This article contains information about various maps illustrating climate change and climate action in Wisconsin, including maps that showcase climate action in Dane County, look at household emissions within the county, and some from the Wisconsin Initiative on Climate Change Impacts (WICCI) that reveal climate change trends and projections for Wisconsin.
Students will learn about the Climate Champions Map which displays group efforts to reduce emissions, the Clean Energy Map which shows clean energy projects led by businesses and local governments, and the Carbon Emissions Map which looks at average annual household carbon emissions.
Teaching Tips
Positives
The Carbon Emissions Map, developed by a UC-Berkeley consortium, is an excellent visualization for household emissions across the country.
The Clean Energy Map is easy to navigate.
Additional Prerequisites
Links to each map are included in the article.
The Carbon Emissions Map has a search bar for inputting zip codes.
The WICCI Maps link at the beginning of the page will not take you to the WICCI Maps Page.
Differentiation
Students can use the Climate Champions Map for a research project on successful climate action within the United States.
Students can use this article and the collection of maps as source material for a persuasive essay that argues in favor of expanding clean energy.
The Carbon Emissions Map can enhance a classroom activity where students set goals to reduce emissions in their households.
The Clean Energy Map can support a classroom discussion on the Wisconsin government's effectiveness at fighting climate change.
Scientist Notes
This resource features several maps that show how climate change is affecting Wisconsin, and the actions that they are taking against it. All maps are well researched and cited. This resource is recommended for teaching.
Standards
College, Career, and Civic Life (C3) Standards
Dimension 2: Civics
D2.Civ.5.9-12 Evaluate citizens' and institutions' effectiveness in addressing social and political problems at the local, state, tribal, national, and/or international level.
Dimension 2: Economics
D2.Eco.3.9-12 Analyze the ways in which incentives influence what is produced and distributed in a market system.
Dimension 2: Geography
D2.Geo.3.6-8 Use paper-based and electronic mapping and graphing techniques to represent and analyze spatial patterns of different environmental and cultural characteristics.
D2.Geo.10.9-12 Evaluate how changes in the environmental and cultural characteristics of a place or region influence spatial patterns of trade and land use.
Common Core English Language Arts Standards (CCSS.ELA)
Reading: Informational Text (K-12)
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RI.11-12.2 Determine two or more central ideas of a text and analyze their development over the course of the text, including how they interact and build on one another to provide a complex analysis; provide an objective summary of the text.
Reading: Science & Technical Subjects (6-12)
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RST.6-8.7 Integrate quantitative or technical information expressed in words in a text with a version of that information expressed visually (e.g., in a flowchart, diagram, model, graph, or table).
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.
