Air Quality

Ozone Depletion

This "Theme Page" has links to two types of resources related to the study of global warming / climate change. Students and teachers will find curricular resources (information, content...) to help them learn about this topic. In addition, there are also links to instructional materials (lesson plans) which will help teachers provide instruction in this theme. Please read our disclaimer.

Encyclopedia of the Atmospheric Environment

Published online in 2000, the "Encyclopedia of the Atmospheric Environment" is a clever two-level encyclopedia about climate, global warming, weather, and related topics for grades 9 to 12 students.

Environmental Change Education/Outreach Program

The Nebraska Earth Science Education Network (NESEN) has collected over a dozen lesson plans in climate change from NESEN teachers participating in two workshops. Look in the 1997 and 1998 workshop sections for the lesson plans.

Explorer: Global Warming

A downloadable lesson plan complete with overhead masters (in pdf format) for students in grades 3-9. "This lesson plan covers the major greenhouse gases, human activities that contribute to the change of the Earth's atmosphere, and why there is a concern about climate changes. Also addressed are strategies for dealing with potential global warming and the major contributors to global warming. The possible effect of a global warming on forests, agriculture, health, wildlife, and the oceans are addressed."

[The] Franklin Institute Science Museum

• Bringing the Greehouse Effect Down to Earth In this lab activity, high school students compare the amount of Carbon Dioxide in four different sources of gases.
  
• [The] Greenhouse Effect in a Jar An elementary/junior high experiment that will serve as an introduction to the greenhouse effect. Skills include observing and recording data, use of a control, drawing conclusions from results, and use of a model.
  

Global Change

This teaching unit from the United States Geological Survey is intended for students in grades 4-6 although some activities can be used with older or younger students. The unit consists of an introduction and many activities. Each activity has background material, an experiment, suggestions for further reading and extensions.

Global Climate Change

Environment Canada provides answers to the questions: "What is climate change?" "What is Canada doing?" "How will climate change affect you?" and "What can you do?" There are other useful resources within or linked to this site - we've provided direct links below.

• Government of Canada: Global Climate Change This site has been designed specifically to inform Canadians about climate change, how it affects our environment, and what the Canadian government is doing about it. In addition to these sections, be sure to check out the Resource Room as well as the Activity Room.
• [A] Primer on Climate Change Indepth information on the issue of climate change, its impacts, and measures we can explore to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
  

Global Climate Change Student Guide

The online textbook "Global Climate Change Student Guide" is an authoritative Web resource for upper-grade and college Environmental Science students.

Global Warming: Focus on the Future

There are four sections to this site. In "It is happening" students can get the historical perspective on global warming as well as information on what the issue is. There are also articles describing impacts, discussions of solutions, and games/puzzles for students.

Global Warming Unit

This teaching unit from LETSNet (Learning Exchange for Teachers and Students through the Internet) consists of five lessons designed for middle school and high school students.

Greenhouse Warming: Fact, Hypothesis, or Myth?

A look at the validity of the Greenhouse Warming Theory.

National Environmental Indicator Series - Climate Change

Environmental indicators are selected key statistics, which represent or summarize a significant aspect of the state of the environment, natural resource sustainability, and related human activities. This site provides information about the climate change issues such as: Carbon dioxide intensity, Global atmospheric concentration of green house and more.

National Forum on Climate Change: Proceedings

These proceedings are the records of a series of meetings which brought together a citizens' panel of 25 respected Canadians in a National Forum on Climate Change in 1998. The panel heard a full range of expert opinion and examined all aspects to the topic objectively. The information is arranged in a series of meeting minutes and, as such, access to the reports is somewhat cumbersome.

NASA fact sheets

NASA Fact Sheets are produced in an effort to educate the general public on the major issues and natural phenomena that scientists will be studying using data provided by the Earth Observing System. These files are in PDF format.

Sierra Club of Canada: Climate Change

This site provides a view on climate change from the perspective of a Canadian environmental protection group. In addition to basic information on global warming, there are research reports, data summaries, and announcements.

Skepticism Net: Global Warming

A meta-list of links to resources on the web which dispute or question the claims of global warming.

Still Waiting for Greenhouse

The introduction to this web site describes itself thusly: "This website demonstrates what many climate scientists know to be exaggerated claims and political propaganda about`Global Warming', based on unscientific (mostly computer model) evidence. The observed evidence indicates that little or no global warming is happening and little should be expected. "

TrackStar

TrackStar is an online interface which allows instructors to create lessons for students by sequencing existing instructional content in various web sites within a lesson. Students explore one topic at a particular location within one web site then move on to the next topic at another web site. The list of topics remains visible throughout the lesson so that students can remain on track. Explorations of the web sites beyond the designated instructional content are also possible.

This link is to their search page from where a keyword search on "global and warming" will produce numerous hits. Caution #1: Many of the web sites that these lessons access may already be on this CLN page - it's the creation of lesson objectives and the sequencing of the tours through the sites that make the lesson potentially useful to your students. Caution #2: The quality of the lessons (e.g., definining objectives, finding web sites, sequencing the tours) will vary widely within the TrackStar collection.

United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change

• Beginner's Guide to the Convention A description of environmental problems that the world is facing and what we are doing about it through the Convention.
  
• Climate Change Information Kit Thirty fact sheets (also in downloadable format) which cover: Understanding of the Climate System; Facing the Consequences; The Climate Change Convention; Limiting Greenhouse Gas Emissions; and Facts and Figures.
  
• [The] Convention and the Kyoto Protocol Full text of the protocol along with information on the status of its implementation.
  
• Country Information Snapshots of action taken by a large number of countries to meet their domestic and international climate change commitments.
  

Note: The sites listed above will serve as a source of curricular content in Global Warming/Climate Change. For other resources in Social Studies -Environment (e.g., curricular content, lesson plans, and theme pages), click the "previous screen" button below. Or, click here if you wish to return directly to the CLN menu which will give you access to educational resources in all of our subjects.