Title: GLOBAL CLIMATE CHANGE (Global Warming): Examining the Relationship
Between the Temperature and Concentration of Carbon Dioxide
Grade Level and Course: 6th Earth Science, 9 -12 Earth Sciences, Life Sciences
Materials, per student:
 Global warming article
 Data Tables (NOAA CO2 Maona Kea data and global temperature changes)
 Graphing paper (metric if possible)
 Graphing tools (ruler, colored pencils (2))
 Paper
For the Class:
 Butcher paper
 Markers
Instructional Resources Used: (concept maps, websites, think-pair-share, video
clips, random selection of students etc.)
KWL or Thinking Map (Circle Map), group, random, and class share, video clips,
Elmo, projector, computer, Internet access, Google Earth.
**Please be more explicit here; for example if you want the teacher to utilize think-pairshare, then state something like “Teacher asks students “Suppose a chemical reaction that
is necessary for a cell’s survival is occurring too slowly. How might an organism deal
with this dilemma? Students think about the question for one minute, then turn to a
shoulder partner and discuss their thoughts to the question. When all students have
discussed the question, the teacher leads students in a brief, whole class share out of
ideas, scripting possible solutions on the board.”
**Please do not just give a list of strategies.
California State Standards: this is way, way too many standards. Drill down to
which ones specifically your lab addresses the most.
Grade 6 Earth Sciences
Heat (Thermal Energy) (Physical Sciences)
3. Heat moves in a predictable flow from warmer objects to cooler objects
until all the objects are at the same temperature. As a basis for understanding
this concept:
d. Students know heat energy is also transferred between objects by
radiation (radiation can travel through space).
Energy in the Earth System
4. Many phenomena on Earth’s surface are affected by the transfer of energy
through radiation and convection currents. As a basis for understanding this
concept:
a. Students know the sun is the major source of energy for phenomena on Earth’s
surface; it powers winds, ocean currents, and the water cycle.
b. Students know solar energy reaches Earth through radiation, mostly in the form
of visible light.
d. Students know convection currents distribute heat in the atmosphere and oceans.
e. Students know differences in pressure, heat, air movement, and humidity result in
changes of weather.
Ecology (Life Sciences)
5. Organisms in ecosystems exchange energy and nutrients among themselves and
with the environment. As a basis for understanding this concept:
a. Students know energy entering ecosystems as sunlight is transferred by
producers into chemical energy through photosynthesis and then from organism to
organism through food webs.
b. Students know matter is transferred over time from one organism to others in the
food web and between organisms and the physical environment.
e. Students know the number and types of organisms an ecosystem can support
depends on the resources available and on abiotic factors, such as quantities of light
and water, a range of temperatures, and soil composition.
Resources
6. Sources of energy and materials differ in amounts, distribution, usefulness, and
the time required for their formation. As a basis for understanding this concept:
a. Students know the utility of energy sources is determined by factors that are
involved in converting these sources to useful forms and the consequences of the
conversion process.
b. Students know different natural energy and material resources, including air, soil,
rocks, minerals, petroleum, fresh water, wildlife, and forests, and know how to
classify them as renewable or nonrenewable.
Investigation and Experimentation
7. Scientific progress is made by asking meaningful questions and conducting
careful investigations. As a basis for understanding this concept and addressing the
content in the other three strands, students should develop their own questions and
perform investigations. Students will:
a. Develop a hypothesis.
b. Select and use appropriate tools and technology (including calculators,
computers, balances, spring scales, microscopes, and binoculars) to perform tests,
collect data, and display data.
c. Construct appropriate graphs from data and develop qualitative statements about
the relationships between variables.
d. Communicate the steps and results from an investigation in written reports and
oral presentations.
e. Recognize whether evidence is consistent with a proposed explanation.
g. Interpret events by sequence and time from natural phenomena (e.g., the relative
ages of rocks and intrusions).
Grades 9-12 Life Sciences
Ecology
6. Stability in an ecosystem is a balance between competing effects. As a basis for
understanding this concept:
a. Students know biodiversity is the sum total of different kinds of organisms and
is affected by alterations of habitats.
b. Students know how to analyze changes in an ecosystem resulting from changes
in climate, human activity, introduction of nonnative species, or changes in
population size.
d. Students know how water, carbon, and nitrogen cycle between abiotic resources
and organic matter in the ecosystem and how oxygen cycles through
photosynthesis and respiration.
Grades 9-12 Earth Sciences
Energy in the Earth System
4. Energy enters the Earth system primarily as solar radiation and eventually
escapes as heat. As a basis for understanding this concept:
b. Students know the fate of incoming solar radiation in terms of reflection,
absorption, and photosynthesis.
c. Students know the different atmospheric gases that absorb the Earth’s thermal
radiation and the mechanism and significance of the greenhouse effect.
