Global Climate Change Modules from PBS and NASA
By Laura Faye Tenenbaum,
NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory
Explore best practices for teaching global climate change (GCC) to middle- and high-school students with these free, self-paced modules for teachers.
Each module includes STEM resources that will increase your knowledge of climate change concepts and can be used directly with students.
This professional development experience was funded by NASA's Global Climate Change Education initiative. This initiative is designed to improve the quality of the nation's STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) education and enhance students' and teachers' literacy about global climate and Earth system change from elementary grades to lifelong learners.
Global Climate Change Module
Introduction to Earth's Dynamically Changing Climate
How is the Earth's climate changing? Within the mainstream scientific community the fundamentals of global warming and climate change are no longer in question and increasing evidence shows that human activities make a significant contribution to this change. Examine evidence of climate change from different parts of the Earth’s system and consider what it means to live on a planet with a dynamically changing climate.
Impacts of a Warming Arctic
In the Earth system, a change in one part of the system will lead to a change in another part through positive and negative feedbacks. Feedbacks render some parts of the Earth more sensitive to climate change than others. Examine the evidence for changes in ice cover at the Arctic and explore why climate changes at the poles are so important to the rest of the climate system.
Coastal Consequences of Sea Level Rise
The present and future impacts of global climate change on human populations are unevenly distributed across the planet. As a consequence of a warming climate, sea levels are rising at a rate of more than 3 millimeters (mm) a year. Learn how sea level rise will have increasingly serious consequences for human health and life quality.
Development
PBS TeacherLine, the premier provider of online professional development services for PreK-12 educators, has the goal of making professional development accessible, affordable and engaging for teachers. Our hope is that our courses can help inspire and guide STEM learning at every age and in every discipline.
"PBS TeacherLine not only offers me current, researched information, but the lessons are immediately usable, and transferable into my own classroom."
- Elementary School Teacher, Albuquerque, NM
For more, visit www.pbs.org/teacherline
Ignite curiosity in global climate using the NASA resource "Earth as a System" offered on PBS LearningMedia. Use this video to examine the movement of earth's global systems; discuss factors that might influence these systems - like El Nino; and consider how a change in one system might affect the others.
Dive deep into climate-related content on PBS LearningMedia - a free, web-based service for educators featuring dynamic multimedia resources from PBS, WGBH and other public media contributors. Visit pbslearningmedia.org
