Why is it hotter at the equator and colder at the poles?
Interactive World Climate Map and Climate Graphs
Compare locations at similar latitudes. What do you notice? Do all locations at the same latitude have similar climates?
What is Earth's Energy Budget?
Watch this short video from NASA Earth Observatory. What does the word "radiative" mean? What does "equilibrium" mean?
Why is it hotter in the summer and colder in the winter?
A YouTube video that through animations show why we have seasons. Pay careful attention to the "overhead Sun" (the Sun is directly overhead at local solar noon and when this occurs at different places.
Time Lapse Seasons Demonstrator
Start this time lapse animation of a whole year of seasons as seen on the University of Nebraska campus and watch the shadows change. Now, answer the question seen above.
Activity 3 Earth's Energy Budget
How does Earth's surface and atmosphere interact with solar and thermal energy? This is "Earth's energy budget".
Earth's Energy Budget Diagram Click on the diagram to see the same Energy Budget Diagram we used in class.
What is the role of infrared energy in Earth's energy budget? Watch this short video clip from NASA.
Activity 5: The Carbon Cycle
NASA video Keeping up with Carbon
STEP 1: Carbon Cycle Diagram
STEP 2: Play the Carbon Cycle Game
Activity 6 Modeling the Greenhouse Effect
How does the greenhouse effect work? What are greenhouse gases? View this short animation from the Scripps Institute of Oceanography to review the process.
To view the interaction between visible light and infrared energy and our atmosphere, run the Greenhouse Effect Simulation from the University of Colorado. Experiment with the amount of greenhouse gases, adding panes of glass, and photon absorption. How do visible photons and infrared photons differ in the ways they interact with gases in our atmosphere? How are their interactions similar?
Explore the Greenhouse Effect
Complete "Part C Explore the Greenhouse Effect" at this web site. Write your responses to each of the "Checking In" and "Stop and Think" questions in your lab book.
Molecules and light sim from Phet
GHE and Climate Change note taking guide and PowerPoint from class:
Greenhouse Effect and Climate Change Note Taking Guide
Activity 7: Carbon Dioxide Levels and Global Temperature
Complete the activity by working through the "Checking in Questions" found on this web page.
Activity 8: Changing Climate: Melting Glaciers
Start Google Earth first. Click on this link to get to the NSIDC Virtual Globes page. There are many files here that will load onto Google Earth. You need to use the following to complete this activity: click on Glaciers and climate change file for Google Earth. Then, click on the snow flakes to see the glaciers!
Activity 10 Changing Climate: Causes, Impacts, and Solutions
View these video resources from the Earth Operator' Manual web site:
EVIDENCE:
SOLUTIONS:
To learn about scientist's ideas about impacts of climate change, go to this page on the
Windows to the Universe web site:
Possible solutions to the climate change problem can be found at the Slowing Global Warming page from Windows to the Universe.
Each of us has an "Ecological footprint"--the amount of land and water required to produce the resources needed to keep a person alive. Find out what your ecological footprint is and how many planet Earth's it would take to keep everyone on Earth living the way you do by completing the "Ecological Footprint Activity" (use the handout Mr. Sullivan gave you). Start the process by visiting the Global Footprint Network home page.
What can you do to reduce the your impact on climate change? Learn about what these students have done to make a difference by viewing the videos at Young Voices for the Planet. Start with Kids vs Global Warming.