Climate Science Education Series
A collection of Micro-lectures by
Raghu Murtugudde, Professor, University of Maryland, USA
Developed by Science Media Center, Indian Institute of Science Education and Research, Pune, India
This activity enables students to determine how biodiversity may be influenced by climate change. They will learn about changes in the distribution and habitat of squirrels over time, and will discuss climate change as a potential cause of changes in biodiversity.
| In this lesson plan, students learn about the impacts of climate change on human health. The lesson plan contains several modules and case studies on issues such as Temperature-related Death and Illness; Air Quality Impacts; Vector-Borne Diseases; Water-Related Illness; Food Safety; Mental Health and Well-Being. |
This activity allows students to learn about phenology in plants and animals and to explore how climate change may influence phenological events. Students will use phenology data on flowering patterns to create graphs and will then interpret and discuss their findings.
The resources in this lesson plan introduce the link between phenology and climate change. Students can work on a range of activities–learn about phenology, investigate phenological events, and analyze phenological data (of monarchs, milkweed, and dandelions) by plotting graphs.
| This short audio podcast discusses shifts in bird migration patterns due to climate change. It discusses bird species native to Wisconsin and changes in their migratory patterns. |
| An article from National Geographic about how climate change may pose a risk of extinction to more than half of North American birds (also includes visuals of the data from National Audubon Society for some bird species). |
| “This model explores the “Gaia hypothesis”, which considers the Earth as a single, self-regulating system including both living and non-living parts. In particular, this model explores how living organisms both alter and are altered by climate, which is non-living. The example organisms are daisies and the climatic factor considered is temperature.” |
| This guided lecture and discussion helps students to understand the possible impact of climate change on animal migration (an important animal behavior) and to explore the neuroscience of migration. The example of monarch butterfly migration is used for discussion and reading. |
In this exercise, students will learn how organisms respond to the change in climate since the last glacial maximum (LGM) by comparing modern and Pleistocene era beetles, mammals and plant taxon distribution.
