Title: Climate Change Predictions

Desired Established Goals:

outcomes Students will be able to explain both perspectives related to the Anthropogenic
Global Warming hypothesis, and ultimately students will develop their own
perspective based on data and facts.

Meanings Essential Questions:

- What patterns are there in historical climate data?
- What types of climate prediction models are used to predict future climate?
- What are different perspectives and pieces of evidence used by those who
support Anthropogenic Global Warming hypothesis and those who do not?

Understandings:
- The best scientific predictions and hypothesis should be fact and data based
- There are many variables that impact climate, and as a result it is difficult to
make a completely reliable model that can predict future climate.

Expected Prior Most students have heard about global warming and can give a general definition
Student of what it is, but a class will most likely include a wide variety of students with a
Knowledge wide variety of understanding related to controls on climate change.

Standards The student will investigate and understand that energy transfer between the sun and Earth and
its atmosphere drives weather and climate on Earth. Key concepts include
a) prediction of weather patterns;
b) weather phenomena and the factors that affect climate including radiation,
conduction, and convection.

Possible 1) Some students think that there is still a major debate about if climate change
misconceptions is occurring, but there is solid evidence that it is. The debate is now how
much of a control humans have on climate.

2) Some students are not aware of what types of materials are thought to
control global warming of the atmosphere.

Performance Students will be able to demonstrate:

Tasks - Students will be able to use resources and information they found to
support an argument they created.

- Students will be able to work together in a Socratic seminar setting to create

a discussion related to different perspectives of the prompts provided to
them.

Daily Agenda 1- Whats the chart showing?

for board 2- Research your prompt and perspective
3- Socratic seminar rules and guidelines
4- Hole Socratic Seminar
Materials - Proper classroom structure is needed to allow for students to talk as an entire
needed class
- Students will need resources to use to complete their research.
Engage Project the NOAA and NASA climate change data on the SMART board, and have the
students make observations about the chart. Then discuss inferences that they can
make from the data. Discuss the difference between inference and observation,
and how this connects to the debate that goes on in our world related to causes of
climate change.

Explore Each student will be assigned a question to research either the skeptic or
activist point of view. All the students researching the same topic (even if they
are opposing sides) should work together and share the resources they found with
one another.

Explain Students will share what the research they compiled during the Socratic seminar.

Elaborate Students are asked to contribute to the conversation in regards to prompts they did
not research.
Evaluate
Students will be evaluated through observation by teacher and by using the rubric
connected to their activity sheet.