Meet the Climate Trackers—a group of scientists who are using measurements to tell the story of climate change and inform the decisions that will shape our future. In the resources below, you’ll learn about these scientists and their lab, and discover why their research matters in real life. Grab your notebook to take notes as you explore!

Resources available for learning about this lab include:
• Interactive cards designed to introduce students to scientists in a more personal way
• A video with a personal story that explains why the lab's research matters in real life
• Questions to consider that will spark connection, reflection, and conversation
• An interactive video experience where you can ask questions of scientists in the lab and learn about their research
• An educator guide with information about standards alignment, curriculum connections, and tips for using the media resources

These resources are part of Meet the Lab, a collection of educational resources for middle school classrooms.

This activity uses the reading, A Cool Connection (as a short story or one act play), to increase student understanding of how electrical power gets to their home and to introduce the connections between environmental problems and personal consumption. The storyline revolves around a group of high school students seeking relief from a heatwave while planning activities for their Ecology Club.

Topics introduced and assessed:
• The steps needed to move electrical power from where it is produced to where it is consumed
• The environmental costs of energy production
• The social costs of not meeting electrical demand

On Day 1, students will explore groundwater and how the depletion of groundwater can cause land subsidence in regions like California’s Central Valley. Students will also learn about how agricultural water use for different crops compares to the amount of water required for raising animals on farms and ranches.

On Day 2, students will read some of the Blue Planet Network’s Stories of Water to learn about how different people around the world struggle to have access to clean water and some of the ways they have addressed this issue. They will also explore their own water use habits and ways they can reduce water waste in their home using a water calculator from the Alliance for Water Efficiency and a leaky faucet calculator from the U.S. Geological Survey’s Water Science School.

In Headlines and High Water, players take on the role of a young journalist in the fictional town of Twin Lakes, where the annual Cherry Festival is thrown into chaos by a catastrophic flood. The player is tasked with interviewing locals and writing stories to keep the town informed—all while staying safe during the town’s worst flood of the century.

Throughout the game, players build trust with the townspeople and interview a cast of quirky characters—like Birdie, the aptly-named nature conservationist, and Fred Finkler, the gardener who’ll talk your ear off. In the end, the player’s reporting will determine if Twin Lakes is still around a year from now, or if future floods wash the town right off the map.

America's geoheritage arises from the features, landforms, and landscapes characteristic of the United States. These locations are valued for many reasons, including significant scientific, educational, cultural, aesthetic, and recreational purposes. They are conserved so that their lessons and beauty will remain as a legacy for future generations.*

The places stewarded by the U.S. National Park Service hold many stories about our shared geoheritage. There is a national park within a day's drive of most communities in the U.S. where you can connect in person with the land and stories that shaped the character of our nation. You can also experience these parks in another way - from space.

On this DVD you can visit over 60 national parks from the vantage point of space and read articles selected from NASA's Earth Observatory website describing how satellite observations can help people better understand our geoheritage. Space-based views provide useful information on natural processes and human impacts affecting the Earth's surface within and outside of protected areas. For example, landscape changes caused by shifting vegetation types (Great Smoky Mountains), rainfall (Death Valley), glacial retreat (Glacier Bay), fire (Tallgrass Prairie) and climate change can all be observed from space.

This curriculum guide contains pacing, instruction, and assessment guidance to accompany the OpenSciEd unit 7.6 Earth Resources & Human Impact. For schools who use Fisher and Frey's The Teacher Clarity Playbook, you'll find student-friendly learning intentions and success criteria for every lesson, drawn from the OSE three dimensional performance expectations. These can be posted on slides or boards in classrooms to make learning visible for students and help design assessment criteria.  

Students interpret various forms of data (graphic, written, and visual) and identify relationships between population growth, greenhouse gas emissions, temperature rise, ice melt, and sea level rise.