Education Resources
CLIMATE QUESTIONS
To provide answers to queries from teachers, students, or families (or anyone) about global warming and its global, regional, or local climate change consequences, we have established a Hotline. Please send questions to ClimateQuestions@socan.eco
CLIMATE CAPSULE
Short 2 – 4 minute Public Service Announcement style spots for radio broadcasts on climate science, what is happening, or what we can do to address the problem. These are broadcast on KSKQ. Scripts
CLIMATE CUTS
Short videos (2 minutes or fewer) explaining critical climate issues
GENERAL
- Resources for the Climate Crisis. Welcome to the Existential Toolkit – A Growing Hub of Resources for Climate Justice Educators. With feelings of climate anxiety and eco-grief on the rise, educators across disciplines need resources to help students develop the emotional resilience to stay engaged in the work of climate justice. This toolkit helps educators and students navigate the long emergency ahead without becoming overwhelmed by despair. The resources in this project have been crowdsourced from an international community of scholars, educators, and climate justice leaders focused on addressing the emotional impact of climate disruption. The project was initially launched by eco-emotion researchers Jennifer Atkinson, Elin Kelsey and Sarah Jaquette Ray.
- Warming to a Different Subject by Ronit Feinglass Plank. The Washington Post.
- The Teacher-Friendly Guide™ to Climate Change This book includes both the basics of climate change science and perspectives on teaching a subject that has become socially and politically polarized. The focus audience is high school Earth science and environmental science teachers, and it is written with an eye toward the kind of information and graphics that a secondary school teacher might need in the classroom. Print copies are available for purchase here and a PDF version is available as a free download.
- How I Talk to My Daughter About Climate Change
- Why Science Teachers Are Struggling With Climate Change
- Changing the Climate Conversation: NNOCCI Reframe Cards
- Zero Footprint – Youth Calculator
- Drawdown: Health & Education Sector. How many people might call this planet home in 2050 or 2100? That will depend, in large part, on fertility rates and the headway we make on securing gender equality and advancing human well-being. When levels of education rise (in particular for girls and young women), access to reproductive healthcare improves, and women’s political, social, and economic empowerment expand, fertility typically falls. Across the world and over time, this impacts population.
STANDARDS
- Next Generation Science Standards
- A Framework for K-12 Science Education: Practices, Crosscutting Concepts, and Core Ideas (2012).
- Guide to Implementing the Next Generation Science Standards (2015).
- http://www.nsta.org/climate/
- Gives the National Science Teachers’ Association position on teaching climate change science and shows where climate change appears in the Next Generation Science Standards
- Spokane Falls Community College – Environmental Issues
Curriculum materials developed by local educators
- SOREEL August Institute Learning Session (2019)
- Building Solar Ovens to Teach the Greenhouse Effect – Grades K-12
- Climate Change Lesson Plan – Grades 4-8
- Amplify – Science A new phenomena-based curriculum for grades K–8
- Bottling Up Greenhhouse Gases Inquiry – High School
- Greenhouse Effect Bottle Lab Diagram student
Diagram with responses
- Systems Model Activity Grades 2-3
- SOREEL August Institute Workshop (2018) Materials used in this presentation can be adapted by teachers. pdf versions of the Power Point slides are included here. For questions or to get the Power Point versions, contact Alan@socan.eco
A) Basics: How does incoming solar radiation drive global warming? Slides | Story Cards
B) Jackson County Trends & Projections: What are the primary local trends and projections? Slides | Story Cards
C) Biomes – Distribution and impact: How does climate change affect the distribution of natural systems, especially local tree species and agriculture? Slides | Story Cards
- SOREEL August Institute Workshop (2017) (these Plans were adapted from the EEAO conference for teachers, but can be adapted for the indicated grades.)
- Ruch Community School (November, 2016) these plans were developed for 7-8th grade students (60 minutes). Title: Global Warming Basics, Impacts, Causes, & What we can do
- Ashland Middle School (October, 2016) these plans were developed for the 7-8th grade students (30 Minutes). Title: Global Warming Basics & Local Climate Change Impacts
- EEAO (Environmental Educators Association of Oregon (September, 2016) These plans were developed to help educators understand Climate Science Basics, but they could be adapted for classroom use.
