National Education Standards Met:

Language Arts discipline

Special Delivery

Goal: Introduce students to the term Global Climate Change and some of the data to support that the climate of the world is changing over time.

Objectives: Students will:

• Develop a basic understanding of some of the ways in which the climate of the earth is changing
• Explore and consider evidence

Background: To open the investigation the students will receive a package in "the mail" from Dr. Barry Metric, Chief Supervising Climate Research Scientist at The National Energy Technology Laboratory. We suggest items to place in this box although each teacher should decide what items will best catch the interest of the students. In order to make this more believable you may want to ask your school secretary to bring in the package and explain that it was just delivered by courier service.

Materials (for a class of 30):

• 30 copies of Global Climate Change definition sheet
• Brown paper wrapped box containing a selection of items that prove that the climate of the earth is changing.
  -The NETL DVD labeled "DVD - watch me first"
  -Test Tube of sand
  -Ice core - find something long and thin and freeze water in it. Place in a thermos
  -Pictures of the shrinking of the glaciers -
  http://www.nasa.gov/vision/earth/environment/glacier_quakes.html
  http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/shared/spl/hi/picture_gallery
  /05/sci_nat_how_the_world_is_changing/ht ml/1.stm

-Temperature data - available at:
 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Instrumental_Temperature_Record.png

-Bottle of sunscreen
-Headstone made form cardboard with RIP and a list of plant and animal species that are extinct due to climate change.
-Bug spray
-Pieces of eggshell
-Bottle of maple syrup with a very high price tag
-Journal entry (included in lesson plan)

Time: 30 minutes

Standards Met: C5, LA6, LA7, LA12

Procedure:

• Explain to students that they will be learning about the earth's climate.
• Hand out the Global Climate Change definition sheets. Go over the definitions and allow students to share what they know or connect with about the vocabulary.
• Have a parent volunteer, school secretary, other teacher or principal interrupt your class and explain that a courier just came to the school office with special delivery package for your class.
• Ask the students if they were expecting anything - ask if it is anyone's birthday or special occasion.
• Pretend to be a little wary of the package.
• Open the package and take out the DVD and show it to the students.
• Play the DVD
• Ask the students to gather around one desk and take the items out one by one handing them to the students and asking them to display them on your desk or a table so that everyone can see them.
• Ask students to return to their seats.
• Lead a discussion about the contents of the parcel and what the items have in common.
• Tell students that it looks like someone needs help figuring out what is going on with the climate of the world and ask the students if they would like to help investigate and give some answers.
   

Global Climate Change Definition Sheet
 

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Opinion Activity

 Materials (for a class of 30):

• 30 Opinion Activity student sheets
• Pencils or pens
• Signs for "Strongly Agree", "Agree", "Undecided", "Disagree", and "Strongly Disagree"
• 5 pieces of string approximately 10 feet long each
• 30 Opinion Activity - Dihydrogen Oxide sheets
   

Time: 45 minutes

Standards Met: M4, M11, LA1, LA3, LA4, LA12

Procedure:

• Give each student the Opinion Activity student sheet and have him or her circle the option that best represents his or her opinion.
• Do NOT write names on the student sheets.
• Choose statement 10 (ban dihydrogen oxide) from the Opinion Activity student sheet and have a student read the statement aloud.
• Tell students that you recently received more information about dihydrogen oxide. 
• Pass out the Opinion Activity - Dihydrogen Oxide sheet and read it aloud.
• Ask students if they would like to change their opinion based on the information they just heard.
• Tell students that dihydrogen oxide is water and read the Opinion Activity - Dihydrogen Oxide sheet again. Ask students if the information is accurate.
• Discuss with students how information is important when making a decision. Ask how information can be misleading.
• Go outside.  Use signs to create a Lichert scale on the ground, ranging from strongly agree to strongly disagree.
• Choose one statement from the Opinion Activity student sheet and have a student read the statement aloud.
• Students should form a line behind the sign that represents their opinion.
• Ask one student from each line to explain why they are standing in that spot.
• Ask if any students would like to move based on the various rationales given.
• IMPORTANT! This is not a debate.  Do not allow students to complete this in a point-counterpoint style. Each line gets one opportunity to share their opinion.
• IMPORTANT! Be a neutral facilitator.  It is very important that students understand that there is not one right answer. Be very aware of your responses as each student shares their opinion; it is critical to have the same response to each opinion.
• Debrief the opinions shared by repeating what was stated.
• Choose another statement from the student sheet and ask a student to read the statement aloud.
• Have the students switch papers several times.
• They must now proceed to the sign that represents the opinion reflected on that sheet of paper.
• One student from each sign should explain the rationale for that opinion.  Only allow students to share the opinion represented on the sheet of paper they are holding - this is not the time to share their own opinions.
• Have students hold string from front to back and fold over excess to measure the number of students that favor each opinion.
• Place string on the ground, have students move away from the lines in order to see graph.
• Ask students to raise their hands if they heard opinions based on facts.
• Ask students to raise their hands if they heard opinions based on emotion.
• Ask students to raise their hands if they chose to move after hearing the various opinions.
• Return to classroom and discuss with students how and why people change or do not change their opinions. Ask them if they have ever been swayed to change their opinion on a controversial topic.
   

Homework: Students should write a paragraph explaining when they had their own opinion changed based on the opinion of another.

Tuesday June 12th, 1879.
I set off early the morning of August 30 before any one else in camp had stirred. Over the icy levels and over the woods, on the mountains, over the jagged rocks and spires and chasms of the glacier it boomed and moaned and roared, filling the fiord in even, gray, structureless gloom, inspiring and awful. I first struggled up in the face of the blast to the east end of the ice-wall, where a patch of forest had been carried away by the glacier when it was advancing. After thus tracing the margin of the glacier for three or four miles, I chopped steps and climbed to the top, and as far as the eye could reach, the nearly level glacier stretched indefinitely away in the gray cloudy sky, a prairie of ice.

On reaching the farther shore and tracing it a few miles to northward, I found a large portion of the glacier-current sweeping out westward in a bold and beautiful curve around the shoulder of a mountain as if going direct to the open sea. Leaving the main trunk, it breaks into a magnificent uproar of pinnacles and spires and up-heaving, splashing wave-shaped masses, a crystal cataract incomparably greater and wilder than a score of Niagaras.
John Muir
                         

Opinion Activity - Student Sheet

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This page is only for people who wish to ban dihydrogen oxide because of its toxic properties

• Causes excessive sweating and vomiting
• A major component of acid rain
• Can cause severe burns in the gaseous state
• Accidental inhalation can kill you
• Primary contributor to erosion
• Decreases effectiveness of automobile brakes
• Has been found in tumors of terminal cancer patients
• May dissolve metal ions especially in the presence of road salt
• Some scientists believe that in vapor form, it is responsible for 36%-70% of the greenhouse effect.
   

Taken from - http://www.ndc.edu/sutheimer/dihydrogen%20oxide.htm

Courtesy of Wikipedia

Courtesy of NASA
 

Argentina's Upsala Glacier, Courtesy of BBC.com

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