As the carbon dioxide concentration of our atmosphere increases and our climate warms, the hay fever season seems to be getting longer and more severe. In this case study, students assume the a role of a public relations specialist contracted to communicate the link between climate change and pollen allergies. The activity focuses on the importance of scientific skills to careers outside science, and is most suitable for a lower-level introductory biology, human health, or environmental science course.

One of the most rewarding and challenging aspects of teaching an advanced placement environmental science course is finding enriching field and lab activities for your students. These labs have been developed by an experienced team of environmental science educators in partnership with the Environmental Literacy Council. Each lab has been the subject of an extensive peer review by a number of experienced environmental science educators. The content of this initial collection is varied, and APES teachers and students in different areas around the country should be able to complete each of the labs. These initial labs are not typical cookbook variety. They each contain an inquiry-based component. Over time, additional labs and tools for new and experienced teachers will be added to the collection.

As the aerosol content and solar heating change with time, the atmosphere and the Earths surface experience different warming and cooling. This animation displays a time series of the INDOEX region with 8-day averages showing aerosol and solar reflectance (albedo) data from the Terra satellite. From these, we see how these inputs generate warming of the atmosphere (Atmospheric Forcing - red regions) and cooling of the surface (Surface Forcing - dark regions). Areas of missing data (due to clouds, etc.) are either black or transparent.

The Horn of Africa has been experiencing exceptional droughts over the last decade. Using data collected from the NOAA POES satellite, changes in the severity of the drought conditions in the Horn and around the world are shown.

In this interactive activity produced for Teachers' Domain, learn how Arctic sea ice has changed over the past 25 years in terms of maximum winter extent, concentration, and the timing of breakup each spring.

This site offers a searchable collection of answers to questions about global warming, ozone depletion, greenhouse gases, and other issues related to climate change. Students can also submit questions of their own and explore related links.

The Bering Sea Climate website contains time series data that measures climate and ecosystem status in the Bering Sea. The site presents data, metadata, and graphics by allowing the user to select categories and then click a button for the desired function. Data can be displayed as a list, a time series plot, or in terms of recent trends, relevance, and correlation. Measured parameters include weather, oceanographic and climate data, sea ice data, and fisheries and other biological data. The site also offers professional essays about the Bering Sea ecosystem and industry reports on climatic conditions and trends for the North Pacific in general and the Bering Sea in particular. Further information is available through links to additional data resources, communication, organizations, maps, ecosystem information, and a photo gallery. This resource is part of the Using Data collection. http://serc.carleton.edu/usingdata/

In this lab, students will infer a potential for increasing levels of atmospheric carbon dioxide leading to global warming by contrasting the temperature rise in a CO2 rich atmosphere to that of normal air when both environments are exposed to a bright light in a controlled experiment.

In this interactive activity from NOVA scienceNOW, explore options for storing carbon dioxide in order to prevent further global warming.

In this video adapted from the Arctic Athabaskan Council, learn how warmer temperatures in the Arctic are transforming the landscape, triggering a host of effects such as permafrost thawing and insect infestations.

For South Africa, finding a policy approach that balances the increasing demand for energy with the need for sustainability, equity, and climate change mitigation is a particular challenge. Through energy modelling indicators of sustainable development and policy analysis, Harald Winkler builds a rich and detailed case study illustrating how a development-focused approach to energy and climate policy might work in South Africa. Moreover, with recent recordsetting global crude oil prices, he points out that making energy supply and use more sustainable is a central challenge in South Africa's future development path. An energy researcher, IPCC author, Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change and a member of the South African delegation to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, Winkler offers a nuanced examination of where the synergies and tradeoffs lie, and makes clear the imperative of considering long-term implications when meeting short-term needs.

Climate Challenge is a single-player game about climate change, playable for free on the BBC website. It is a sandbox-style strategy game based on real climate change data, where the player can try out different approaches, learn about the issues and have fun at the same time.

This video segment adapted from NOVA explains the difference between weather and climate and features groundbreaking analysis revealing that Earth's climate has changed much faster than previously believed.

High school students can investigate the link between everyday actions at their high school, greenhouse gas emissions and climate change. Using this site, students can learn about climate change, estimate their school's greenhouse gas emissions and conceptualize ways to mitigate their school's climate impact. Students gain detailed understandings of climate-change drivers, impacts, and science; produce an emission inventory and action plan; and can even submit the results of their emission inventory to their school district.

These lesson plans, activities, and resources will help students understand how humans interact with the environment. This lesson requires students to either propose a solution to a current environmental issue that will improve the health of the system or analyze a historical situation in terms of the environment and propose a reasonable alternative that would have improved the health of the system.

This collection of Climate Change Graphics is from Earth: Inside and Out, part of the Museum's Seminars on Science series. These distance-learning courses are designed to help educators meet the new national science standards.

This Climate Change Impacts Collection provides the teacher and their students the opportunity to explore some of the environmental changes already observed, from the Arctic to tropical regions. Data sources provide historic precipitation and temperature records, allowing students to compare changes in their own local area to others. Lessons included, provide opportunities for place-based instruction related to climate change, others provided a more global perspective. The background resources provided in this collection tend to be for the teacher and/or the advanced student.

This video adapted from KTOO takes a look at Earth's warming and cooling cycles and the current atypical trend of warming that is impacting the glaciers in Alaska's Inside Passage.

Use this site to learn about the science of climate change and its potential effects on our nation's wildlife and their habitats.