Amplify Science Earth's Changing Climate

Lawrence Hall of Science has new instructional materials that address the Next Generation Science Standards!

Check out these Middle School Units… As just one example, compare Middle School units from three different Hall programs. See for yourself how each program goes about addressing the Middle School NGSS Standards related to Human Impacts and Climate Change, and choose the approach that best meets the needs of your school district.

MS NGSS Performance Expectations: Human Impacts and Climate Change • MS-ESS3-2. Analyze and interpret data on natural hazards to forecast future catastrophic events and inform the development of technologies to mitigate their effects. • MS-ESS3-3. Apply scientific principles to design a method for monitoring and minimizing a human impact on the Environment. • MS-ESS3-4. Construct an argument supported by evidence for how increases in human population and per-capita consumption of natural resources impact Earth’s systems. • MS-ESS3-5. Ask questions to clarify evidence of the factors that have caused the rise in global temperatures over the past century.

Sample Units from Three Different Hall Programs • Amplify Science—Earth’s Changing Climate: Vanishing Ice Earth’s Changing Climate Engineering Internship • FOSS—Weather and Water • Ocean Sciences Sequence—The Ocean-Atmosphere Connection and Climate Change

©The Regents of the University of California

Description of two Middle School units from Amplify Science

Earth’s Changing Climate: Vanishing Ice and Earth’s Changing Climate Engineering Internship

Grade 6-8 Units — requiring at least 19 and 10 45-minute class sessions respectively

(two of 27 Middle School Amplify Science units)

The Problem: Why is the ice on Earth’s surface melting?

Students’ Role: In the role of student climatologists, students investigate what is causing ice on Earth’s surface to melt in order to help the fictional World Climate Institute educate the public about the processes involved. Students consider claims about changes to energy from the sun, the atmosphere, Earth’s surface, or human activities as contributing to climate change.

What Students Figure Out:

Why is the ice on Earth’s surface melting? In Chapter 1, students analyze data about ice cover, temperature, and several gases in the atmosphere. They explore the unit’s Simulation and test changes to the amounts of different gases in the atmosphere.

Why do temperatures on Earth increase when the amount of carbon dioxide or methane in the Earth system increases? In Chapter 2, students gather evidence about stable and changing systems of energy flow from a physical model and from the Simulation, as well as articles about climate changes in Earth’s history. Then, they show their ideas in a model and explanation.

What can be done to stop the carbon dioxide and methane in Earth’s atmosphere from increasing? In Chapter 3, students analyze data about human activity, test changes to human activities in the Simulation, and read an article about solutions to climate change. They show their understanding with the Modeling Tool and in writing.

©The Regents of the University of California

They apply what they learn to a new question: How is Earth’s climate affected in the five to ten years after a large volcanic eruption? Students examine evidence from the Pinatubo volcanic eruption to consider whether large volcanic eruptions cause warming or cooling of the Earth’s climate overall, engage in a student-led argumentation routine called a Science Seminar, and write final arguments.

This unit is followed by the Earth’s Changing Climate Engineering Internship: Rooftops for Sustainable Cities in which students apply their learning to a design challenge: designing rooftops to reduce a city’s impact on climate change. In the role of civil engineering interns, students focus on isolating variables in planning and conducting tests of their designs, and also learn about the cause-and-effect mechanisms involved as changes to albedo and changes to combustion of fossil fuels affect climate.

The Earth’s Changing Climate Engineering Internship is designed to follow any unit in which students learn about climate change.

For more about Amplify Science and information about purchasing units from this NGSS-designed K-8 program: https://www.amplify.com/curriculum/amplifyscience

©The Regents of the University of California

Description of a Middle School course from FOSS Next Generation Edition

Weather and Water

Grade 6 Course — requiring at least 60 45-minute class sessions

(One of 12 FOSS Grade 6-8 courses)

Anchor phenomena: Weather conditions and climate changes

The FOSS Weather and Water Course is an integrated physical and earth science course. Students will grapple with physical science ideas about atoms and molecules, changes of state, and energy transfer as foundations to launch into earth science applications involving air masses, fronts, convection cells and winds, the development of severe weather, and climate change. Students interpret data from phenomena to build explanations and develop science language in their writing and through sense-making discussions. Students will also delve into engineering applications and real-life connections along the way.

Investigation 1: What Is Weather? Students are introduced to the concept of weather and the methods that meteorologists use to study weather factors. Students learn that weather occurs in the atmosphere and that the atmosphere is composed of air, which has mass and can be compressed.