6. Climate is the long-term average of a region’s weather and depends on many
factors. As a basis for understanding this concept:
a. Students know weather (in the short run) and climate (in the long run) involve
the transfer of energy into and out of the atmosphere.
c. Students know how Earth’s climate has changed over time, corresponding to
changes in Earth’s geography, atmospheric composition, and other factors, such as
solar radiation and plate movement.
Biogeochemical Cycles
7. Each element on Earth moves among reservoirs, which exist in the solid earth, in
oceans, in the atmosphere, and within and among organisms as part of
biogeochemical cycles. As a basis for understanding this concept:
a. Students know the carbon cycle of photosynthesis and respiration and the
nitrogen cycle.
b. Students know the global carbon cycle: the different physical and chemical forms
of carbon in the atmosphere, oceans, biomass, fossil fuels, and the movement of
carbon among these reservoirs.
Structure and Composition of the Atmosphere
8. Life has changed Earth’s atmosphere, and changes in the atmosphere affect
conditions for life. As a basis for understanding this concept:
a. Students know the thermal structure and chemical composition of the
atmosphere.
b. Students know how the composition of Earth’s atmosphere has evolved over
geologic time and know the effect of outgassing, the variations of carbon dioxide
concentration, and the origin of atmospheric oxygen.
Investigation and Experimentation
1. Scientific progress is made by asking meaningful questions and conducting
careful investigations. As a basis for understanding this concept and addressing the
content in the other four strands, students should develop their own questions and
perform investigations. Students will:
a. Select and use appropriate tools and technology (such as computer-linked probes,
spreadsheets, and graphing calculators) to perform tests, collect data, analyze
relationships, and display data.
b. Identify and communicate sources of unavoidable experimental error.
c. Identify possible reasons for inconsistent results, such as sources of error or
uncontrolled conditions.
d. Formulate explanations by using logic and evidence.
m. Investigate a science-based societal issue by researching the literature, analyzing
data, and communicating the findings. Examples of issues include irradiation of
food, cloning of animals by somatic cell nuclear transfer, choice of energy sources,
and land and water use decisions in California.
Common Core State Standards:
N/A
Lesson Objective:
Students will be able to use temperature measurements and ice core observations to
provide supporting evidence for global climate change (global warming).
Students shall be able to answer the following question:
Do temperature measurements and ice core observations provide supporting
evidence for Global Climate Change (Global Warning).
Differentiation Strategies to meet the needs of diverse learners:
 English Learners: ELL students will have been given previously a vocabulary
activity to help them understand the material being read (what is this
activity? Again, specifics needed). Their assessment at the end of the unit
will be modified (see EVALUATE).
 Special Education: Same as for ELL plus the students will be incorporated in
groups that can help them. Restate this into something like “Students will be
strategically placed into mixed ability groupings to facilitate the use of peer
tutors during the investigation. Additionally, students will have been
previously instructed in the major terms of the unit through the use of
picture cards”….
 GATE: Students will analyze the data on the tables provided, and
hypothesize what variables might be changed so as to impact the outcome of
the analysis.
ENGAGE
 Describe how the teacher will capture the students’ interest.
 What kind of questions should the students ask themselves after the
engagement?
We need something really engaging here…perhaps a short video clip from youtube,
or images of melting Alaskan glaciers, etc. Perhaps something like this:
http://www.gly.uga.edu/railsback/AG/BerlinerHutte.html
1) After viewing the images, students are asked to share their observations with
a partner, and then with the class in a whole group discussion.
2) Students are then asked, “How can we say that the increase in temperature
on Earth is due to an increase in CO2 concentration?”
2) Students are asked to prepare and fill the K and W columns of a KWL chart or to
create a circle map (“Thinking Map”) about what they know regarding global
warming. Students will review this data towards the end of the unit to address
misconceptions, etc. This is a good place to start looking at the general perception
of global warming and to come back to after the unit of study to support claims or to
address misconceptions. This belongs in the beginning of the explore unit…it really
is an intro to the lab, more so that an “attention getter”
3) Students are shown the trailer of Al Gore’s film “An Inconvenient Truth)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wnjx6KETmi4&feature=related
Students are randomly asked to share their reactions to the trailer or teacher
answers questions they might have. This is a good engage too…
4) Teacher may place a previously highlighted article about global warming on the
document projector and slowly scroll through it, instructing students to record
information from it (a reading preview strategy).
http://www.aaas.org/news/press_room/climate_change/mtg_200702/aaas_climat
e_statement.pdf
Again, this is more appropriate in the explore section of the lab.
Students are asked individually to write down, on the back side of the sheet of paper
previously used, the words or sentences that they think are relevant to the lesson.
