Global Climate Change presentation by Rebecca Anstadt and Carolyn McLain
The following presentation was first created using Prezi (http://prezi.com/llz1u1qsqzan/global-climate-change/). Comments and a video presentation were then recorded and placed on You Tube. Revisiting the Prezi outside of You Tube is recommended for a complete view of websites and video links.
Global Climate Change, though its causes and effects are debatable, is worth teaching to our students so they can make educated decisions for the future.
Throughout this presentation, you will be shown ways to make your lessons student centered or experiment oriented.
Let's begin...before discussing climate change, we must first define climate.
How do we know it is changing? There are several scientific articles and websites for children to visit or can be incorporated into a lesson. Students need to develop skills of reading graphs and charts as well as creating them. Besides providing data that shows how the global temperature has risen in the past 150 years, teachers can also have the students conduct simple experiments where students record the temperature changes over a period of time. The students then use the data to create a temperature vs. time graph...even input the information using Excel to create the graph.
Other proof that the climate is changing can been seen in the polar ice caps, students can read tree rings, or learn about ice core sampling. Each scenario has an associated video or kid-oriented website. But what does this all tell us...why is it changing?
One factor is the increase in greenhouse gases. Let students know that we do need some greenhouse gases, otherwise Earth would be a frigid planet unable to sustain life. Two primary greenhouse gases we can teach our students about include carbon dioxide and methane. The children can learn about their cycles as well as the radiative forcing or rather imbalance created by an excess of these gases in the atmosphere. An experiment, presented here by a young child, can also be modeled in the classroom.
Be mindful that not all greenhouse gases are a factor of human development. However, the global increase of greenhouse gases does correlate with our industrial developments.
So at this point you may be asking yourself (or your students may be asking) "what can we do?" First off, we can reduce our own carbon footprint. There are some easy ways this can be done. Changing incandescent bulbs with compact fluorescent...look at either video for enrichment or experiment ideas. Walking or biking instead of driving...students can maintain a log of the amount of gas saved. Turn off lights not in use...students can also learn how to read their electric meters. And don't forget that phantom power...turn off power strips especially when going away on vacation. Each one of these ideas can also be modeled in the classroom with experiments, or students can maintain a daily log to calculate their reduction of carbon emissions. Links are provided to offer additional ideas.
Besides reducing our carbon footprint, students can help sequester carbon can by planting a tree. It can also counter the effects of deforestation...one tree at a time.
Students can even talk to their parents about supporting companies that use reusable resources that have less of a negative impact on the environment. Or making the switch at home...consider alternative energy sources such as hydrogen fuel cells, or solar for either electric consumption or heating water.
And probably the simplest impact we can all make is to reduce our waste, reuse whenever possible, and recycle appropriately.
Understanding that everything we do, because of convection currents throughout the globe both in the atmosphere and oceans, has an impact not just locally, but globally. We are educating our youth so they can make a difference.
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Climate Changeby Biodiversidad151,679 views
Rebecca and Carolyn, I love this presentation. Very helpful as I am trying to design a similar unit. Thanks so much for sharing! One question though: is the Prezi presentation available to public users? I cannot find it. :(
bwolfwilloughby 1 month ago