California Energy Commission, California Energy Commission
Learn more about Teaching Climate Literacy and Energy Awareness»
See how this Simulation/Interactive supports the Next Generation Science Standards»
Middle School: 3 Disciplinary Core Ideas, 8 Cross Cutting Concepts, 4 Science and Engineering Practices
High School: 6 Disciplinary Core Ideas, 6 Cross Cutting Concepts, 2 Science and Engineering Practices
About Teaching Climate Literacy
Other materials addressing 5b
Other materials addressing 5c
7.3 Environmental quality.
Notes From Our Reviewers
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Teaching Tips | Science | Pedagogy |
- For a typical high school classroom, climate models and what they are need to be defined and understood prior to using this interactive.
- The related stories below the tool could be used to have students debate the consequences of climate change on electricity use, adequate water supply, and wildfires.
About the Science
- Students can investigate projected temperature changes for the state of California given two different carbon emission scenarios. They can also graph temperature changes predicted for their town within the state of California.
- Comments from expert scientist: This animation of future climate scenario temperature predictions allows the user to look at average decadal low, average, and high temperatures for the southwestern United States. Students can change between model runs and ensemble runs, and change from temperature to sea-level-rise to snowpack to precipitation. This interactive tool is a great way to explore future climate predictions, if one accepts that regional-scale predictions of surface temperatures from global climate models are accurate enough to examine on a regional basis.
About the Pedagogy
- Interactive is easy to use with clear user interface.
- Students can investigate how different climate models change the predictions of future climate change.
- Very relevant for students since they can zero in on their community and part of the state.
- Offers supplemental background information on climate change topics in California with references to the original publications. See http://cal-adapt.org/blog/categories/understanding-climate-change/ and http://cal-adapt.org/blog/categories/climate-stories/.
Technical Details/Ease of Use
- Interactive tool very clean and well-designed. Easy to use.
- An instructions tab is located at the top menu bar that briefly outlines the tool.
- The tool is specifically designed for the state of California only.
Related URLs These related sites were noted by our reviewers but have not been reviewed by CLEAN
- A links pages also provides additional reputable resource for educators http://cal-adapt.org/page/links/
Next Generation Science Standards See how this Simulation/Interactive supports:
Disciplinary Core Ideas: 3
MS-ESS2.D1:Weather and climate are influenced by interactions involving sunlight, the ocean, the atmosphere, ice, landforms, and living things. These interactions vary with latitude, altitude, and local and regional geography, all of which can affect oceanic and atmospheric flow patterns.
MS-ESS3.D1:Human activities, such as the release of greenhouse gases from burning fossil fuels, are major factors in the current rise in Earth’s mean surface temperature (global warming). Reducing the level of climate change and reducing human vulnerability to whatever climate changes do occur depend on the understanding of climate science, engineering capabilities, and other kinds of knowledge, such as understanding of human behavior and on applying that knowledge wisely in decisions and activities.
Cross Cutting Concepts: 8
MS-C1.4:Graphs, charts, and images can be used to identify patterns in data.
MS-C2.2:Cause and effect relationships may be used to predict phenomena in natural or designed systems.
MS-C2.3:Phenomena may have more than one cause, and some cause and effect relationships in systems can only be described using probability.
MS-C7.1: Explanations of stability and change in natural or designed systems can be constructed by examining the changes over time and forces at different scales, including the atomic scale.
MS-C7.2: Small changes in one part of a system might cause large changes in another part.
MS-C7.3:Stability might be disturbed either by sudden events or gradual changes that accumulate over time.
MS-C7.4:Systems in dynamic equilibrium are stable due to a balance of feedback mechanisms.
MS-C7:Stability and Change
Science and Engineering Practices: 4
MS-P1.1:Ask questions that arise from careful observation of phenomena, models, or unexpected results, to clarify and/or seek additional information.
MS-P4.1:Construct, analyze, and/or interpret graphical displays of data and/or large data sets to identify linear and nonlinear relationships.
MS-P4.2:Use graphical displays (e.g., maps, charts, graphs, and/or tables) of large data sets to identify temporal and spatial relationships.
MS-P4.3: Distinguish between causal and correlational relationships in data.
Disciplinary Core Ideas: 6
HS-ESS2.D1:The foundation for Earth’s global climate systems is the electromagnetic radiation from the sun, as well as its reflection, absorption, storage, and redistribution among the atmosphere, ocean, and land systems, and this energy’s re-radiation into space.
HS-ESS2.D3:Changes in the atmosphere due to human activity have increased carbon dioxide concentrations and thus affect climate.
HS-ESS3.D1:Though the magnitudes of human impacts are greater than they have ever been, so too are human abilities to model, predict, and manage current and future impacts.
HS-ESS3.D2:Through computer simulations and other studies, important discoveries are still being made about how the ocean, the atmosphere, and the biosphere interact and are modified in response to human activities.
Cross Cutting Concepts: 6
HS-C1.1:Different patterns may be observed at each of the scales at which a system is studied and can provide evidence for causality in explanations of phenomena
HS-C1.5:Empirical evidence is needed to identify patterns.
HS-C2.1:Empirical evidence is required to differentiate between cause and correlation and make claims about specific causes and effects.
HS-C7.1:Much of science deals with constructing explanations of how things change and how they remain stable.
HS-C7.2:Change and rates of change can be quantified and modeled over very short or very long periods of time. Some system changes are irreversible.
HS-C7.3:Feedback (negative or positive) can stabilize or destabilize a system.
Science and Engineering Practices: 2
HS-P1.1:Ask questions that arise from careful observation of phenomena, or unexpected results, to clarify and/or seek additional information.
HS-P4.1:Analyze data using tools, technologies, and/or models (e.g., computational, mathematical) in order to make valid and reliable scientific claims or determine an optimal design solution.