In this lesson, students will conduct labs investigate the drivers of climate change, including adding carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases to the atmosphere, sea level rise, and the effect of decreasing sea ice on temperatures. They will become experts on one of these areas, conduct their own experiments and connect them to real-world data, and then make posters to present their findings to the class.

To start the lesson, students will think about what they have heard about climate change, and look at a cartoon and graph of atmospheric carbon dioxide concentration. Then, students will be divided into expert groups looking at a few factors driving climate change – increased greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide, melting sea ice, and the comparative effect on sea level of melting land ice versus sea ice. As they complete the labs, they will visit relevant websites to learn additional information. The labs can also serve as an introduction to the online investigation detailed in the GPM lesson Climate Change Online Interactive. To present their findings to the class, students will make posters outlining the problem they have experimented with and researched, including data from the experiment, how it relates to the real world, as well as any additional relevant data from NASA or other sources. Students can give presentations to the whole class, a small group, or display the posters for a gallery walk.

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• Teacher Guide (pdf)
• Student Capture Sheet (pdf)
• Presentation (ppt)
• Carbon Dioxide Lab (pdf)
• Sea Ice Lab (pdf)
• Sea Level Lab (pdf)