Here is a step-by-step guide to using this lesson plan in the classroom/laboratory. We have suggested these steps as a possible plan of action. You may customize the lesson plan according to your preferences and requirements.

1. Introduction to the Lesson Plan

Video micro-lectures(6min)

A) Introduce this lesson plan to your students by asking some important leading and deep questions such as:

• Why do Ice Ages occur?
• Why do they occur periodically?
• Why did we have climate catastrophes such as the “Snowball Earth” when the entire planet was covered with ice?
• How do we get out of such catastrophic events?
• How resilient is life to have survived these climate catastrophes?

You may begin your lesson with providing the following background information to your students.

• While there have been only two known Snowball Earth events in the entire history of the planet, Ice Ages are cyclic phenomena occurring roughly every 100,000 years. The Sun is the dominant source of energy on Earth and to the first degree,the Earth’s climate is determined by the energy we receive from the Sun. In terms of the incident solar power per unit area, called the Solar Constant, a higher solar constant would correspond to a hotter Earth while a lower one to lower temperatures.
• In this lesson plan we focus on changes in the Solar Constant on long time scales of tens of thousands of yearsto understand its role in determining Earth’s climate. This kind of change is largely driven by Earth’s orbital parameters; its eccentricity, obliquity, and precession -the Milankovitch cycles. We then focus on the question of precisely how climate on Earth responds to the changes in the Solar Constant. The ice-albedo feedback cycle influences this response strongly.
• Albedo is the reflectivity of a planet. A higher albedo or greater reflectivity of the planet surface leads to a decrease in the surface temperatures. As surface temperatures decrease and more ice is formed the albedo of the planet further increases due to ice being more reflective and consequently this leads to further decrease in surface temperatures. This is an example of a positive fee dback and is known as the Ice Albedo feedback. In this lesson plan we study how equilibrium is achieved in such a cycle, analyze the process with different solar constants, and build an overall understanding of some of the mechanisms to understand Ice Ages.

We will understand these important concepts through a hands-on activity of creating an iterative ice albedo feedback model in Python.

B) Play a short video ‘Snowball Earth’ by National Geographic as a basic introduction of what is Snowball Earth and emphasize that such climate catastrophes have occurred in Earth’s past.

C) Also introduce your students to the Ice Albedo feedback through avideo micro-lecture by Prof David Archer, The University of Chicago as part of an    online course on Global Warming Science.

Read More

2. Prepare for Python Programming: By installing Jupyter Notebook

Teaching Module (35 min)

Ask your students to install a Python programming environment on their computers. For beginners, we recommend using Jupyter Notebooks. This environment allows you to access tutorials and a programming space where students can simultaneously read instructions and try their hands at programming. To access Jupyter Notebooks, install the ‘Anaconda-Navigator’ from the following link. Once it is successfully installed on your computer, navigate to the homepage of the software, and click on ‘Install’ in the ‘Jupyter Notebook’ tab. Once installed, launch the notebook-the ‘Jupyter notebook Homepage’ will open as a webpage. Open a new ‘Python 3’ file to begin coding.

Read More

3. Introduction to Programming with Python

Classroom/Laboratory Activity (60 min)

Use the link to the Python tutorial database to teach the basics of Python programming such as printing text, defining variables, simple arithmetic operations, import and use of the ‘numpy’ and ‘matplotlib’ libraries, defining arrays and lists, using indices with arrays and lists, and loops (specifically ‘for’ loops). These introductory skills will be required for the ensuing classroom/laboratory activity.

Read More

4. Classroom/Laboratory Activity

Suggested questions/assignments for learning evaluation

Have your students begin with the classroom activity of developing the Ice-Albedo Feedback Model using Python. This exercise has been adopted from Prof David Archer’s course titled “Global Warming II: Create your own models in python”, available on Coursera.

Read More

A detailed step-by-step guide for this activity is provided here.

Read More

Share the instruction manual for the exercise with each student. The manual is in the format of a Jupyter Notebook and walks you through the entire process of developing the model on Python. Download the notebook using the links provided. To open it, launch Jupy ter notebook from the Anaconda-Navigator. From the homepage, go to ‘downloads’ folder from the directory and search for the manual. If you want the students to work their way through the exercise themselves, you may avoid sharing the manual with them. Instead, use it to motivate them in the right direction with hints.

• What is “Snowball Earth”?
• What is the role of the Sun in determining the average surface temperature of planet Earth?
• What is the Ice Albedo Feedback?
• Why do Ice Ages occur?
• How do you write a simple computational model in Python?

Read More

Use this lesson plan to help your students find answers to:

1. What is “Snowball Earth”?
2. What is the role of the Sun in determining the average surface temperature of planet Earth?
3. What is the Ice Albedo Feedback?
4. Why do Ice Ages occur?
5. How do you write a simple computational model in Python?