Weather and Climate Unit Part 6: Climate Change

This bundle includes 6 lessons of about 50 minutes, and 17 page work bundle that has students fill-in critical notes, conduct activities, answer questions, interpret graphs, includes games, and provides opportunities for meaningful movies that diagnosis and offer solutions to climate change. The work bundle chronologically follows the detailed slideshow for an amazing learning experience. This particular slideshow is one of my most detailed as this topic is of special concern to me. A 20 question quiz game concludes the learning for a great review and assessment. A writable .pdf of the work bundle and answer keys are provided. Everything is provided to run a meaningful unit on this important topic.

This PowerPoint begins with a saddened student in the hall and a report card. The issue of why care about climate change is addressed as adolescents have so much else to worry about. Slides then address that climate change will impact everybody's lives. A step by step sequence of slides (I try to only have one focus point per slide) shows how climate change deals with the cryosphere, the oceans, the land, and the atmosphere. Branches of science that are also involved in the study of climate change are addressed. A definition of anthropogenic (human created) climate change is provided. Reference to how climate change has to do with the Carbon atom is shown. A link to Part I of a five part series about Carbon Todd "It's all about carbon" is provided. This is a really good segment about global warming. Each part is about 3.5 minutes and I break up the whole video into segments spread throughout the PowerPoint. Carbon reservoirs are pointed out in a series of slides. Natural and unnatural sources of greenhouse gases and factors that can control climate change are described with supportive images. Some history associated with the human species and fuel use from our origins until now is shown. Fossil fuels are addressed as is carbon (borrowed light) from millions of years ago locked underground. Part II of the Carbon Todd Link is provided. The Earth's natural carbon cycling is addressed. A series of challenge slides help students review photosynthesis and cellular respiration. Differences in hemispheres (land masses) and seasonally variations in global CO2 is described. A link for Part III of the Carbon Todd "It's all about Carbon" is provided. Another link to a website that has students calculate their carbon footprint / how many Earth's would the world need if everyone on the planet lived like you is provided. The Greenhouse Effect is then described in a series of slides. A few challenge based activities have students demonstrate an understanding and then a demonstration is provided where the teacher places two bottles in the light, one is covered, the other is not. Temperature differences are recorded. A Link to Part IV and V of the Carbon Todd Series is provided. Next, students create three cartoon characters of three guest speakers from an NPR radio broadcast (link provided). They then listen to the interviews and record information about the speakers next to the cartoon character. (The interviews are really neat) Lot's of graphs and step by step visuals show increasing carbon dioxide levels and are followed by temperature. Images of Ice Caps then and now are shown. The big negative impacts of climate change are described in a series of slides including sea-level rise. This section of the PowerPoint covers a lot. A link is provided to listen to the opposition for a bit. (An interesting segment listening to the founder of the Weather Channel) A really neat activity looks at who do we blame. Teacher brings in a cake, passes out note cards with countries names on them (PowerPoint includes directions). The PowerPoint then describes how much of a cake (The Climate Change Problem) they are responsible for. The Unites States only has one card, and gets a large slice of the cake. Asia gets the largest slice of the cake, but is shared by many etc. A final message about picking two lottery tickets plays out the future and has the students choose some future scenarios. A link to "Ice on Fire" and movie sheet is provided. Students answer four questions as they watch the movie. The movie is free online but the teacher must enter an email. A hidden box games concludes the PowerPoint where Carbon Todd is revealed after each slide removes parts of the boxes hiding him. Students try and guess the picture as boxes are being removed. This is a really neat PowerPoint that dives deep into Climate Change but is not overwhelming. . Please see my entire Weather and Climate Unit described below before purchasing this PowerPoint.

If you have any questions please feel free to contact us at Support@SlideSpark.net