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Telling Climate Stories with Data

Provided by: MIT Day of Climate |Published on: March 1, 2025

Lesson Plans

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Synopsis

In this 6-lesson module from Day of AI, students will work with coding and data visualization tools like Deepnote, Python, and Pandas to make meaning and tell stories with climate change data.
Students will learn how to use Deepnote, create a scatter plot and line graph with data from Brazil, use a best-fit line to create a predictive model, and select a country to analyze climate change data and create a data story presentation for.

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Subjects: Biology, Geography, Mathematics

Authors: Day of AI, Isabella Pu, Rachel Connolly, Matthew Taylor, Cynthia Breazeal

Region: South and Central America, Global

Languages: English

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Teaching Materials

Positives

The Deepnote material uses video, pictures, and detailed instructions that take students through the assignment step-by-step.
The lesson also includes explanations for new terms and concepts that use analogies to access students' background knowledge and maximize understanding.

Prerequisites

As the guide explains, teachers will need to create a free Deepnote account. Deepnote has a free version and a paid version that teachers can get for free; however, Deepnote does not recognize all school emails.
Teachers and students should also have experience with and access to Python.
Students should understand the concept of correlation.

Differentiation & Implementation

Each lesson has a list of vocabulary words. To support language acquisition, teachers and students can work together to create a word wall to reference throughout the unit.
In Lesson 1 or 2, to support learning throughout the rest of the unit, students and teachers can work together to create an anchor chart for the steps to make meaning with and understand data. Students can refer to this resource throughout the module as they work with data independently. Teachers can use the questions in the Meaning Making and Storytelling sections in Lesson 1 and the Data Analysis Pipeline graphic in Lesson 2.
If students are struggling to work through the data using the steps in Deepnote, teachers may want to do the steps at the same time as a class, projecting what the screen should look like at all times.

Scientist Notes

Teaching Tips

Standards

Resource Type and Format

About the Partner Provider

Day of Climate

Day of Climate is a new initiative designed to equip K-12 learners and their educators with concise, hands-on educational materials and tools to better understand climate change, its impacts, and potential solutions. This effort unites the broader MIT community to engage learners and educators in concrete actions addressing climate and sustainability challenges.

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All resources can be used for your educational purposes with proper attribution to the content provider.