Featured Resources

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Teaching Climate Literacy and Energy Awareness

Climate Literacy: The Essential Principles of Climate Science presents information that is deemed important for individuals and communities to know and understand about Earth’s climate, impacts of climate change, and approaches to adaptation or mitigation...
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Teaching Essential Principle 2: Climate is regulated by complex interactions among components of the Earth system.

Teaching Essential Principle Two Climate is regulated by complex interactions among components of the Earth system. Teaching this principle is supported by six key concepts. Click here to see them all. Earth';s climate is influenced by interactions involving the sun, ocean, atmosphere, clouds, ice, land, and life. Climate varies by region as a result of local differences in these interactions. Covering 70% of Earth';s surface, the ocean exerts a major control on climate by dominating Earth';s energy and water cycles. It has the capacity to absorb large amounts of solar energy...
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Climate Change

AMNH Seminars on Science
October 27, 2014 to December 7, 2014

This course explores the science of climate change. Students will learn how the climate system works; what factors cause climate to change across different time scales and how those factors interact; how climate has changed in the past; how scientists use models, observations and theory to make predictions about future climate; and the possible consequences of climate change for our planet.

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2014 National Climate Assessment Resources for Educators

Explore a series of guides for educators that focus on the regional chapters of the Assessment Report, helping to unpack the key messages of each region and point to related, high-quality online resources.
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Teaching Climate Literacy

  • Climate and energy are complex topics. There are many ways to approach climate and energy depending on the grade level, course topics and instructional method.
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Professional Development

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Oct
16

Mapping Earth’s Water Cycle with NASA Scientists

Scientists from two NASA Earth science missions will address how their synergistic research helps us to understand...

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Educational Resources

Is Climate Change Happening?

For this lesson, the guiding Concept Question is: What is climate change and how does climate relate to greenhouse gas concentrations over time?

Rooftop Gardens

In this hands-on activity, students explore whether rooftop gardens are a viable option for combating the urban heat island effect. Guiding question is: Can rooftop gardens reduce the temperature inside and outside houses?

Greenhouse Gases: A Closer Look

This lesson covers different aspects of the major greenhouse gases - water vapor, carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxides and CFCs - including some of the ways in which human activities are affecting the atmospheric concentrations of these key greenhouse gases.

Climate Feedback Loops

This is the seventh of nine lessons in the 'Visualizing and Understanding the Science of Climate Change' website. This lesson addresses climate feedback loops and how these loops help drive and regulate Earth's unique climate system.

Hurricanes as Heat Engines

In this activity, students examine the effects of hurricanes on sea surface temperature using NASA data. They examine authentic sea surface temperature data to explore how hurricanes extract heat energy from the ocean surface.

Studying Eco Climatic Domains

Activity is a Project BudBurst/National Ecological Observatory Network (NEON) exploration of eco-climactic domains, as defined by NEON, by investigating characteristics of a specific domain and studying two representative plants in that domain.

Under the Sun or in the Shade

This is an animated interactive simulation that illustrates differential solar heating on a surface in full sunlight versus in the shade.

Global Science Investigator

This is an animated interactive that displays, on a Global Viewer, NOAA datasets on hazards, ocean, and climate. User can visualize data on phenomena such as hurricanes, humpback whale migrations, carbon tracker, sea ice extent, IPCC scenarios on global warming.

Wind and Ocean Circulation

This animated visualization was created for the planetarium film 'Dynamic Earth'. It illustrates the trail of energy that flows from atmospheric wind currents to ocean currents.

Are Humans Influencing Modern Climate?

In this short video, host Dr. Ryan interviews graduate student Amy Steiker at the Institute of Arctic and Alpine Research about her research, using isotopes of nitrous oxide, connecting human activity to greenhouse gas emissions.

Decrease in Carbon Isotope Rations

This three-panel figure is an infographic showing how carbon and oxygen isotope ratios, temperature, and carbonate sediments have changed during the Palaeocene-Eocene Thermal Maximum. The figure caption provides sources to scientific articles from which this data was derived.

Inuit Observations of Climate Change

This video profiles the Arctic Inuit community of Sachs Harbour and its collaboration with scientists studying climate change.

Climate Simulator

This is a simulation that illustrates how temperature will be affected by global CO2 emission trajectories. It addresses the issue that even if global emissions begin to decrease, the atmospheric concentration of CO2 will continue to increase, resulting in increased global temperatures.

Under the Sun or in the Shade

This is an animated interactive simulation that illustrates differential solar heating on a surface in full sunlight versus in the shade.

Crisis Guide: Climate Change

This interactive video series reviews global warming by recognizing the problem, addressing the sources and impacts, and weighing the options. It is a six-chapter series.

US Cropland Greenhouse Gas Calculator

This visualization is a website with an interactive calculator that allows for estimation of greenhouse gas production from croplands in the United States.

The Climate Reanalyzer

This interactive visualization is a suite of weather and climate datasets as well as tools with which to manipulate and display them visually.

2050

This interactive addresses the question if we can reduce CO2 emissions by 20% of 1990 levels and help avoid dangerous climate change?

Thermal Expansion and Sea Level Rise

In this short but effective demonstration/experiment, students investigate how thermal expansion of water might affect sea level.

Bioprospecting for cellulose-degrading microbes

This is a long-term inquiry activity in which students investigate locations they believe harbor cellulose-digesting microbes, collect samples, isolate them on selective media, and screen them for cellulase activity. These novel microbes may be useful for the production of cellulosic ethanol.

Fermentation in a Bag

This is a hands-on inquiry activity using zip-lock plastic bags that allows students to observe the process of fermentation and the challenge of producing ethanol from cellulosic sources. Students are asked to predict outcomes and check their observations with their predictions.

Fermentation Challenge: Making Ethanol from Cellulose

This hands-on activity introduces students to the process of fermenting different carbohydrate sources into ethanol. Teachers demonstrate yeasts' inability to metabolize certain food sources.

Life Cycle Assessment of Biofuels 101

In this activity, students conduct a life cycle assessment of energy used and produced in ethanol production, and a life cycle assessment of carbon dioxide used and produced in ethanol production.

Thermal Expansion of Water

This is a short experiment to demonstrate the concept of thermal expansion of water when heated, as an analogy to thermal expansion of oceans due to global warming.