This section explores what the greenhouse effect is, how human activities are enhancing the greenhouse effect, and how this enhanced greenhouse effect is changing the Earth's climate and negatively impacting life on Earth.
There is also a linked lesson plan for grades 9-12, a linked discussion guide for higher education classes, and an animation that shows global temperature anomalies from 1880 to 2022.
This is the second section of the World 101 Climate Change module.
Teaching Tips
Positives
The video was created by NASA.
The text contains thoughtfully crafted infographics to illustrate the concept.
Additional Prerequisites
Students should have a basic understanding of solar radiation.
Students should know how humans emit greenhouse gases.
Differentiation
Students could use the text for a persuasive essay on what greenhouse gas emissions are, how countries should decrease their emissions, and why emissions reductions are not happening at a faster rate.
Students could read the text at home to prepare for an in-class discussion on how the enhanced greenhouse effect could impact their own community.
Teachers could use the article as a conceptual introduction to ocean temperature increases, including coral reefs and the risks they face from global warming.
This provides a basic understanding of why some emissions increase global temperatures, which could be used in a number of non-science classes or as a refresher for chemistry, biology, or environmental science classes.
Scientist Notes
This resource is a quick overview of how the greenhouse effect works, why it is vital to survival on the planet, and how human activity is making it stronger. This resource is recommended for teaching.
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.
HS-ESS2-4 Use a model to describe how variations in the flow of energy into and out of Earth’s systems result in changes in climate.
ESS3: Earth and Human Activity
HS-ESS3-1 Construct an explanation based on evidence for how the availability of natural resources, occurrence of natural hazards, and changes in climate have influenced human activity.
Common Core English Language Arts Standards (CCSS.ELA)
Reading: Science & Technical Subjects (6-12)
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RST.11-12.2 Determine the central ideas or conclusions of a text; summarize complex concepts, processes, or information presented in a text by paraphrasing them in simpler but still accurate terms.
Common Core Math Standards (CCSS.MATH)
Functions: Interpreting Functions (9-12)
CCSS.MATH.CONTENT.HSF.IF.B.6 Calculate and interpret the average rate of change of a function (presented symbolically or as a table) over a specified interval. Estimate the rate of change from a graph.