Investigation 2: Air Pressure and Wind Students investigate the relationship between changing air pressure and wind. They develop a particle model for air pressure, then make inferences about wind movement on a large scale.

©The Regents of the University of California

Investigations 3-5: Convection; Radiation; Conduction Students develop the concept of density on their way to explaining the phenomenon of convection as a process of mass movement of fluids and a mechanism for energy transfer. Students engage with the phenomenon that not all locations on Earth have the same weather or climate. They compare cities at different latitudes to discover climate differences, then learn that climate is related to the amount of solar energy transferred to Earth and the materials on the surface of Earth. Students explore the phenomenon of conduction and apply the understanding with an engineering challenge to insulate a model house.

Investigation 6: Air Flow Students apply the concept of energy transfer to explain two phenomena—heating of the atmosphere and wind. Students develop models of local winds and global winds.

Investigations 7-8: Water in the Air; The Water Planet Students focus on the wet part of weather by investigating the phenomenon of humidity— the water vapor in the air—to understand some of the variables that influence its phase changes, including cloud formation and precipitation. Students investigate the complexity of the water cycle and human resource use. They explore the causes of the phenomenon of ocean currents, and how proximity to the ocean can affect climate.

Investigation 9: Climate over Time Students refine the distinction between weather and climate and are introduced to the phenomenon of climate change. They explore the relationship between greenhouse gases and global average temperature, and consider implications of climate change. Students consider human involvement in increasing greenhouse gases, including actions that may mitigate climate change.

Investigation 10: Meteorology Students pull together all the physical science concepts they’ve learned in the course to explain the phenomenon of weather. They use a weather map to write and deliver a TV-style weather report.

For more about FOSS Next Generation and information about purchasing units from this NGSS-aligned K-8 program: https://www.deltaeducation.com/foss/how-foss-works

Description of a Middle School curriculum sequence from the Ocean Sciences Sequence for Grades 6-8

The Ocean-Atmosphere Connection and Climate Change

Grades 6-8 Curriculum Sequence —requiring at least 28 45-minute class sessions

(Three of three Ocean Sciences Sequence Grade 6-8 units)

Unit 1: How Do the Ocean and Atmosphere Interact? The ocean and atmosphere are closely interconnected through major Earth systems such as ocean and air currents, climate and weather patterns, the water cycle, and the flow and exchange of heat energy around the planet. In this unit, students learn about these connections through the lens of what sets water and air currents in motion, and how what happens in the ocean affects the atmosphere and vice versa. Students have many opportunities to delve into density—both as an observable phenomenon and on the molecular level. Students come to an understanding of how density relates to movement of water, air, and heat on Earth. Thermal expansion and the concept that water is a heat reservoir are also explored in relation to the ocean-atmosphere system.

Unit 2: How Does Carbon Flow through the Ocean, Land, and Atmosphere? An understanding of how carbon flows between carbon reservoirs in Earth's systems is crucial to understanding climate change, yet unfortunately, is often lacking among those debating this important issue. In this unit, students learn about how carbon flows from animals into the atmosphere through respiration, from the atmosphere into plants through photosynthesis, from the atmosphere into the ocean through absorption, into fossil fuels and sediments through decay, and from fossil fuels into the atmosphere through combustion. They learn that the flow of carbon into the atmosphere has been increasing in recent decades through the burning of fossil fuels, causing an imbalance in the carbon cycle. They also learn how this increase of carbon in the atmosphere has led to an increase of carbon dioxide in oceans, causing ocean acidification, and affecting ocean life.

Unit 3: What Are the Causes and Effects of Climate Change? In this unit students explore the causes and effects of climate change as well as possible solutions. Through investigations of topics such as the greenhouse effect, melting glaciers and sea ice, sea level rise, human contributions to rising atmospheric

CO2 levels, effects on organisms, and ocean-atmosphere connections, students gain an understanding of the underlying causes of climate change and how pervasive its effects are on the Earth system as a whole. In the last few sessions, students revisit the human contributions to climate change and the carbon cycle they learned about in Unit 2 in order to brainstorm, learn about, and communicate with others about personal, local, and global solutions and adaptations to climate change.

For more about Ocean Sciences Sequence and information about downloading this and one other NGSS-designed unit: http://mare.lawrencehallofscience.org/curriculum/ocean-science-sequence