Students share with their group the information they have collected. This is
followed by a class share and the information is written on the board or poster
paper by either a student(s) or the teacher. This appears to be a repeat of the KWL
strategy…I would stick with it instead.
EXPLORE
 Describe the hands-on laboratory activity that the students will be doing.
 List the “big idea” conceptual questions that the teacher will ask to focus the
student exploration.
If students don’t come up with the desired ideas, the teacher should direct them
towards the use of recorded data both for temperature and for CO2 concentrations.
DO NOT GIVE TOO MUCH DETAIL HERE. SAVE THE DETAIL FOR THE STUDENT
SHEET. JUST GIVE ME A SUMMARY OF THE HANDS ON ACTIVITY. EXAMPLE:
In groups of four, students will examine reference tables containing data detailing
the temperatures and carbon dioxide concentrations found on Mauna Kea between
the years 1980 through 2010. Students will graph the relevant data and analyze
these graphs to determine if there is a correlation between carbon dioxide
concentrations and temperature.
Students are told that they will be looking at that data and will examine if there is a
correlation and whether it is positive or negative.
7) Divide the students into groups of four. Each group will need a set of reference
data tables. Students work in groups but each student is responsible to plot his/her
own graphs.
-Each student will need graph paper and pencil with which to graph the data from
the data tables for carbon dioxide concentration and temperature measurements. (2
separate plots)
-Students will determine a scale that is appropriate for the data to be plotted.
-The independent variable and dependent variable should be identified and the axes
of the graph labeled. Depending on students’ familiarity with plotting, the teacher
could help students setup the variables on the plots and help choose the scales.
Time frame used: 1980 - 2010
8) Graph the data for CO2 and temperature from Data Tables 1 and 2 using different
color pencils for each set of data. Be sure to label the axes of the graph. Students
should draw 2 separate graphs.
Big Idea Conceptual Questions:
 Observe the resulting line on the graphs for temperature and carbon dioxide
concentration. Are the lines increasing, decreasing, or staying the same?
Write your observations under the graphs.
 What makes scientists say that global warming is actually occurring, and that
its increase is related to increased levels of CO2?
EXPLAIN
 What is the “big idea” concept that students should have internalized from
doing the exploration?
 List the higher order questions that the teacher will ask to solicit student
explanations for their laboratory outcomes, and justify their explanations.
Explain in one sentence or two what the “big idea” concept is that students should
take away from this lesson.
Higher Order Questions:



Why do increased levels of CO2 in the atmosphere contribute to higher global
temperatures? What is the unintended effect of these elevated
temperatures?
As scientists, what would you do to study the warming problem?
What type of experiment might you design to help address this problem?
Observe the resulting line on the graphs for temperature Are the temperatures
increasing, decreasing, or staying the same? Write the observation under the graph.
10) Compare the resulting line on the graphs for carbon dioxide. Are the
concentrations increasing, decreasing, or staying the same? Write the observations
under the graph.
11) Is there a relationship apparent between the temperature and carbon dioxide
concentration? If so, does the graph show a positive correlation, a negative
correlation between the two? These are not “big idea questions”.
EXTEND
 Explain how students will develop a more sophisticated understanding of the
concept.
 How is this knowledge applied in our daily lives?
1) Students will work with a partner to discuss the data collected and make a
list of recommendations for further study. (for example, the need for more
data from different locations and over a longer period of time; the need for
deeper analysis of that data)
Class discussion of results: Do the data collected and the analysis from your graphs
supply sufficient evidence for global warming? Why or why not? Students work
with their partners and come up with a list of recommendations they would make to
better investigate Global warming.
(More data is needed, analysis from different locations is needed, data over a longer
period of time is needed, other causes could be in play (volcanic activity in
Hawaii)’etc. .)
Students are made aware of the fact that data obtain from scientific research needs
to be analysed in order to help study and answer specific questions. Having raw
data alone is not a goal per se.
Students must realize that in everyday life one should not stop at observations but
one should interpret those observations.
2) Students watch an 8 minute video produced by the United Nations
Foundation and answer a few questions on their worksheet.
http://www.youtube.com/user/unfoundation#p/search/0/-MY-i_kdwe0
3) Students may measure CO2 concentration in different parts of the school,
both inside and outside, at various times throughout the day, using a CO2
probe or kit that is readily available from various retailers. See below for
resources.
http://store.pasco.com/pascostore/showdetl.cfm?DID=9&Product_ID=5061
4&Detail=1
http://homeharvest.com/carbondioxidemonitorcontrol.htm
EVALUATE
 How will the student demonstrate their new understanding and/or skill?
 What is the learning product for the lesson?
