Warmer Growing Season, Longer Allergy Season
Articles/Websites
Grades6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12Earth and Space Sciences, Health
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Provided by Climate Central
What it is
- This resource uses maps, graphs, a video, and text to explain the connection between climate change, growing seasons, and allergies.
- Students will learn that changing lengths of freeze-free seasons across the United States result in longer, more severe allergy seasons.
Teaching tips
Positives
- The video and Key Facts section do a great job of summing up the data for those who struggle with analyzing maps and graphs.
Prerequisites
- This resource builds on students' understanding of the causes and impacts of climate change.
Differentiation & Implementation
- To activate students' prior knowledge, teachers can ask students about their experience with seasonal allergies, or the teacher can tell a personal anecdote about their experience with allergies.
- Teachers can print or display the maps and graphs in stations around the room, having students go from station to station to record what they notice and what they wonder about each of the visualizations. Then, after discussing, teachers can play the video to tie the graphs together.
- Students can also check out this resource from Climate Central to understand other impacts of seasonal changes.
- This resource can be used to demonstrate the connection between Sustainable Development Goal 3, Good Health and Well-Being, and Sustainable Development Goal 13, Climate Action.
From the scientist review
Data is presented in several clear figures, and local data is downloadable. Numerous peer-reviewed studies are cited, and the analysis relies on primary data from NOAA. This resource explores a key impact of climate change and is recommended for teaching.
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