Product Detail: Science Object

Description

Science Objects are two hour on-line interactive inquiry-based content modules that help teachers better understand the science content they teach. This Science Object is the fourth of four Science Objects in the Ocean’s Effect on Weather and Climate SciPack. It explores how Earth’s climate has changed in the past and how it may change in the future. Climate change may occur as a result of changes in Earth's surface, atmosphere, and oceans. Such changes may be abrupt (such as gas and dust from volcanic eruptions or asteroid impacts) or may occur over very long times (such as changes in landscape or increase in carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere). Even relatively small changes in atmospheric or ocean content and/or temperature can have widespread effects on climate if the change lasts long enough. Since the industrial revolution, the concentration of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere has increased at an unprecedented rate. Though climate change and changes in the composition of the oceans and atmosphere are natural, present modifications far exceed natural rates.

Ideas For Use

Science Objects are two hour learning experiences teachers can use to enhance their understanding of a particular scientific concept. Teachers can access any topic “on demand” from the Internet. Topics are based on the science literacy goals in the national standards (NSES, Science for All Americans, Benchmarks, and the Atlas of Scientific Literacy) and tied to state standards.

Each Science Object provides an understanding of the science content by providing a structured set of learning experiences through simulations and practice assessments. Science Objects challenge teachers to explore and explain real world phenomena and are founded on the principle that learners must be challenged with a problem, observation, data, etc., in order to develop scientific understanding. Science Objects utilize the five phases of inquiry-based learning: Engage, Explore, Explain, Elaborate, and Evaluate.

Learning Outcomes:

Oceans Effect on Weather and Climate: Changing Climate

• Explain the role that phenomena such as volcanic eruptions or asteroid impact play in changing climate.
• Describe the type of atmospheric conditions and weather related data that can be obtained from ice core and deep-sea sediment records.
• Describe how a small change in the content of oceans and atmosphere (such as a rise in carbon dioxide levels) can have significant impacts on global climate.
• Describe human activity that has an affect on climate.

Additional Info

Technical