Students will accurately produce two graphs with proper labels, and will be able to
explain the correlation that exists between carbon dioxide concentrations and
atmospheric temperature.
Prediction: Measurements of temperature and carbon dioxide concentration in the
atmosphere sill show a correlation between an increasing amount of CO2 and an
increase in atmospheric temperature. (It is important to note that CO2 is one of
several greenhouse gases and the term ppm should be explained. Increases in
carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide, and reactive trace gases are considered as
the effect of increasing human activities)
Students will give an example of another observation which could be done using the
same technique (comparing growth between boys and girls, checking ocean
temperature vs CO2 levels, comparing CO2 concentration within a year, etc.) Why is
this a significant final product? I don’t get it. This should be your final evaluation
piece to make sure that they really internalized the concept.
Background Knowledge for the Teacher:
This is where you really need to explain the content in depth. You may take an
explanation directly from a webpage, as long as it is recent research, a credible
source, and fully cited. It is not unusual for this portion to be one half to one full
page.
Teacher should be familiar with Global Climate change. Scientist now use this term
instead of global warming as some areas on Earth are actually cooling down.
Teacher should also be familiar with green house gases and their emissions.
Good sites to investigate:
http://www.aaas.org/news/press_room/climate_change/
*Attach student pages to this lesson plan. No student pages attached…
Note: Draft 1
I am designing the work sheet, reformatting the data table (not included in original
lesson plan and which I had to come up with).
I am also going to plot the data myself to see if all is ok
Marcus
7/1/2011 ok
what is this stuff? Teacher background?
Embargoed: Not for release until 12:30 p.m. Pacific Standard Time
Sunday, 18 February 2007
AAAS Board Statement
on Climate Change
Approved by the Board of Directors
American Association for the Advancement of Science
9 December 2006
The scientific evidence is clear: global cli-mate change caused by human activities is
occurring now, and it is a growing threat to society. Accumulating data from across
the globe reveal a wide array of effects: rapidly melting glaciers, destabi-lization of
major ice sheets, increases in extreme weather, rising sea level, shifts in species
ranges, and more. The pace of change and the evidence of harm have increased
markedly over the last five years. The time to control greenhouse gas emissions is
now.
The atmospheric concentration of carbon dioxide, a critical greenhouse gas, is
higher than it has been for at least 650,000 years. The average tem-perature of the
Earth is heading for levels not experienced for millions of years. Scientific
predictions of the impacts of increasing atmospheric con-centrations of greenhouse
gases from fossil fuels and deforestation match observed changes. As expected,
intensi-fication of droughts, heat waves, floods, wildfires, and severe storms is
occurring, with a mounting toll on vulnerable ecosystems and societies. These events are
early warning signs of even more devastating damage to come, some of which will
be irreversible.
Delaying action to address climate change will increase the environmental and
societal consequences as well as the costs. The longer we wait to tackle climate
change, the harder and more expensive the task will be.
History provides many examples of society confronting grave threats by mobilizing
knowledge and promoting innovation. We need an aggressive research,
development and deployment effort to transform the existing and future energy
systems of the world away from technologies that emit greenhouse gases.
Developing clean energy tech¬nologies will provide economic opportu¬nities and
ensure future energy
supplies.
In addition to rapidly reducing green-house gas emissions, it is essential that we
develop strategies to adapt to ongoing changes and make communi-ties more
resilient to future changes.
The growing torrent of information pres-ents a clear message: we are already
experiencing global climate change. It is time to muster the political will for concerted action. Stronger leadership at all levels is needed. The time is now. We must
rise to the challenge. We owe this to future generations.
The conclusions in this statement reflect the scientific consensus represented by, for
example, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (www.ipcc.ch/), and the
Joint National Academies’ statement (http://nationalacademies.
org/onpi/06072005.pdf).
For more information:
www.aaas.org/climate
AAAS Board Statement on Climate Change
Approved by the AAAS Board of Directors 9 December 2006
Gilbert S. Omenn, Chair, AAAS Board University of Michigan Health System
John Holdren, AAAS President
Harvard University and The Woods Hole Research Center
David Baltimore, AAAS President-Elect
California Institute of Technology
David E. Shaw, AAAS Treasurer D.E. Shaw & Co., Inc.
William T. Golden, AAAS Treasurer Emeritus Alan I. Leshner, AAAS Chief Executive
Officer
Rosina M. Bierbaum University of Michigan
John E. Dowling Harvard University
Lynn Enquist Princeton University
Dr. Susan Fitzpatrick
James S. McDonnell Foundation
Dr. Alice Gast Lehigh University
Dr. Thomas D. Pollard
Yale University
Dr. Peter R. Stang University of Utah
Dr. Kathryn D. Sullivan Ohio State University