This site shows NASA's most up-to-date calculation of the global temperature anomaly relative to the average global temperature between 1951-1980.
Users can see the current calculated temperature difference, an interactive graph of the differences from 1880 to the present, and a color-coded map showing temperature differences over time.
Teaching Tips
Positives
This is a great site for letting students interact with primary source data to draw conclusions.
Additional Prerequisites
The data can be downloaded.
Teachers will need to ensure students understand what a global temperature anomaly is and how it is calculated.
Remember that temperature anomalies must compare to a baseline. The baseline here uses the average temperature from 1951 to 1980. So the temperature increase does not represent all Anthropogenic global warming since before the Industrial Revolution. The planet has heated up more than what is displayed here.
Differentiation
Students can explore this webpage individually or with a small group and share some noticings and wonderings about the data.
This can be used as a hook for a lesson or unit on climate change.
Other graphical representations for the temperature anomaly can be found here and in this video.
There is no contradiction in the resource. This resource is recommended.
Standards
Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS)
ESS2: Earth's Systems
HS-ESS2-2 Analyze geoscience data to make the claim that one change to Earth’s surface can create feedbacks that cause changes to other Earth systems.
ESS3: Earth and Human Activity
MS-ESS3-3 Apply scientific principles to design a method for monitoring and minimizing a human impact on the environment.
HS-ESS3-5 Analyze geoscience data and the results from global climate models to make an evidence-based forecast of the current rate of global or regional climate change and associated future impacts to Earth systems.
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.
