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.
Resource Type: Activities
Students learn that alpine glaciers are shrinking due to warmer atmospheric temperatures associated with climate change
Students learn how projected sea level rise threatens coastal areas.
Students learn that droughts, increasing in intensity due to climate change, impact people in the United States.
Students learn that Arctic sea ice is shrinking due to warmer atmospheric and ocean temperatures as well as the ice-albedo feedback.
Students learn how to observe and describe clouds.
Clouds are both universal and mysterious. The science of clouds helps students feel closer to the sky and in awe of nature as they learn elementary concepts of physics, the water cycle, and atmospheric science. Explore the educational resources in this teaching box and bring cloud science to your elementary students.
Resource Type: Activities
Students learn about the ingredients needed to make a cloud, and the role that air pressure and temperature play in cloud formation.
Students learn that clouds change over time.
Students will understand how different types of clouds form where warm and cold air meet in mid-latitude cyclones and that these storms and clouds will likely change as the climate warms. Students will also learn that changes in clouds due to climate warming may cause even more changes in climate and that this is an area of active research.