- Workshop-plan
- Images for Activity I and Activity II (.pdf format)
- Power Point for Workshop Presentation (saved as .pdf; contact Alan if you want the power point version)
- SOREEL August Institute Workshop (2016) (these Plans were developed for teachers, but can be adapted for the indicated grades.
- Can Plants and Animals Deal with Climate Change? Grades 3-8 by Mary Ehlers
- Griffin Creek – Climate Change – What we can do Lesson Plan (Grades 4-6)
- Griffin Creek-Power Point (as pdf to accompany Lesson Plan)
- Teacher’s Activity Guide to Renewable Energy Grades 4-12 by Kathy Nguyen
- Climate-Change-Inquiry-Project-Lesson-Plan by Brook Jaentsch (High School)
- Water Quality Testing Lesson Plan by Mickey Laney Jarvis (High School)
- An interesting follow-up on current US public opinion – according to a March 2016 Gallup release – now up to 64% accepting human impact on global warming.
Ideas for Lesson Plans
Hurricane Harvey (2017)
- https://www.nytimes.com/2017/08/31/learning/lesson-plans/teaching-hurricane-harvey-ideas-and-resources.html
- https://www.nytimes.com/2017/08/28/us/hurricane-katrina-harvey.html?_r=0
Curated links to other organizations, curriculum materials, information, & data
Climate Change Education Exchange
- NOAA
- Source for data and climate change maps. Easy interface on the Global Climate Dashboard
- Climate Literacy: The Essential Principles of Climate Science book is available on the website in English and Spanish.
- National Climate Assessment Report summarizes the key findings by region. Resources for educators on the NCA.
- Teacher resources include visuals, videos, demos and experiments, and interactive tools. Resources searchable to grade level, topic, resource type, or climate literacy principle. Some resources for 3-5, most for MS and HS.
- US Department of Energy Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy
- Energy Literacy video series
- Background info on energy for teachers, K-12 lesson plans, and videos
- US Forest Service and 26 other public and non-profit organizations
- Distance learning resources for students and teachers
- Curated list of web information and lesson plans
- Background information on climate science for teachers
Alliance for Climate Education
- Non-profit
- Trains young people to be climate educators and activists
- Brings climate assemblies aligned with NGSS to high schools with teacher resources for before and after the assembly
- “Our Climate Our Future” video aligned with NGSS for use in high school classrooms with accompanying resources
CLEAN—Climate Literacy and Energy Awareness Network
- National Science Digital Libraries Pathway Project affiliated with NOAA’s Climate.gov
- 600+ reviewed lesson plans mostly for MS and HS but some 3-5 resources. Searchable by various criteria.
- Background information for teachers and suggestions on pedagogic approaches
National Geographic: Climate Change
- Stories and pictures with information about climate change impacts
- Find lesson plans from National Geographic at http://nationalgeographic.org/lesson/
- California Air Resources Board, State Government
- Curriculum materials and links to other resources
Windows to the Universe: Our Changing Planet
- National Earth Science Teachers’ Association, Education Non-Profit
- Videos on the effects of climate change with accompanying lesson plans
- Data, images, information on climate change science, effects of climate change, and careers in climate science
- Climate Kids http://climatekids.nasa.gov/ Great resource for elementary age kids with info, videos, activities on climate science, effects, and solutions.
- Climate Kids – Climate Bingo
- National Public Radio
- Video “It’s All About Carbon”
- News stories (Written, audio, and video) related to causes, evidence, and solutions related to climate change
California Academy of Sciences
- California Academy of Sciences
- Lesson plans on climate science searchable by area of science or by grade level
- Carbon Cycle: carbon cycle role play, carbon role play cards, carboncyclearrows, carboncycleposter, carboncycleposteralterationcards, carboncycleposteralterationanswers,
- Teacher resources for climate in the classroom—“Years of Living Dangerously” Lesson plans and resources relating climate change to students’ daily lives. For MS and HS, correlated with CCSS and NGSS.
