Climate

Essential Question:  How is Earth's climate connected to its geological, biological, and cultural systems?

To address this question we first need to be able to define climate.  This is not as easy as it seems.  There is so much information that is needed to understand Earth's climate and the change in it.

Explain: What new learning or reflections have you taken from this module?

One of the most interesting things that I learned about in this module was the role of Cyanobacteria  in the production of oxygen and how it completely changed the atmosphere over 3 million years ago.  It is mind boggling to think that something so small could be responsible for creating oxygen that would allow us to survive on Earth.  Here is an image that show the simplicity of the Cyanobacteria.  Although there are many species most seem to have them same basic appearance.

I also learned a great deal from the Teachers' Domain video the Origin of the Elements.  The idea that the nuclei of hydrogen and helium were created right after the Big Bang really made me think.  I guess I never really thought about it before and assumed that the all elements had just always been there.  Almost a philosophical concept... forget what came first the chicken or the egg it should be what came first the Big Bang or the element.  The cultural connection videos made me think about how the change in the climate affects all parts of life for various native peoples.  Although this is not new information to me I think it sunk in on a deeper level and I realize how complex and far reaching the problem really is.

Extend: How might you use this week’s information and resources in your lessons? What other resources can you share?

In my years of teaching I have noticed that students often use the words weather and climate interchangeably.  Students need to have a strong basic understanding of this concept before they are ready to learn about climate change.  While reviewing various resources of Teachers' Domain I came across this resource by NOVA explaining the difference between atmosphere and climate that I think will be very useful.  This video not only does a great job at that it also connects with many of the other topics and ideas that we have discussed in this class.

Biogeochemical process are hard for students to grasp.   Lots of information that students will need to know including a very basic understanding of elements and cycles.  One activity that I think is useful in the classroom to teach about elements is called Adopt an Element.  This activity comes from the The Science Spot  website that has lots of other great ideas for teaching basic chemistry.  I found an image for the carbon cycle on Teachers' Domain that I like more than the one I usually use because it fluxes in the system.  This would lend itself to some great discussion about why.

While I was looking around I found this great video on climate as a system.  This does a great job of tying together lots of different concepts that deal with climate.  At the end it gives a great introduction to the idea of climate change.

As educators I believe it is our responsibility to present and discuss controversial issues with our students.  I found a great website that presents the opposing sides to the climate change controversy.  This information would be a great place to have kids start researching the issues and follow up with a Socratic seminar.

Evaluate: How useful, insightful or relevant are this module’s information and resources?

I think this weeks module's information will be very relevant to my classroom.  Some of the resources are too complex for my middle school students but the video's lead me to other links and ideas on Teacher's Domain as well as other sites.

Three Colleagues 

Dan Adair 

Dan, thank you so much for the illustration looking at the change in temperature in the various layers of our atmosphere.  I was really surprised when I looked at it especially in the upper layers further away from earth.  I am going to have my students think about and hypothesize what they think it will look like and then show them this.  I am going to have to investigate a bit further.

Marilyn Burgess

Thanks for the reminder that we can have fun in our classrooms while learning in the Element Song.  I tried to connect to it from your link and it brought me to something else.  I was able to find it though.  Here is a you tube video of the song.

Winsor Demore

I agree with you when you say Atmosphere is hard to teach.  It is not something that I have a personal interest in and I often wonder how this plays out in my teaching.  However I have found it a great time to use data in my class.  Kids can look at long term data pertaining to one place or they can look at data over places very different from their own.  Let me know if you have any great ideas that I can use!