Weather, Climate and Global Warming

Overview:
This is a package for one lesson for the 3rd and 4th level (S1&2) students to develop knowledge and understanding about climate change through a variety of group activities. The lesson starts with a daily topic of weather, leading students to learn the differences between weather and climate and the effects of climate change, such as extreme weather. Then, students are invited to develop climate graph-reading skills and an understanding of the greenhouse effect and greenhouse gases.

This resource was originally developed as part of the Geosciences Outreach Course at the University of Edinburgh then re-adapted for use as an Open Educational Resource (OER) by OER Service, the Information Services Group at the University. As an OER, teachers are welcome to make any changes to their resources according to their needs.

Learning Outcomes:
• I can define weather as what is happening outside right now.
• I can explain that climate is the average of all the weather that has happened in a region over more than 30 years.
• I can recognise that rapid global warming is causing the climate to change.
• I can infer that global warming is causing extreme weather like excessive rain, more hurricanes, extreme heat, cold and drought.
• I can interpret and extract information from climate graphs.
• I can explain the greenhouse effect is like a blanket that prevents heat escaping causing the Earth to warm up.
• I can name some of the (greenhouse) gases causing global warming, for example, carbon dioxide, methane, or water vapour.
• I can illustrate and model the chemical structure of the different greenhouse gases.

Experiences and Outcomes:
LIT 3-10a, LIT 4-10a, MNU 4-20a, SOC 3-12a, SOC 4-12a, SCN 3-05b

‘Weather, Climate and Global Warming’ was developed by Kay Douglas and Katherine Taylor, adapted by Mayu Ishimoto, and is available under a CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 unless otherwise stated.

Header: The 1980-2015 seasonal cycle anomaly in MERRA2 along with the 95% uncertainties on the estimate of the mean, 2024 June, Goddarf Space Flight Centre NASA, in accordance with NASA Media Usage Guidelines.