Global Warming: Information

EPA Global Warming for Kids

Good definitions, clear explanations and a few games make this a teacher favorite. A little heavy on text, but nicely presented. Some students may get lost clicking on all the links, but the left navigation bar can help them find their way back. Students can learn a lot here. Definitely a must see site for those students doing research on this topic.

Earth & Space Sciences; Standard 1: Understands atmospheric processes and the water cycle
Life Sciences: Standard 6: Understands relationships among organisms and their physical environment
Geography Standard 14: Understands how human action modify the physical environment
Geography Standard 18: Understands global development and environmental issues

Global Warming: Fact vs. Myth

This site from the environmental watchdogs, Environmental Defense, is from 1999. It does, however, provide good reading for understanding the environmentalists' position on global warming. Since this article does not provide data to support their facts (or at least doesn't give any links to let us really look at the data), students may want to look for data to substantiate or disprove the "facts" presented here. This site provides more up-to-date information about global warming by going to the main site and choosing Global Warming from the Issue pull-down menu at the top of the page.

Earth & Space Sciences; Standard 1: Understands atmospheric processes and the water cycle
Life Sciences: Standard 6: Understands relationships among organisms and their physical environment
Nature of Science Standard 12: Understands nature of scientific inquiry
Geography Standard 14: Understands how human action modify the physical environment

Global Temperature Trends

A site that provides graphs showing changes in global surface temperatures since 1880. Click on the graphs to see larger versions. Have students interpret the graphs and come to some conclusions.

Earth & Space Sciences; Standard 1: Understands atmospheric processes and the water cycle
Life Sciences: Standard 6: Understands relationships among organisms and their physical environment
Nature of Science Standard 12: Understands nature of scientific inquiry
Geography Standard 14: Understands how human action modify the physical environment
Mathematics Standard 6: Understands and applies basic and advanced concepts of statistics and data analysis

Global Warming Games

A site that uses graphics and survey tools to entice students to explore various aspects of global warming. Requires the Flash plugin to work.

Earth & Space Sciences; Standard 1: Understands atmospheric processes and the water cycle
Life Sciences: Standard 6: Understands relationships among organisms and their physical environment
Geography Standard 14: Understands how human action modify the physical environment

Answers to Sea Level Rise Locked in Ice

This site provides great graphics and an easy-to-understand summary of the composition of the Antarctic Ice Sheet and how its melting could contribute to sea level rise. Appropriate for grades 4-12 as introductory material.

Earth & Space Sciences; Standard 1: Understands atmospheric processes and the water cycle
Geography Standard 14: Understands how human action modify the physical environment
Geography Standard 18: Understands global development and environmental issues
Mathematics Standard 6: Understands and applies basic and advanced concepts of statistics and data analysis

The Impact of Global Warming

Nice short summary of how rising global temperatures may affect the earth. The quiz is a fun way to learn some facts.

Geography Standard 14: Understands how human action modify the physical environment
Geography Standard 18: Understands global development and environmental issues

If The Ice Melts

Animations from NOVA illustrating the impact of the melting of the West Antarctic or East Ice Sheet on the U.S., Europe, and Asia. These are definitely "attention-getters" when talking about the potential impact of global warming.

Geography Standard 14: Understands how human action modify the physical environment
Geography Standard 18: Understands global development and environmental issues

Global Change

This web site provides stories, poems and short definitions of different aspects of climate change. The informational material seems to be at a much higher reading level than the stories and poems. The stories could be used by students to produce a play for other students in their school. Students could submit a poem. Also provides Word Searches and Crosswords on environmental issues.

Earth & Space Sciences; Standard 1: Understands atmospheric processes and the water cycle
Life Sciences: Standard 6: Understands relationships among organisms and their physical environment
Geography Standard 14: Understands how human action modify the physical environment

A QuickTime animation of the shrinking of the Antarctic ice sheet. This is very dramatic and shows clearly why scientists are very concerned about the effects of global warming on the Antarctic ice sheet. Accompanying information is appropriate for grades 5-12.

Earth & Space Sciences; Standard 1: Understands atmospheric processes and the water cycle
Geography Standard 14: Understands how human action modify the physical environment

Sinks for Anthropogenic Carbon

A detailed explanation with many graphs outlining the role carbon sinks may play in the global warming scenario. Includes very nice graphs and charts to help explain earth changes. This material is relatively technical, so is more appropriate for high school students doing an in-depth project on global warming.

Earth & Space Sciences; Standard 1: Understands atmospheric processes and the water cycle
Geography Standard 14: Understands how human actions modify the physical environment

Interpreting Ice Core Data

An interactive site that allows students to see different data superimposed on a graph of the mean temperature at Summit, Greenland. Questions are asked to help guide student thoughts. Appropriate for grades 9-12.

Nature of Science: Standard 11: Understands the nature of scientific knowledge
Nature of Science Standard 12: Understands nature of scientific inquiry
Geography Standard 14: Understands how human actions modify the physical environment

GreenHouse Gas Online

Many nicely illustrated articles and up-to-date news on different greenhouse gases and climate change. Good place to locate current information and descriptions of research in the area of greenhouse gases and their effect on the earth. Appropriate for grades 9-12.

Nature of Science: Standard 11: Understands the nature of scientific knowledge
Nature of Science Standard 12: Understands nature of scientific inquiry
Geography Standard 14: Understands how human actions modify the physical environment
Earth & Space Sciences; Standard 1: Understands atmospheric processes and the water cycle

Modern Global Climate Change

An authoritative look at some current models of global climate change. Some nice graphs and data in the full version. Appropriate for grades 10 -12.

Climate Timeline Information Tool

This interactive website from NOAA tries to help students understand different time scales used when describing weather and climate. It provides data related to the different time scales as well as many different images. On Macintosh System X machines, it seems to work better in Netscape than Explorer. Appropriate for grades 9-12.