Lesson Plans, Exercises & Activities

Grades K - 4

Seasons and Measuring Temperature: This lesson plan provides students with a basic comprehension of temperature, seasons, and graphing. More specifically, the students will be able to see how a range of temperatures fit into each of the seasons. (31.3 KB)


Climate Activities Workbook: Developed by the Atmospheric Radiation Measurement (ARM) program, this workbook contains games, puzzles, and other exercises to teach students about weather and climate. (3.6 MB)


A Drop in the Bucket- Studying the Water Cycle: Through a visual presentation, the students will learn the different sources of freshwater, and the relative ratios of these water sources on the earth. (36.1 KB)


Using the Global Warming Wheel Card: This activity has students construct and create a global warming wheel card. The objective of the wheel card is to introduce students to the ways with which energy is produced and consumed according to different human activities. (1.3 MB)


Drip's Journey - The Story of a Drop of Water: Students are read a story and then use clues from the story to construct a water cycle diagram. (1.5 MB)


Water Cycle Crossword: Use this crossword to teach students about water cycle vocabulary words. (42.4 KB)


Energy Sudoku Game: Sudoku is a logic-based placement puzzle. This version of sudoku uses symbols for biomass, coal, geothermal, and other energy sources as pieces and has students reposition the pieces to solve the puzzle. Answers to the suduko game are attached to this document. (277 KB)


Water Cycle Word Search: Have students find and circle all the vocabulary words about the water cycle in this word search game. (35.7 KB)


12 Month Weather Journal: Use this weather journal to have students keep track of the month, weather, seasons, and other important information about the climate. (454 KB)


Discussion Questions about the Water Cycle: This appendix offers several detailed questions and corresponding responses to help facilitate conversation and learning about the water cycle. (50.7 KB)

 

 

Grades 5 - 8

The Carbon Cycle and its Role in Climate Change - Activity 1: Students will be able to explain that things are made of atoms and that atoms can be re-arranged in whole number ratios to make different materials and that photosynthesis and respiration are reverse processes. (80 KB)


The Carbon Cycle and its Role in Climate Change - Activity 2: This lesson plan gives students a basic chemical understanding of the carbon cycle and provides a deeper understanding of why healthy plants are essential to a healthy habitat.   (76.4 KB)


The Carbon Cycle and its Role in Climate Change - Activity 3: By role playing and scenario building, this activity allows students to interact and examine the influence of fossil fuels to the environment. Students will be able to explain that fossil fuels release carbon dioxide into the environment. (78.4 KB)


The Climate Change Wedge Game: Developed by Princeton University, this climate change wedge game has students evaluate the growth of carbon emissions over time, compare historic rates of emissions, identify actions that can help curb global emissions, analyze the costs and benefits associated with different reduction actions, and select and defend certain responses to reduce global carbon emissions. (765 KB)


Where is the World's Water?: The objective of this activity is to calculate and measure out equivalent amounts of water to model the distribution of the world's water supply (download with supplemental "water distribution worksheet" below). (1.2 MB)


Water Distribution Worksheet: This worksheet accompanies the activity above ("Where is the World's Water") and provides students with the name of the water body while having them fill in the amount of water within each water body. (45.8 KB)


Arctic Microclimates Activity: In this activity, students learn to identify, measure, and average microclimatic temperatures in a particular region (download with "Arctic Microclimatic Overview" document below). (19.6 KB)


Arctic Microclimates Overview: This document contains general information and an introduction into Arctic microclimates, including what a microclimate is, where they are located, and why they are being affected by climate change. (34.3 KB)


Adapting to Survive: This lesson is an introduction to a study of Native Alaskans of the past. The objectives of this lesson include, increasing the student's knowledge of climate regions, particularly in the Arctic, learn about how people live off the land in those regions, and increase the understanding of the importance of traditional local knowledge in adapting to climate change. (12.4 KB)


What Types of Clouds Can You Find in the Sky?: Scientists classify clouds into three main categories (stratus, cumulus, and status). In this activity, students observe and learn how to identify these three types of clouds and the type of weather each cloud brings (download with "Cloud ID Chart" below). (903 KB)


Cloud Identification Chart: There are three main categories of clouds (stratus, cumulus, and status). This chart illustrates each of these clouds and lists the heights at which each of these clouds can be found. (1.6 MB)


Climate Activities Workbook: Developed by the Atmospheric Radiation Measurement (ARM) program, this workbook contains games, puzzles, and other exercises to teach students about weather and climate. (3.6 MB)

 

 

Grades 9 - 12

Climate Change and Ocean Currents: The overall goal for this lesson is for students to learn more about the effect of ocean currents on climate change and determine if the possibility exists that rising temperatures might trigger a massive meltdown of the Greenland Ice Sheet. (225 KB)


Climate Change and Ocean Tides: The objective of this lesson is for students to evaluate the impact of higher tides, as a result of sea level rise, on coastal communities. Students will be able to evaluate sea level and tidal data, develop a reasonable plan for mitigating coastal impacts, and discuss and evaluate plans with other students. (78.9 KB)


Do You Want to Risk It?: In this lesson, students will define, compare, and contrast the terms "risk" and "vulnerability". In addition, students will determine the history of natural disaster events and discuss the relative risk from natural hazards for selected counties based on the history of such events (download with "Do You Want To Risk It" worksheet and table below). (303 KB)


Do You Want to Risk It? Worksheet and Table: This supplemental document contains a worksheet to accompany the activity above ("Do You Want To Risk It?). In addition, it includes a table of numeric scales/numbers associated with natural hazards, including floods, winds, surge, erosion, and composite scales. (365 KB)


It's Getting Hot In Here: In this lesson, students will define "forcing factor" and describe at least five forcing factors for climate change. In addition, they will be able to describe at least five ways in which climate change could affect human communities and cite at least three lines of evidence that suggest the Earth's climate may change in the 21st century. (306 KB)


The Climate Change Wedge Game: Developed by Princeton University, this climate change wedge game has students evaluate the growth of carbon emissions over time, compare historic rates of emissions, identify actions that can help curb global emissions, analyze the costs and benefits associated with different reduction actions, and select and defend certain responses to reduce global carbon emissions. (765 KB)