Lesson 1: Causes and Evidences of Climate

Students will be able to:• Identify an evidence of climate change, focusing

on the relationship between CO2 concentrations and atmospheric temperature.

• Describe the greenhouse effect and identify the gases involved in it.

• Describe how carbon enters the atmosphere as depicted by the carbon cycle

• Identify sources of CO2 emissions

ANTHROPOGENICCLIMATE CHANGE

What does climate

mean?

What does anthropogenic

mean?

What is the Greenhouse Effect?

2 7

5

6

43

1

Which Greenhouse Gas has the greatest emissions?

82%

9%

6% 3%

Carbon dioxide

Methane

Nitrous Oxide

Flourine gases

List of terms:

• Fluorine Gases

• Methane

• Carbon Dioxide

• Nitrous Oxides

Global temperatures vs. CO2 concentrations • Split into pairs• Using the table provided in your worksheet, have

one person create the graph for global temperatures and one person create the graph for CO2 concentrations.

• Now compare these two graphs. What is the correlation between global temperature and CO2 concentrations?

CO2 Concentrations:1980-2010

Global Temperature:1980-2010

How does Carbon enter the

atmosphere?Word Bank:

• Auto and factory emissions

• Animal Respiration

• Dead Organisms and waste productions

• Fossils and Fossil Fuels

• Plant Respiration

• Photosynthesis

• Sunlight

Which is the highest source of Carbon dioxide emissions?

38%

32%

14%

9%

6%Fossil fuel conbustion for Electricity

Fossil fuel combustion for Transportation

Industry use of fossil fuels

Residential and Com-mericial use of fossil fuels

Other (Non Fossil Fuel Combustion)

Word Bank:

• Burning fossil fuels for Transportation

• Fossil fuel consumption to produce Electricity

• Residential and Commercial use of fossil fuels

• Other (Non fossil fuel combustion)

• Industrial use of fossil fuels

Activity: PictionarySources of CO2 emissions

• The teacher will split you up into groups of four or five.

• Pick a person to start• Start the timer for one minute• The first person to start will draw a source of CO2

emissions• The rest of the group will try to guess what the

source is before time is up

So how can we reduce CO2 emissions?

HomeworkStudents will complete the following activities, like a scavenger hunt.• Find a brief story from someone you know about

how Climate Change affects him or her. Write down a description of this story.

• Find an object (a picture or the object) you use or describe an activity you encounter in your life that emits greenhouse gases.

• Describe a new way to use this object or complete this activity in a way that emits less greenhouse gases.

Lesson 2: Impacts of Climate Change

Students will be able to:• Identify the predicted impacts of a warmer

atmosphere on the earth, focusing on the water cycle and oceans

• Determine the impacts of climate change on animals and plants in El Yunque, focusing on the impacts of rising temperature and changing precipitation patterns.

More Greenhouse Gas

Emissions

Warmer Atmosphe

re

What are some natural processes that can be affected by a warmer

atmosphere?

What are the impacts of a warmer

atmosphere on the water cycle?

How would a warmer atmosphere affect the

oceans?

What are possible environmental effects

of warmer oceans?

What are some impacts of climate

change that are specific to the

tropical islands?

Warmer Atmospher

e

Warmer Oceans

Sea Level Rise

Change in Evaporatio

n

Precipitation

Habitat Shift Activity