Windows to the Universe: Our Changing Planet
- National Earth Science Teachers’ Association, Education Non-Profit
- Videos on the effects of climate change with accompanying lesson plans
- University of Wisconsin
- Background information on the global carbon cycle
University Center for Atmospheric Research/National Center for Atmospheric Research
- Government research facility
- Background information on climate for teachers and students with some activities
Data Sources for Graphing Exercises
Tables of Global and Hemispheric Monthly Means and Zonal Annual Means from the NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies (GISS). Scroll down to this Heading and select ‘Global-mean monthly, seasonal, and annual means’ The CSV option comes in as an Excel file.
University of East Anglia Climate Research Unit Data in collaboration with the British Meteorological Office Hadley Climate Center. Data sets have to be parsed when downloaded.
NOAA Mauna Loa Atmospheric Carbon dioxide data Scroll down. Data set started in 1958.
Annual Average snowfall by decade at Crater Lake from the 1930s through 2000s.
CoCoRaHS – Community Collaborative Rain, Hail & Snow Network CoCoRaHas, the citizen science weather collection program.
United States Geological Survey Climate Change Viewer This site provides climate trends and projections as modeled data and time series graphs for every mainland U.S. county from 1950 to 2100 for max and min temperatures, precipitation, run-off, snowfall (as snow water equivalent), soil moisture storage, evaporation deficit. A downloadable tutorial is available, but the site is reasonably intuitive, entering users just have to accept the terms (not complex or arduous). The output represents the average of 28 models; it depicts the Representative Concentration Pathway (RCP) 8.5 (red) and 4.5 (blue). The former is sometimes described as the ‘business as usual’ scenario with accelerating fossil fuel use and emissions, while the latter assumes the emissions trajectory is reduced substantially.
Medford Days over 100 degrees – Data & Pictograph for younger students
Anti-Science Heritage Foundation Materials Rebuttal
Responses to the anti-science propaganda circulated by the Heritage Foundation under the title “Why Scientists Disagree About Global Warming”
National Science Teachers of America response
Georgia High School Science teacher Brandie Freeman response
Monckton credibility? : https://www.desmogblog.com/christopher-monckton, https://www.skepticalscience.com/Monckton_Myths_arg.htm, https://bbickmore.wordpress.com/lord-moncktons-rap-sheet/
Heartland Institute Rebuttal: the Monckton monthly temperature data.
CITIZEN SCIENCE PROJECTS
- eBird
- FrogWatch
- Lost Ladybug Project
- Community Collaborative Rain, Hail, and Snow Network (CoCoRaHS)
- Project Budburst Source: National Ecological Observatory Network, Inc.
PUBLICATIONS
- A People’s Curriculum for the Earth: Teaching Climate Change and the Environmental Crisis (2014) edited by Bill Bigelow & Tim Swinehart. Published by Rethinking Schools.
VIDEOS
- Worse than poop
- Teacher Caveats – Worse Than Poop
- 6-Degrees Could Change the World (2008) National Geographic Documentary
- Chasing Ice (2014) (also available on You Tube)—National Geographic, kids like it
- Merchants of Doubt—how the fossil fuel industry has created the controversy over the science
- CarbonNation—A climate change solutions movie
- Years of Living Dangerously—seasons one and two
BOOKS FOR STUDENTS & TEACHERS
- The Magic School Bus and the Climate Challenge by Joanna Cole & Bruce Degen (2010)
- Please Don’t Paint Our Planet Pink by Gregg Kleiner, Carol Thompson
- Heos, Bridget, It’s getting hot in here—about 5th grade reading level
- Schmidt, Gavin and Joshua Wolfe, Climate Change: picturing the science
- Lloyd, Saci, The Carbon Diaries YA fiction
- Robinson, Kim Stanley Forty Signs of Rain—sci fi from noted author; first in a trilogy
- Union of Concerned Scientists, Cooler, smarter: practical steps for low-carbon living
- Bloomberg, Michael and Carl Pope, Climate of Hope mostly urban climate solutions
- Bigelow, Bill & Swinehart, Tim (eds), A People’s Curriculum for the Earth
