Is Climate Change Happening?

Positives

• Students get to analyze actual data evidence of climate change and draw conclusions from it.

• The online simulator provides an excellent visual for understanding the change that has happened in temperatures and greenhouse gases.

Additional Prerequisites

• This lesson assumes students already have a basic understanding of climate, as well as chemistry concepts like atomic mass, isotopes, and mass ratios.
• The lesson is designed for students with strong math skills.

• Note that "Key Idea 5: Rates of Change in the Past 250 Years" features a graph that only shows CO₂ data through the year 2000. For up-to-date information on atmospheric carbon dioxide, visit NOAA's Trends in Atmospheric Carbon Dioxide.

Differentiation

• Cross-curricular connections can be made with math classes as the lesson include interpreting graphs, slope in real-world contexts, and calculations based on graphs and data.
• This lesson can connect to chemistry classes as students will need to use their understanding of atomic mass and isotopes to answer questions about ice cores.

• The lesson is set up so that students can proceed at their own pace.
• Students can complete the lesson individually or as a small group. For some of the more difficult math problems, it may be best to work through them as a class. 
• Other helpful resources about the evidence for climate change include this lesson for grades 6-12, this interactive webpage by NASA, this video on ice cores, and this video on greenhouse gases.