This page on ocean warming presents interactive graphs of ocean heat content over time.
The text briefly discusses the huge amount of heat absorbed by the oceans, water expansion due to increasing temperature, and coral bleaching caused by warmer ocean temperatures.
Teaching Tips
Positives
Students may be surprised to learn that about 90% of heat from global warming is absorbed by the oceans.
Students can learn about the impacts on ocean ecosystems.
Additional Prerequisites
Students should know how to read a graph.
This page and NASA's other Vital Signs pages are probably best used when students are learning the basic facts about climate change.
Differentiation
This resource could be used in lessons about energy, ocean ecosystems, sea level rise, the physical properties of water, extreme weather, hurricanes, or the importance of our oceans to maintain life on Earth.
Any class could use this resource for fact-checking, research, or data analysis related to climate change and sea level rise.
Other resources about this topic include this table of solutions to climate change, this experiment about the expansion of water, and this video.
Scientist Notes
This resource offers several lines of evidence showing the increase in ocean heat content as a result of anthropogenic climate change. This resource is recommended for teaching.
Standards
Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS)
ESS3: Earth and Human Activity
MS-ESS3-5 Ask questions to clarify evidence of the factors that have caused the rise in global temperatures over the past century.
HS-ESS3-6 Use a computational representation to illustrate the relationships among Earth systems and how those relationships are being modified due to human activity.
