Classroom/Lab Activities

Classroom/Laboratory Activity: The Impact of Human Activities on the Natural Carbon Cycle

A classroom/laboratory activity to understand the carbon cycle, and to explore how human activities may affect the natural carbon cycle. Students will run a simulation to explore how an increase in fossil fuel use will affect the

Classroom/Laboratory Activity: Reconstruction of Paleoclimate by Using Isotopic Composition Data

A classroom/laboratory activity to learn about the isotopes of hydrogen and oxygen, analyze the isotopic composition of ice, and understand how isotopic compositions can be used to recreate past temperatures and climate. Students will plot

Classroom/Laboratory Activity: Black Carbon and Earth’s Albedo

A laboratory activity to demonstrate the effect of black carbon on surface temperature of the Earth. This activity by Holzer et al. for the NESTA/Windows to the Universe team demonstrates the impact of black carbon

Classroom/Laboratory Activity: What are Aerosols?

A quiz to understand atmospheric aerosols, their basic characteristics and impact on climate. Use this tool to help students find answers to: What are aerosols and what are the sources of atmospheric aerosols? Explain how

Classroom/Laboratory Activity: The Coriolis Effect

A hands-on classroom/laboratory activity to learn about the Coriolis Effect. In this activity, students use a simple paper-based model to understand how the Coriolis Effect influences the direction of winds, currents, and other objects in

Classroom/Laboratory Activity: Black Carbon and Human Health

A classroom activity that discusses the impacts of black carbon emissions on human health. This activity by the Science Education Research Center at Carleton College (SERC Carleton) demonstrates how the burning of fossil fuels and

Classroom/Laboratory Activity: Climate Change, the Cryosphere, and Rising Sea Levels

A classroom/laboratory activity that introduces the relationship between climate and the cryosphere, explains how sea-level rise can be predicted (based on average global temperature change), and triggers a discussion on the potential impacts of sea-level

Classroom/Laboratory Activity: Using Introductory Calculus (Integration) to Analyze CO2 Emission Data

A classroom/laboratory activity to analyze CO2 emissions data by using Riemann sums for the calculation of area under the curve. Students will use calculate and compare CO2 emissions for the U.S. and China, based on

Classroom/Laboratory Activity: Using Polynomial Differentiation to Analyze Global Atmospheric CO2

A classroom/laboratory activity to learn and apply polynomial differentiation and to solve tangent line problems for global average CO2 data. Students will observe the trend in increasing atmospheric CO2 levels, infer when atmospheric CO2 levels

Classroom/Laboratory Activity: Meteorologist for a day

A classroom/laboratory activity to calculate the mean daily temperature using hourly temperature data and to compare different statistical techniques for determining this value. Students will use a given data set to calculate the mean daily

Differential Calculus using Methane Data

A classroom/laboratory activity for Mathematics teachers to teach about Differential Calculus, specifically, about polynomial differentiation focusing on Tangent Line Problem and Curve Fitting. This activity contains yearly data of the globally averaged marine surface methane

Classroom/Laboratory Activity: Ocean Chemistry, Ocean Acidification, and Oyster Growth

A classroom/laboratory activity to learn about the pH of ocean water, explore the potential effects of climate change on ocean acidification, and understand the possible impacts of ocean acidification on marine organisms such as oysters. Students will explore

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