Curated OER
Investigating the Climate System - Clouds
Here is a fabulous lesson on the Earth's radiant energy system. This amazing, 31-page document is chock-full of great activities, worksheets, lab sheets, quizzes, rubrics, and assessments. Learners model and explain cloud formation,...
Curated OER
Climate and Periodic Functions: Science & Math Integration
Students complete a lab that introduce the scientific concept of climate on Earth. Following the lab, they complete further research on climate. Using average monthly temperatures students construct a mathematical model and analyze the...
PBS
Pbs Learning Media: What's Up With the Weather: Graphs
Examine this graph from FRONTLINE/NOVA: "What's Up with the Weather?" Web site to see dramatic increases in three greenhouse gases over the last two hundred years.
Ohio State University
Osu: Beyond Weather and the Water Cycle: The Sun: Earth's Primary Energy Source
Extensive article that discusses the first principle of climate science, i.e., that the Sun is the primary energy source for the climate system of the Earth. Presents five concepts for this principle and explains each, providing...
US Environmental Protection Agency
Epa: Causes of Climate Change
Earth's temperature depends on the balance between energy entering and leaving the planet's system . When incoming energy from the sun is absorbed by the Earth system, Earth warms. When the sun's energy is reflected back into space,...
University Corporation for Atmospheric Research
Ucar: Atmospheric Science Explorers: Global Climate Change
A detailed overview of global climate change, with explanations of Earth's climate change, the carbon cycle, ecosystems, and greenhouse gases, and how the movements of matter and energy impact on climate. All information is reinforced...
Howard Hughes Medical Institute
Hhmi: Bio Interactive: Paleoclimate: A History of Change
Learn about the history of Earth's climate in this Click and Learn. Learn how many factor control Earth's climate. Specifically, examine two of the most important factors: solar radiation and the composition of Earth's atmosphere.
King's Centre for Visualization in Science
Explaining Climate Change: Lesson 1: Introduction to Earth's Climate
This is the first lesson in a series of learning modules on the topic of climate change. It explores Earth's unique climate and atmosphere, regional climate differences, and temporal climate differences. Includes comprehension questions...
King's Centre for Visualization in Science
Explaining Climate Change: Lesson 4: Climate: A Balancing Act
How does the Earth's energy balance regulate climate? This is the fourth lesson in a series of learning modules on the topic of climate change. This lesson explores how different factors can impact the amount of energy that enters and...
University Corporation for Atmospheric Research
Ucar: The Very, Very Simple Climate Model
Through a simple online model, students learn about the relationship between average global temperature and carbon dioxide emissions while predicting temperature change over the 21st Century.
PBS
Pbs Learning Media: Greenland Ice Sheet Project 2: A Record of Climate Change
Using images and graphs, this interactive resource illustrates scientists' efforts to study Earth's climatic history for the last 250,000 years by drilling into the Greenland Ice Sheet and examining ice cores. Includes background reading...
University Corporation for Atmospheric Research
Ucar: Climate Discovery Teacher's Guide: Investigating Climate Present
Lesson plans on the following: Carbon cycle: Carbon Dioxide Sources and Sinks, Nitrogen Cycle: Traveling Nitrogen, Ocean and Atmosphere: Make Convection Currents, Energy Cycle: Albedo
PBS
Pbs Learning Media: Stories in the Ice
Take a journey back through time, using ice cores to learn about Earth's climatic history, including evidence of global warming and nuclear activity.
Climate Literacy
Clean: Introduction to Earth's Climate
This instructional activity is an introduction to Earth's climate and covers key principles regarding Earth's unique climate, atmosphere, and regional and temporal climate differences. Students will gain an understanding of how the...
Other
Innovate Us: What Is Climate?
Climate is the first factor that is considered before visiting a particular destination for your holidays. We all know that climates all over the world are largely different from each other. The specific climate of a region is mainly...
Smithsonian Institution
National Museum of Natural History: Human Evolution Timeline Interactive
Explore the evidence for human evolution in this interactive timeline - climate change, species, and milestones in becoming human. During the period of human evolution, the Earth's climate has fluctuated between warm and cold. Some of...
PBS
Nova: The Big Chill
Explore some of the explanations for the ice ages that have occurred in the Earth's history. The explanations are all related to conditions caused by plate tectonics.
Climate Literacy
Clean: Getting to the Core of Climate Change
Students investigate climate changes going back thousands of years by graphing and analyzing ice core data from Greenland and Antarctica. They use information about natural and human-caused changes in the atmosphere to formulate...
Other
Climate Gateway: What Is Climate Change?
This ClimateGateway.com site provides information on what climate change is as well as the factors that affect global climate.
PBS
Pbs Learning Media: Nova Polar Lab
The interactive NOVA Polar Lab uses 360 degrees videos, interviews with scientists, and mini-games to send students on an immersive quest to understand how the poles are key to understanding Earth's climate -- past, present, and future.
PBS
Pbs Learning Media: Choosing Earth's Climate Future
Students focus on the three interconnected choices global society faces as Earth's climate continues to change -- suffer, adapt, and mitigate -- to analyze and predict current and future impacts to Earth's systems. Using videos excerpted...
University Corporation for Atmospheric Research
Ucar: Why Earth Is Warming
Over more than a century, the global average temperature warmed 1.5F (0.8C). Learn the science of why this has happened, and what the future holds.
Cosmo Learning
Cosmo Learning: The Atmosphere, the Ocean, and Environmental Change
A collection of video lectures from a course that explores the physical processes the control Earth's atmosphere, ocean, and climate that is taught at Yale University. The course covers topics like clouds, rain, severe storms, regional...
Ducksters
Ducksters: Environment for Kids: Global Warming
Kids learn about global warming and changes in the Earth's climate. What are some causes? Teach greenhouse gasses and carbon footprint.