Global Warming: Fact or Myth?
Presented by: Michelle Bizon
Subject Area(s):
- K-12: Science
- Higher Ed: Earth Science
- Higher Ed: Science
- Higher Ed: Humanities
Grade Level(s):
- 12th Grade
- 11th Grade
- 10th Grade
- 9th Grade
- First Year
- Lower level
Description:
Global Warming: Fact or Myth? relies on a student handout and an interactive slide show to teach core knowledge about climate science, the Earth’s climate record, and evolving methodologies for determining global temperature. Students then analyze and decode two film clips that use the same hockey stick graph to argue opposite points. Finally, students will explore issues of trust and sponsorship in an activity concerning the credibility and bias of information about controversial scientific subjects like global warming. The lesson
will take about 60 minutes.
Materials:
Media:
- Slide show: Global Warming, Fact or Myth?, 15 slides
- Video clips:
- The Truth About Global Warming, 2.5 min
- Climate Catastrophe Cancelled, 3 min
Materials Needed:
- 17-page Teacher Guide: Global Warming: Fact or Myth?
- Four-page Student Reading: The Temperature History of the Earth
- Two-page Student Worksheet: Decoding Two Video Clips
- Two-page Student Worksheet: Trust and Sponsorship
- Slide show: Global Warming, Fact or Myth?, 15 slides
- Video clips:
- The Truth About Global Warming, 2.5 min
- Climate Catastrophe Cancelled, 3 min
Note: All materials available in the Media Construction of Global Warming kit at Project Look Sharp.
Procedures:
Title: Global Warming: Fact or Myth?
Kit: Media Construction of Global Warming
Author: Project Look Sharp, a media literacy initiative at Ithaca College that provides free curriculum kits for educators at Project Look Sharp.
Grade level and subject area: High school through college; environmental science
Lesson Objectives:
- Students will develop a clear definition of global warming.
- Students will review sources of data that are used to reconstruct the Earth’s climate record and will identify discernable, cyclic patterns.
- Students will understand that Earth’s climatic systems are dynamic and ever changing.
- Students will recognize agreement among various data sets and methodologies that have been used to determine the Earth’s climate history and temperature record.
- Students will understand the debate concerning whether the temperature spike that has occurred recently is an anomaly.
- Students will identify bias found in media portrayals of the science of global warming.
- Students will develop a personal answer to the question, “Is global warming happening?”
Vocabulary: age of instrumentation, proxy data, hockey stick graph, IPCC, sponsorship, global warming, ice core data, bore hole pollen data, tree ring data, coral core data, ocean sediment core data, scientific corroboration
Media:
- Slide show: Global Warming, Fact or Myth?, 15 slides
- Video clips:
- The Truth About Global Warming, 2.5 min
- Climate Catastrophe Cancelled, 3 min
Materials Needed:
- 17-page Teacher Guide: Global Warming: Fact or Myth?
- Four-page Student Reading: The Temperature History of the Earth
- Two-page Student Worksheet: Decoding Two Video Clips
- Two-page Student Worksheet: Trust and Sponsorship
- Slide show: Global Warming, Fact or Myth?, 15 slides
- Video clips:
- The Truth About Global Warming, 2.5 min
- Climate Catastrophe Cancelled, 3 min
Time: 60 minutes
Lesson Procedures: All materials available in the Media Construction of Global Warming kit at Project Look Sharp.
- Distribute the Student Reading: The Temperature of the Earth, for students to read as homework or in class.
- Activity 1: Lead students through slide show, reviewing key information from the background reading, probing for understanding, and presenting new information using the Teacher Guide.
- Activity 2: Introduce video activity. Lead students though decoding of the two video clips using information in the Teacher Guide and the Student Worksheet, Activity 2 on decoding the video clips.
- Activity 3: Distribute Student Worksheet, Activity 3: Trust and Sponsorship. Lead discussion of credibility, sourcing and bias using questions in the Teacher Guide.
- Activity 4: Lead the Take a Stand activity using the questions in the Teacher Guide.