Climate Change Resources

Alaska Perspectives on Earth and Climate
This collection of lesson plans and student activities from Teacher's Domain compares and contrasts the traditional knowledge of native people and ongoing scientific research and shows how the two can complement each other in looking for solutions to climate change.

Alliance for Climate Education
The Alliance for Climate Education (ACE) is a national leader in high school climate education, providing a free, award-winning assembly on climate science and solutions. After the assembly, students are invited to start an Action Team to launch carbon-reducing projects at school. ACE supports teams through free, in-person trainings for students and teachers to help build project management and leadership skills. 

Antarctica Melting
"Antarctica Melting" is a Centers for Ocean Sciences Education Excellence (COSEE) Networked Ocean World four act story. Each act is accompanied by a slide show and a classroom activity. The four acts include "A changing continent" narrated by Dr. Oscar Schofield, "A small world after all" narrated by Dr. Debbie Steinberg, "An Adelie exit" narrated by Dr. Bill Fraser and "A robotic armada" narrated by Dr. Oscar Schofield.

Bering Sea Ecosystem Collection
The Bering Sea Ecosystem Collection from PolarTREC is a body of educational resources focused on understanding the impacts of climate change and dynamic sea ice over the eastern Bering Sea ecosystem. The collection includes individual activities, lesson plans, videos and presentations that will help to educate the next generation about this complex ecosystem.

Beyond Penguins and Polar Bears
"Beyond Penguins and Polar Bears" is an online magazine for K-5 teachers, integrating science, literacy and the Polar Regions. Lesson plans provided align with National Science Education Standards while exploring the Arctic and Antarctica. Beyond the lesson plans, this online magazine broadcasts free webinars, podcasts and provides electronic books for grades K-5.

Climate Change: The Threat to Life and a New Energy Future
A companion piece to the exhibit at the American Museum of Natural History in New York, this website contains accurate information on the history and science behind climate change, as well as solutions to help combat its effects. The website also includes a climate change blog and resources for both educators and kids.

Climate Change and Water: Perspectives from the Forest Service
Climate Change and Water: Perspectives from the Forest Service is a summary of a forthcoming report by the Forest Service and U.S. Department of Agriculture which will detail the likely impacts of climate change on the Nation's forested watersheds and highlight the importance of managing forests to provide clean, abundant water. 

Climate Change Wildlife and Wildlands: A Toolkit for Formal and Informal Educators
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, in partnership with six other federal agencies, developed this kit to aid educators in teaching how climate change is affecting our nation's wildlife and public lands, and how everyone can become "climate stewards." The kit features case studies of 11 eco-regions in the United States, highlighting regional impacts to habitats and wildlife, and information on what kids can do to help. It also contains classroom activities, video, links and other materials. The eco-regions can be explored online and all of the kit materials are available for download from the website.

Climate Kids
Climate Kids, a NASA website aimed at students in grades 4-6, is a multimedia-rich companion to NASA's acclaimed Global Climate Change site. This kid-friendly guide de-mystifies one of the most important science topics of our time using an interactive Climate Time Machine, a section on Green Careers, educational games and more.

Climate Resources
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's Ocean Service Education program offers this page of climate change resources, including fact sheets, lesson plans, case studies and links. The site also provides information on the Climate Change Educator Conferences with archived videos. The site was developed in partnership with the National Science Teachers Association.

Cool School Challenge
Designed for grades 7-12, the Cool School Challenge is an online toolkit that engages students and teachers in practical strategies to reduce carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gas emissions schoolwide. Through improved energy efficiency, reduced consumption, increased recycling and changes in transportation behaviors, participants learn how simple actions, taken together, can create a climate of change.

Cool the Earth
Cool The Earth is a program that educates K-8 students and their families about climate change and inspires them to take simple actions to reduce carbon emissions. The five components of the program include a kick-off assembly; action coupons that reward students for energy-saving actions; Action of the Month, a school-wide energy-saving activity; assembling an action team of parents and/or teachers; and measuring success by tallying all of the action coupons that students turn in.

Earth Gauge
Earth Gauge® is a free environmental information service for broadcast meteorologists based on the 3-5 day forecast. The service is designed to make it easy to talk about the links between weather and the environment with simple facts and viewer action tips. The Climate Resource Library includes tips, fact sheets and news stories regarding climate change that are science-based and appropriate for use in the classroom.

Earth: The Operators' Manual
Earth: The Operators' Manual (ETOM) is a new PBS climate change program hosted by Richard Alley. The program presents an objective assessment of climate change as it takes viewers around the globe to investigate sustainable energy projects. The ETOM website for educators streams clips from each episode for use in the classroom. ETOM provides teacher tips, hand-on activities, an annotated script and a glossary to accompany each clip. The website also lists external resources in multiple formats including DVDs, books and useful links.

Ecological Impacts of Climate Change
This booklet is based on Ecological Impacts of Climate Change (2009), a report by an independent panel of experts convened by the National Research Council. It explains general themes about the ecological consequences of climate change and identifies examples of ecological changes across the U.S. The booklet can be downloaded as a PDF and printed.

