Week 13: Climate Change

 The big question this week was, How does climate change affect sea level?

Lab

In lab this week we talked about coupled inquiry and how it allows you to meet scientific standards as a science teacher but also have students actually learn. It's the easiest way to have your students "buy in" to what you're teaching- the teacher asks the questions, the students work to find answers. 

A lot of teachers don't want to participate in coupled inquiry because it gives "too much" responsibility to students and takes more time. Additionally, for some teachers it might be frustrating to watch them go down paths that you think are incorrect. But the data shows that the kids trained with inquiry-based learning outpace the rest of the kids every time. Are we really going to ignore this data for our own convenience? If we became teachers for the convenience, we should've picked a different career. 

Lecture

Notes from Lecture: 

• Scientists are no longer debating whether humans are causing climate change, but what we should do about it and how bad it'll be. 
• Why do some regions have different climates? 
• Latitude: where you are, north or south, on Earth affects the climate of the region due to the amount of time your region is tilted toward the sun. 
• Ocean Currents: temperature of the ocean currents affects the temperature of the air traveling over them 
• Wind and Air Masses: large masses of air that take on the climate of the area they travel over
• Elevation: The higher up you go in elevation, the cooler it gets. Decreased pressure allows the molecules to spread out, causing decreased temperatures
• Relief: Precipitation created when air masses rise to cross a mountain barrier
• Near Water: nearness to large bodies of water stabilizes the environment. 
• Evidence of Climate Change
• Glacier Retreat 
• Water expands whichever direction it goes in, heating to gas or freezing to ice. 
• The ice on LAND melting causes sea level rise, not the ice that's already in the seas (that ice melting causes other issues)

Textbook

• What did you learn? 
• July 2019 was the hottest month on record since the 1800s
• Scientists have warned we are nearing a tipping point of no return
• Climate change causes Earth's systems to be thrown out of balance. More energy in the system overall creates a positive feedback loop
• More extreme temperatures happen on both ends of the spectrum- not just heating but also cooling in some places
• More extreme weather events are a result of climate change. 
• Melting sea ice and glacier retreat are also results of climate change
• Ecosystem disruption, especially in coral reefs, is also a concerning impact from climate change
• What was most helpful? 
• The data tables were most impactful in talking about climate change. 
• What do you need more information on? 
• I'm most curious what people are proposing we do about it. Not just signing more agreements, but what is actually being done to fight the crisis.