Bringing Climate Change into the Life Science Classroom: Essentials, Impacts on Life, and Addressing Misconceptions

For teachers looking for a quick and thorough overview of the most basic and compelling data on climate change, an excellent starting place is the introductory section “Current Climate Change” in the Climate Science Primer available through the U.S. Forest Service Climate Change Resource Center (www.fs.usda.gov/ccrc/climate-basics/ climate-primer). The primer is text-based and concise and includes an animation showing the relationship between temperature and atmospheric CO2 from 800,000 yr ago to the present (1:31 min). The site also includes several data-rich graphs: the rise in temperature from 1880 to the present, the correlation between temperature and atmospheric CO2 over the past 450,000 yr, the rise in sea level since 1870, and the decline in Antarctic ice mass. Subsequent sections of the primer go on to explain the mechanism of global warming—the greenhouse effect, human influence on the greenhouse effect, natural climate cycles, and the effects of climate change on ecosystems in the United States, including modeling predictions of changes in precipitation and temperature. The Climate Change Education portion of the website features two Education Modules (www.fs.usda.gov/ccrc/climate-basics/education; Figure 1). Climate Change Science and Modeling (22:57 min), and Climate Change Effects on Forests and Grasslands (20:32 min). The modules are narrated video interactives that have the option for closed-captioning. Text versions of the narration are also available. Each section of the Climate Change Resource Center is well referenced with peer-reviewed research articles. The National Aeronautics and Space Administration’s (NASA) Global Climate Change: Vital Signs of the Planet website (http://climate.nasa.gov) provides extensive and stunning graphics and multimedia resources to visualize climate data. Students can access short videos featuring satellite imagery and images from space, infographics on the rise in global temperatures and sea level, and quizzes on the topics covered on the website (http://climate.nasa.gov/ resources/graphics-and-multimedia/; Figure 2). The website also offers several mobile apps for Apple devices: Earth Now, which displays real-time global satellite data (also available for Android devices); Images of Change, a collection of photographs and satellite data that show the effects Vol. 15, 1–6, Summer 2016