Climate Change: All Resources

Antarctic Ecosystem
In contrast with its largely lifeless interior, the Antarctic coastal marine environment supports a vibrant and diverse ecosystem. Explore the region's living bounty in this interactive activity adapted from the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution.

Arctic Climate System
Learn how the Arctic is a part of a global climate system in this video segment adapted from the National Film Board of Canada.

Arctic Sea Ice Satellite Observations
In this interactive activity produced for Teachers' Domain, learn how Arctic sea ice has changed over the past 25 years in terms of maximum winter extent, concentration, and the timing of breakup each spring.

Carbon-Fiber Car of the Future
In this video segment adapted from NOVA, find out how cars made of a material stronger than steel and half the weight can help combat climate change.

Climate Change Impacts Alaska Glaciers
This video adapted from KTOO takes a look at Earth's warming and cooling cycles and the current atypical trend of warming that is impacting the glaciers in Alaska's Inside Passage.

CO₂ Concentrations at Mauna Loa Observatory, Hawaiʻi
This resource, adapted from the Carbon Dioxide Information Analysis Center, provides a graph of monthly average carbon dioxide (CO₂) concentration from 1958 to 2000 at the Mauna Loa Observatory in Hawaiʻi.

Dengue Virus Invades a Cell
In this visualization adapted from the University of Massachusetts Medical School, discover the role that dengue viral proteins play in a human cell as the virus prepares to replicate.

Documenting Change
In this video segment from New York Voices, botanists study plants to inform agriculture and climate change.

Earth’s Albedo and Global Warming
In this interactive activity adapted from NASA and the U.S. Geological Survey, learn about Earth's albedo (the ratio of reflected vs. incident solar radiation), how pollution alters albedo, and how ice-albedo feedback may accelerate global warming.

Earth System: Ice and Global Warming
This video segment adapted from NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center explains ice's role in the Earth system, highlighting the delicate balance that could be upset with a continued rise in temperature due to climate change.

Exploring Environmental Change
Students explore the connections that can exist in a natural environment, and examine how changes to the environment, particularly those caused by human activity, can affect those connections.

Global Climate Change: The Effects of Global Warming
Students conduct an experiment to determine CO₂ levels in four different gases, examine evidence of global warming in our environment, and consider their own role in contributing to global warming.

Global Warming?
Students examine the issue of global warming. They calculate how much carbon dioxide all the machines they use produce in one day.

Global Warming and The Greenhouse Effect
This video excerpt from Race to Save the Planet discusses the greenhouse effect and global warming.

Global Warming: Carbon Dioxide and the Greenhouse Effect
This video segment adapted from NOVA/FRONTLINE demonstrates the physical property of carbon dioxide that causes the greenhouse effect.

Global Warming: Graphs Tell the Story
Examine graphs from the NOVA/FRONTLINE Web site to see dramatic changes in the temperature of Earth's surface and in the levels of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere.

Great Ocean Conveyor Belt: Part I
This image from GRID-Arendal depicts the major circulation pattern of the ocean, illustrating interactions between temperature, salinity, and depth.

How Did Life Emerge Here?
This video segment adapted from NOVA describes the emergence of life on the islands of Hawaiʻi from a barren volcanic platform under the ocean waves to the rich explosion of life that covers the many climate zones of the islands today.

Hurricane Katrina: Possible Causes
This media-rich essay from NOVA scienceNow explores new research into hurricanes that may help explain Katrina's devastating impact and discusses the possibility that global warming played a role.

Infrared: More Than Your Eyes Can See
In this video segment adapted from NASA, astronomer Michelle Thaller introduces the world of infrared light and demonstrates how infrared cameras allow us to see more than what the naked eye can perceive.

Mountain of Ice: If the Ice Melts
This interactive resource adapted from NOVA Online features a collection of images that show what would happen to selected coastlines around the world if the Antarctic Ice Sheet melted.

Observations of Climate Change
In this media-rich activity, students learn how data gathered through surveys with local residents and data collected by remote satellites are complementary tools that help deepen our understanding of the effects of climate change in the Arctic and elsewhere.

Pennsylvania Energy: Biomass
Many potential, renewable sources of biomass energy exist in Pennsylvania, especially on farms. This video profiles various facilities that make biomass energy, including biodiesel fuel. Biomass energy is important to the economy and the food supply.

Polar Bears and Climate Change
In this video from the World Wildlife Fund, learn how rising temperatures in the southern Arctic could lead to polar bear extinction.

Shipwrecks Reveal Ocean Currents
In this video segment adapted from NOVA, a detailed map showing the trajectories of abandoned ships from the late 1800's is used to reveal the routes of surface currents in the Atlantic Ocean. Animations illustrate the role played by ocean currents in the colonization of North America.

Steve MacLean: Conservationist
In this video profile produced for Teachers' Domain, meet conservationist Steve MacLean, an Iñupiaq from Barrow, Alaska, who works to preserve the health of the Bering Sea ecosystem.

Students Measure Changes in Lake Ice and Snow
In this video adapted from KUAC-TV and the Geophysical Institute at the University of Alaska, Fairbanks, students provide field measurements that researchers need in order to understand how lakes in Alaska are changing as a result of climate change.

A Subsistence Culture Impacted by Climate Change
This video adapted from the Arctic Athabaskan Council explains how warmer temperatures in the Arctic are transforming the ecosystem and threatening the subsistence culture of the Athabaskan people.

Tracking Polar Bears
In this interactive activity adapted from the USGS Alaska Science Center, track the movements of a polar bear as it migrates across the changing Arctic sea ice and compare the paths of four different polar bears.

Volcanic Eruptions and Hazards
This interactive resource adapted from the National Park Service illustrates the difference between explosive and effusive volcanic eruptions as well as the hazards that can result, including lahars, tsunamis, and lava flows.

What Killed the Dinosaurs?
In this Evolution Web feature, find clues to one of life's most compelling mysteries, and discover how evidence can support a variety of hypotheses.

Who Owns the Water of the Great Lakes?
In this video segment from Planet H₂0: Water World, experts and teens inside and outside the Great Lakes watershed provide different perspectives on sharing the water from one of the largest bodies of fresh water in the world.