Teaching Climate

This video series highlights the travel, science, and life at the South Pole research station. In this 10-part series, topics are explained in 3-4 minute, digestible segments which include photos and videos from the narrator's trip, as well as anecdotes to help viewers get a personal perspective of Antarctica.

In this lesson, students collect outdoor observational data to create a song about climate change. Intermediate music students will not only earn a greater appreciation for Alaska, but also for nature. These activities help students to learn how to use sound and sight maps in order to identify aspects of our region in Southeast Alaska. In addition, students learn about the basic concepts of climate change in order to write creative lyrics for songs for the entire school. At the end of the unit, students perform their unique songs in a school wide assembly. Although written for Alaska, the lesson could easily be adapted for many other locations.

Children use a toaster to generate wind and compare the appliance's heat source to Jupiter's own hot interior. They discover that convection drives wind on Jupiter and on Earth.

Children test how cornstarch and glitter in water move when disturbed. They compare their observations with videos of Jupiter's and Earth's storm movements.

Children discover the relationship between temperature and pressure in the lower atmospheres of Jupiter and Earth. They chart the increasing temperature as they add pressure to a 2-liter soda bottle with a Fizz-Keeper Pump.

Students first learn about the complexities of Earth's climate system and the different factors contributing to Earth's energy balance. Then, students categorize the factors that influence climate as warming or cooling factors. Finally, students design art pieces to depict the science behind Earth's climate system and share these artistic creations with families and communities.

Students consider the ways their climate affects their region, by identifying a type of food unique to the region and selecting (and possibly cooking) a recipe that features that ingredient. Optional activities to make the food are also provided.

Students model the effect of greenhouse gases on Earth's atmosphere. They find that greenhouse gases, such as carbon dioxide and methane, are uniquely shaped to catch and pass on infrared radiation, and so they are responsible for the warmth we enjoy on Earth. The children discuss how the addition of greenhouse gases by human activities leads to further warming and what steps we can take to slow it.

Children create a wind streamer out of common materials and use it to determine the wind's direction.

Children get to know each other through an icebreaker activity that introduces the importance of water on Earth.