This resource details how the amount of sun an area receives strongly influences it's climate and how rising temperatures may impact different latitudes, with examples in cities such as Singapore, Fairbanks, and Milan.
Students will learn how rising temperatures will change the Earth as we know it, what Hothouse Earth may mean for human life, and the data that supports these concepts.
Teaching Tips
Positives
This resource includes a listening option, which is a wonderful differentiation tool.
Excellent visuals, including interactive maps and photos, make this a fun read.
Cross curricular connections could be made in social studies classes by using the maps and latitudinal information in discussions about how climate change will impact different regions of the world.
This resource lends itself well to group work. Divide the class into three groups, one for each city discussed in the article. Have the groups brainstorm and chart what impacts each is feeling from climate change. What future problems can they predict?
As an extension, or for advanced students, have students choose another city or region at a similar latitude, but with a slightly different climate to one from the article to work with.
Global warming has become a reality, this resource attempts to explore and compare local climates in the tropics, mid-latitudes, and polar regions, however, human activities have caused unprecedented warming and changes to our climate system. This resource explains this concept satisfactorily and thus, it 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.
Common Core English Language Arts Standards (CCSS.ELA)
Reading: Informational Text (K-12)
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RI.11-12.3 Analyze a complex set of ideas or sequence of events and explain how specific individuals, ideas, or events interact and develop over the course of the text.
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RI.11-12.10 By the end of grade 11, read and comprehend literary nonfiction in the grades 11-CCR text complexity band proficiently, with scaffolding as needed at the high end of the range. By the end of grade 12, read and comprehend literary nonfiction at the high end of the grades 11-CCR text complexity band independently and proficiently.
