Classroom Activities

In this lesson, students learn about the Japanese festival celebrating the appearance of cherry blossoms in the spring and analyze average bloom date data from over 1000 years of records to understand how climate has changed.

Students compare photographs of glaciers to observe how Alaskan glaciers have changed over the last century.

Drip Drop! is a music video intended to engage young people in a conversation about climate and water.

Recent climate change is already having impacts - from melting Arctic sea ice and glaciers, to the lack of rainfall in the southwest and central United States, and the impacts of sea level rise on coasts worldwide. This teaching box is filled with explorations and readings that help secondary students learn how climate change is affecting the water cycle.

Students match graphs showing aspects of observed climate change with statements that describe the observations.

Students analyze the energy consumption of a hypothetical household to determine the amount of carbon dioxide they are adding to the atmosphere each year.

Outdoors on a sunny, warm day, students explore how areas in the shade and light colors remain a bit cooler than areas in the sunshine and dark colors. Then they apply what they’ve learned to design a shade structure that will keep a playground cooler during hot summer days.  

Students learn about the urban heat island effect by investigating which areas of their schoolyard have higher temperatures. Then they analyze data about how the number of heat waves in an urban area has increased over time with population.

Graph the extent of sea ice, over months and years, in the Arctic and Antarctic. Learn about the seasons and long-term trends.

Students investigate maps and data to learn where and when hurricanes form and how climate change may be affecting them.

Project Resilience is a 20-day high school curriculum that helps students examine the environmental challenges facing communities along the Gulf of Mexico and learn about resilience planning using a resilience planning toolkit.

Students explore glaciers and other parts of the Earth system through photos from Alaska and identify how the environment changed in photos taken over the 20th century as the climate warmed.

Students interpret model data through a climate simulation using sounds and visuals to make a forecast of climate change and changes to Arctic sea ice over this century.

Students review what scientists know and what they’re working to understand about the relationship between extreme weather events and climate change.