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Climate System & Observations I: Historical Trends Analysis

Republished From: Cooling the Curriculum; Author: Jeff Niemitz

Initial Publication Date: April 29, 2016

Summary

Summary of the Session: Is the climate changing, and if so why? During this workshop session we will work through and discuss lab exercises in which students use NASA-GISS weather station data to examine historical temperature trends for selected locations, interpret trends, and test hypotheses. The lab exercises are provided as a separate document.

Background: This 90-minute session is part of a four-day workshop that brought together faculty from multiple colleges and diverse disciplines to work collaboratively on developing new and revised courses, explore engaged learning pedagogies, and add to their knowledge for interdisciplinary teaching about climate change within a liberal arts curriculum. The workshop was held twice on the campus of Dickinson College, first in summer 2010 and again in summer 2011. Participants came from more than 20 colleges and universities and with expertise in disciplines that span the sciences, social sciences and humanities. The workshops are part of a NASA supported project Cooling the Liberal Arts Curriculum, A Campaign for Climate Change Education (Cooling the Curriculum ).

Also see teaching materials.


Learning Goals

Purpose of session:

  • To give a brief overview of the Earth's climate system and the role of the interactions of other spheres of the Earth on climate and climate change over time.
  • To present one NASA dataset (NASA-GISS) that is helpful for student understanding of recent (last 100+ years) temperature change across the world.

Outcomes of session:

  • A broad context for a climate change course or module
  • Two examples of activities for labs in climate change using:
  • Different types of data sets
  • Quantitative reasoning (graphing, basic statistics using Excel)
  • Critical thinking about the implications of data trends from different geographies
  • Hypothesis testing (heat island effect vs. climate change)

Context for Use

See Teaching Notes.

Description and Teaching Materials

This summary of a faculty workshop session for teaching about climate change provides lab exercises for students to download and use NASA-GISS weather station data for evaluating and interpreting trends and testing hypotheses.

Climate Observations: Historical Trends Analysis
Climate Observations: Historical Trends Analysis (Acrobat (PDF) 103kB Nov30 15)

Climate Observations: Lab Exercise 1
Climate_observations_lab_exercise_1.pdf (Acrobat (PDF) 82kB Nov30 15)

Powerpoint for Workshop

Session 2 climate-observations-i.pptx.pdf (Acrobat (PDF) 5.2MB Nov30 15)

Teaching Notes and Tips

See attachments

Assessment

See attachments

References and Resources

Citation

Niemitz, J. (2014). Climate System & Observations I: Historical Trends Analysis. Retrieved from http://www.camelclimatechange.org/view/teachingunit/51cbfbbd7896bb431f6c0469