This interactive tool shows how different variables such as biosphere integrity, land use, and biochemical flows have changed from 1900 to 2009.
Students will learn that all of Earth's processes are interconnected, meaning a change to one process will affect the other parts of the Earth system.
Teaching Tips
Positives
The visual nature of this tool will help students to see how the factors' risk levels have changed over time.
The information in the sidebar is helpful and interesting.
The resource includes glossary terms that teachers could teach students before the lesson.
Additional Prerequisites
Students will need access to a device if they are doing this in groups or individually.
The resource uses data from 1900 to 2009. This resource has more current data, which is sorted by country.
Students may be unfamiliar with some of the factors. Teachers may want to go over important terms before the lesson.
Differentiation
Students could record the year when each of the factors moved outside of the safe conditions range and then make a visual representation of the data using a graph or chart.
Earth science classes could discuss how each of the processes impacts other processes.
Other resources on this topic include this video on the human impact on Earth's systems, this Khan Academy video on the effects of agricultural practices, and this PBS video on understanding the atmosphere.
Scientist Notes
This resource is recommended to give educators an idea of the changes in the biosphere triggered by climate change and human activities. However, the model's limit is 2009, since then, there have been marked changes in the Earth's climate in the last two decades.
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
HS-ESS3-3 Create a computational simulation to illustrate the relationships among management of natural resources, the sustainability of human populations, and biodiversity.
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.
