Supporting Teachers
We give science teachers the tools and skills they need to help their students overcome misconceptions and misinformation about climate change and evolution.
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Climate Models
Some of the most common climate skeptic arguments focus on climate models. In this lesson, students examine climate model data and learn how climate models are developed, as well as debunk common misconceptions about climate models and their capabilities.
Age Level
Grades 5-12
Duration
2-3 60-minute periods
Disciplinary Core Ideas
- HS-ESS2.D3: Changes in the atmosphere due to human activity have increased carbon dioxide concentrations and thus affect climate.
- HS-ESS2.D4: Current models predict that, although future regional climate changes will be complex and varied, average global temperatures will continue to rise. The outcomes predicted by global climate models strongly depend on the amounts of human-generated greenhouse gases added to the atmosphere each year and by the ways in which these gases are absorbed by the ocean and biosphere.
- HS-ESS3.D1: Though the magnitudes of human impacts are greater than they have ever been, so too are human abilities to model, predict, and manage current and future impacts.
- HS-ESS3.D2: Through computer simulations and other studies, important discoveries are still being made about how the ocean, the atmosphere, and the biosphere interact and are modified in response to human activities.
Performance Expectations
- HS-ESS2-4: Use a model to describe how variations in the flow of energy into and out of Earth’s systems result in changes in climate.
- HS-PS3-1: Create a computational model to calculate the change in the energy of one component in a system when the change in energy of the other component(s) and energy flows in and out of the system are known.