Sediments and the Global Carbon Cycle

This series of activities is designed to introduce students to the role of sediments and sedimentary rocks in the global carbon cycle. Students learn how stable carbon isotopes can be used to reconstruct ancient sedimentary environments. Students will make some simple calculations, formulate hypotheses, and think about the implications of their results. The activity includes an optional demonstration of the density separation of a sediment sample into a light, organic fraction and a heavier, mineral fraction.

Material Type: Activity/Lab

Authors: Elana Leithold, North Carolina State University, Science Education Resource Center at Carleton College, On The Cutting Edge collection

Selecting Sites for Renewable Energy Projects

In this activity, students use Google Earth to investigate a variety of renewable energy sources and select sites within the United States that would be appropriate for projects based on those sources.

Material Type: Activity/Lab

Authors: Glenn A. Richard, Mineral Physics Institute - Stony Brook University, On the Cutting Edge Collection, Science Education Resource Center (SERC)

Signs of Change: Studying Tree Rings

In this hands-on activity, students will learn about dendrochronology (the study of tree rings to understand ecological conditions in the recent past) and come up with conclusions as to what possible climatic conditions might affect tree growth in their region. Students determine the average age of the trees in their schoolyard, investigate any years of poor growth, and draw conclusions about the reasons for those years.

Material Type: Activity/Lab

Authors: Nancy Colberg, Northern Climate Change

Simulation of international negotiations to reduce greenhouse gas emissions

In this activity, students engage in a simulation of the international negotiation process in order to convey how the international community is responding to climate change. Participants learn firsthand about the interests of different countries and the range of policy responses to mitigate future climate change.

Material Type: Activity/Lab

Authors: David Hastings, Eckerd College, From the On the Cutting Edge activity collection

Solar Racing

In this 'Energy Education for the 21st Century' design challenge, students construct and evaluate a solar-powered model car. Students utilize the design process and undergo review by their peers to select an optimal gear ratio and components for their car. As a culminating activity, students compete in a Solar Sprint race modeled after the National Renewable Energy Laboratory's Junior Solar Sprint competition.

Material Type: Activity/Lab

Author: PBS Teachers

Solar Water Heater

Student teams design and build solar water heating devices that mimic those used in residences to capture energy in the form of solar radiation and convert it to thermal energy. In this activity, students gain a better understanding of the three different types of heat transfer, each of which plays a role in the solar water heater design. Once the model devices are constructed, students perform efficiency calculations and compare designs.

Material Type: Activity/Lab

Authors: Denise W. Carlson, Landon B. Gennetten, Lauren Cooper, Malinda Schaefer Zarske, TeachEngineering from Integrated Teaching and Learning Program

Southern Ocean Sentinels

This video discusses two key signs of global change in the Southern Ocean: changes in Antarctic bottom water and ocean acidification.

Material Type: Activity/Lab

Author: ABC, Australia

Stabilization Wedges Game

This is a team-based activity that teaches students about the scale of the greenhouse gas problem and the technologies that already exist which can dramatically reduce carbon emissions. Students select carbon-cutting strategies to construct a carbon mitigation profile, filling the the wedges of a climate stabilization triangle.

Material Type: Activity/Lab

Stacking up the Atmosphere

In this hands-on activity, participants learn the characteristics of the five layers of the atmosphere and make illustrations to represent them. They roll the drawings and place them in clear plastic cylinders, and then stack the cylinders to make a model column of the atmosphere.

Material Type: Activity/Lab

Authors: ANDRILL- University of Nebraska, Betsy Youngman, Jean Pennycook, Louise Huffman, LuAnn Dahlman

State Electricity on Google Earth: How many solar panels would it take?

In this activity, learners use Google Earth to calculate electricity use by state and determine how much land would be required to replace all sources of electricity with solar panels. They also consider costs and land-use trade-offs.

Material Type: Activity/Lab

Authors: Billy Goodman, Maureen Padden, Todd Greene

Images of Change

This collection of photos from the NASA Climate website features images of global change, such as floods, wildfires, and retreating glaciers. Not all images show change caused directly by climate change and energy use, and descriptive captions indicate causes for change in most of the images.

Material Type: Activity/Lab

Authors: NASA, NASA Climate

Stressed Out!

In this activity, students research various topics about ocean health, e.g. overfishing, habitat destruction, invasive species, climate change, pollution, and ocean acidification. An optional extension activity has them creating an aquatic biosphere in a bottle experiment in which they can manipulate variables.

Material Type: Activity/Lab

Authors: Mel Goodwin, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA)- Ocean Explorer

A Subsistence Culture Impacted by Climate Change

A short video on how changing climate is impacting the ecosystem and thereby impacting traditional lifestyles of the Athabaskan people of Alaska.

Material Type: Activity/Lab

Authors: Arctic Athabaskan Council, Teachers' Domain

Supercomputing the Climate

This video provides an overview of how computer models work. It explains the process of data assimilation, which is necessary to ensure that models are tied to reality. The video includes a discussion of weather models using the Goddard Earth Observing System (GEOS-5) model and climate models using the MERRA (Modern Era Retrospective Analysis for Research and Applications) technique.

Material Type: Activity/Lab

Author: NASA Goddard Space Flight Center

Take Aim At Climate Change

This music video features a rap song about some of the causes and effects of climate change with the goal of increasing awareness of climate change and how it will impact nature and humans.

Material Type: Activity/Lab

Author: Polar Palooza.com

Team Marine - Young Voices for the Planet

This video clip highlights the effort on by a group of young students to ban the use of plastic shopping bags in the city of Santa Monica. The video documents the effort and provides visual testimony of the effects that trash and specifically plastic bags have on the ocean ecosystem.

Material Type: Activity/Lab

Author: Young Voices for the Planet

Texas: Wind and Efficiency - Earth: The Operators' Manual

This engaging video focuses on national and global wind energy potential by specifically highlighting Texas' role as wind energy leader and energy efficiency efforts in Houston, Texas.

Material Type: Activity/Lab

Authors: Earth: Operators' Manual, Geoff Haines-Stiles Productions

The Thermohaline Circulation - The Great Ocean Conveyor Belt

This NASA animation depicts thermohaline circulation in the ocean and how it relates to salinity and water density. It illustrates the sinking of water in the cold, dense ocean near Iceland and Greenland. The surface of the ocean then fades away and the animation pulls back to show the global thermohaline circulation system.

Material Type: Activity/Lab

To Boldly Go...

This web-based activity tackles the broad reasons for undertaking ocean exploration - studying the interconnected issues of climate change, ocean health, energy and human health. Students examine the types of technology ocean scientists use to collect important data.

Material Type: Activity/Lab

Authors: Mel Goodwin, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA)

Trees and Carbon

This activity describes the flow of carbon in the environment and focuses on how much carbon is stored in trees. It goes on to have students analyze data and make calculations about the amount of carbon stored in a set of trees at three sites in a wooded area that were to be cut down to build a college dormitory.

Material Type: Activity/Lab

Author: Kennesaw State University