Weathering the Weather
Exploring the Effects of Global Warming on Your Community
Objectives:
Students will:
1. Predict what aspects of life in their city would change if the climate were to become warmer.
2. Examine new findings on weather patterns and global warming by reading and discussing "New Focus of Climate Fears: Altered Air Currents."
3. Devise, in "committees", a series of strategies to better prepare for global warming trends in their city, as well as propose ideas for ways in which people in the city can reduce the causes of global warming.
4. Write a reflection in your notebook detailing your team's ideas and conclusions.
Activities / Procedures:
1. WARM-UP/ DO-NOW: In your Science Notebook respond to the following scenario: Imagine that the temperature where you live became much warmer year-round than it is now. What aspects of life would change because of this new weather pattern? What aspects of the infrastructure of your city might change (e.g., agriculture, industry, tourism)? Then share your answers.
2. Read and discuss "New Focus of Climate Fears: Altered Air Currents," focusing on the following questions:
a. What is global warming, and what are its causes and effects?
b. What are the effects of the circulation regimes described in the article, and how might an increase in their frequency affect climates around the world?
c. What is the significance of the prediction that "the average global surface temperature will rise by another 3.5 degrees, more or less, in the 21st century" as compared to the 5 to 9 degree increase in temperature from "the depths of the last ice age some 20,000 years ago"?
d. How can global warming affect precipitation patterns, and how could this affect the climate around the world?
e. What is the El Niño/ El Niña weather pattern, and how does it affect different areas of the world?
f. What different "alternating, semistable regimes" of atmospheric circulation are discussed in the article, and how does each pair of regimes affect the Earth?
g. Why is there such great concern over the increased frequency of these regimes?
3. Your table groups have been organized by our city’s planning commission to evaluate ways in which the city is and will be affected by climate changes caused by global warming. The city planning commission is quite concerned with the statistics provided in the featured New York Times article that say that "if emissions are not reduced,... the average global surface temperature will rise by another 3.5 degrees, more or less, in the 21st century. By comparison, the world is 5 to 9 degrees warmer now than in the depths of the last ice age some 20,000 years ago." Each table will devise a series of strategies to better prepare for global warming trends in our city, as well as propose ideas for ways in which people in our city can combat the effects of global warming. In your table groups, answer the following questions in your Science Notebooks:
--What industries generate revenue in your city?
--What agricultural products generate revenue in your city or region?
--How do environmental factors (i.e., rainfall, temperature, seasons) affect both the industrial and agricultural aspects of your city’s revenue?
--How might changes in these environmental factors affect both the industrial and agricultural aspects of your city’s revenue?
--What is your city currently doing to combat global warming trends?
--What solutions would you like to put in place to restrict the emission of greenhouse gases?
Further Questions for Discussion:
--What is global warming?
--What causes global warming?
--What might be the correlation between the level of industrialization of a country and the emission of greenhouses gases in that country?
--How might the issue of level of industrial development in different countries affect those countries’ positions about ways in which one can limit the emission of greenhouse gases?
--What other human activities contribute to the breakdown of the ozone layer?
--What solutions are already in place to reduce the amount of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere?
--What health issues are related to the depletion of the ozone layer?
Protecting Holy Cows
The Effects of Pollution, Industrialization, and Other Human Activities on the World's Biomes
Objectives:
Students will:
1. Reflect on the various ways in which humans affect the environment.
2. Read and discuss "Sacred Cows Are Wily Too; Just Try Catching One."
3. Review and discuss definitions of ecology, environment, biome, and ecosystem.
4. Work in groups to determine the animal and plant life, ecological conditions, and effects of human interaction in specific biomes.
5. Research specific elements of their group's biome and prepare to present this information in a future class.
Activities / Procedures:
1. WARM-UP/ DO-NOW: In your Science Notebooks respond to the following question: "What are various ways in which human activities affect the environment?" Then share your answers and discuss the areas of the earth affected by these activities (air, deserts, wetlands, woodlands, tropical rainforests, urban areas, etc.) Do all of these activities have negative affects on the earth? For those activities that do deplete our natural resources, why do humans do these things?
2. Read and discuss "Sacred Cows Are Wily Too; Just Try Catching One," focusing on the following questions:
a. Why is there a need for municipal cow catchers in New Dehli, India?
b. How are plastic garbage bags affecting these cows?
c. Why are cows allowed to roam freely through urban areas?
d. According to Raman Kumar Sharma, why is the occupation of cow catcher difficult?
e. Why, in India, do people want to protect cows? What roles do cows play in Indian culture and society?
f. What animal rights issues do the cow catchers sometimes face?
g. Where are the cows taken after they are captured? Do you think that this is a better place for them than New Dehli? Why or why not? If so, then why do you think some Indian citizens do not want to see the cows taken from their urban areas? How does this relate to Indian culture?
3. Review and discuss the definitions of ecology, environment, biome, and ecosystem. Definitions below from the Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary, (http://www.m-w.com).
-Ecology: the interrelationships of organisms and their environments
-Environment: the complex of physical, chemical, and biotic factors (as climate, soil, and living things) that act upon an organism or an ecological community and ultimately determine its form and survival
-Biome: a major ecological community type.
-Ecosystem: the complex community of organisms and their environment functioning as an ecological unit
4. You will now work in your teams (two teams per table) to complete the Biome Journalism Project.
