectives:
Students will be able to:

  1. Interpret graphs and readings to describe the impact of reducing carbon emissions.
  2. Describe and evaluate a solution that aims to reduce the amount of carbon that human activities put into the atmosphere.

Activity Links and Resources:

Assessment:

  • Carbon Reduction Strategies Exploration Sheet from the Environmental Initiative at Lehigh University is designed to be completed after reading about Carbon Reduction Strategies.
  • Students conduct a literature search to prepare a report on a carbon reduction strategy that is being implemented or considered at the community, industrial or national level. Share findings with peers, and discuss student recommendations.
    • What are the costs and benefits to the proposed strategies?
    • Would students recommend one or more of the proposed strategies?
  • Discuss whether carbon trading is an effective mechanism for reducing carbon emissions. How would changing rules of the game influence the degree to which polluters are motivated to reduce their carbon emissions?
  • Students identify and evaluate one potentially viable local strategy to reduce emissions and present research and recommendations to the community.
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