Encyclopeida of Earth: Climate Change
The Climate, Adaptation, Mitigation, E-Learning (CAMEL) project from the National Council for Science and the Environment assists the climate change section of the Encyclopedia of Earth website. CAMEL encourages educators to submit resources that are then featured on the Encyclopedia of Earth Climate Change website for public use. Resources include images, articles, videos, data sets, presentations, classroom projects and lectures. The featured resource on the website is the Climate Literacy & Energy Awareness Network which is a digital library of reviewed and annotated online resources relating to key climate and energy concepts.

FOCUS: Forests, Oceans, Climate and Us
FOCUS is a nationwide campaign in partnership with the Forest Service, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and the Wyland Foundation, which uses art and science to make kids aware of the shared relationship between the health of each ecosystem and the health of the planet. The FOCUS program features mural painting events in communities across the nation.

Forest Service Resources on Climate Change
The Forest Service has created a webpage of climate change resources as part of their Conservation Education efforts. The resources include information the Forest Service has compiled on the effects climate changing is having and will have on wildlife, wildlands, forests and other natural resources.

Global Climate Change Education
NASA's Global Climate Change Education initiative seeks to improve climate literacy by improving teaching and learning about climate change, increasing the use of NASA Earth observation data system models to investigate and analyze climate change topics and increasing the number of students prepared for employment in fields relevant to climate change. Visit the website for more information on grants and educator resources. 

Greenhouse Gases, Climate Change, and Energy
This brochure, created by the Energy Information Administration breaks down the science behind greenhouse gas emissions and their effect on climate change. The brochure can be downloaded as a PDF and printed.

Journey North
Journey North enables students in thousands of schools to track the seasons on a real-time basis. Students monitor migration patterns, plant budding, seasonal changes in sunlight, temperature patterns and other natural events. They share their local observations with classmates across North America and analyze current and long-term data from other classrooms and professional scientists. As they do so, participants are better prepared to recognize indicators of climate change and consider its implications.

Kid's Crossing: Living in the Greenhouse
Operated by the University Corporation for Atmospheric Research, Living in the Greenhouse provides a wealth of information about the global climate. Students can explore how Earth's cycles affect climate, the greenhouse effect and greenhouse gases, ancient climate changes and climate events and news.

NCSE-NASA Interdisciplinary Climate Change Education
The NCSE-NASA Interdisciplinary Climate Change Education Team is developing a curricular package on climate change based on a University of California Davis course taught by Professor Arnold Bloom. The curriculum includes modules that cover a wide range of topics relevant to climate change. Data produced by NASA is used to create data-driven modules focusing on ice core and recent climate change observations. Other modules include exercises examining climate change impacts on the Colorado River water supply, exploring seasonality from the perspective of satellite maps and introducing remote sensing metrics.

NOAA Climate Services: Education
NOAA Climate Services provides information and data desigend to help citizens understand climate science. The education section of the website provides teaching resources, professional development and multimedia that assist classroom teachers in understanding and teaching about climate. 

NOVA Online: Warnings from the Ice
Explore how Antarctica's ice has preserved the past - from Chernobyl to the Little Ice Age - going back hundreds of thousands of years, and then see how the world's coastlines would recede if some or all of this ice were to melt. This site for kids also includes a guide and resources for educators.

Oceans Effect on Climate and Weather: Global Circulation Patterns
This brief lesson plan explores ocean circulation patterns and the effect oceans have on climate. Learning outcomes include explaining how the oceans might influence and affect local weather and climate; describing the cause of hurricanes and frequency of hurricanes; explaining how changes in ocean temperatures influence weather patterns; and listing the major variables that affect the transfer of energy throughout the ocean.  Available for free via the National Science Teachers Association online bookstore.  Correlates with three Earth Science National Learning Standards.

Plant for the Planet: Billion Tree Campaign
Created by the United Nations Environment Programme, Plant for the Planet encourages people, communities, organizations, business and industry, civil society and governments to plant trees and enter their tree planting pledges on this web site. The objective is to plant at least one billion trees worldwide each year.

Science Education Resource Center: Climate Change and Global Warming
This Science Education Resource Center (SERC) Site Guide offers a general collection of climate change resources for educators while highlighting relevant resources from projects within websites hosted by SERC. Resources are arranged by categories, including websites and data sets, teaching activities, visualizations, courses, workshops and upcoming opportunities for educators.

Take Aim at Climate Change
This environmentally-minded music video, featuring the artists Rhythm, Rhyme, Results, Tommy Boots and Jené, imparts climate change information with a beat, making sure to empower its viewers at the end with simple ways they can make a difference. The video was developed with the support of NASA, the National Science Foundation and Passport to Knowledge.

Young Voices on Climate Change
Young Voices on Climate Change is a film series featuring young people who are making a difference by shrinking the carbon footprint of their homes, schools and communities. Watch the inspiring videos online.