The Basics of Climate Science

Provided by: Hot Mess |Published on: April 27, 2021

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Synopsis

This video from Hot Mess provides a fast-paced and detailed overview of the many environmental science topics related to climate change.
Students will learn about a variety of topics, including terrestrial biomes, global wind and ocean patterns, atmospheric dynamics, the greenhouse effect, greenhouse gases, carbon sinks, sea level rise, ocean acidification, climate injustice, and climate adaptation and mitigation.

Subjects: Biology, Earth and Space Sciences

Authors: Hot Mess

Region: Global

Languages: English

Positives

This video does a good job of explaining a variety of topics, and because the video is broken into chapters, teachers can show one section at a time.
A variety of charts and graphs make the information interesting and easy to understand.

Prerequisites

The narrator speaks very quickly, which may make it difficult for students to take in the information presented without pausing or slowing the playback speed to 0.75.
Advertisements play at the beginning and the mid-point of the video.
This video is a part of the Hot Mess video series, Essentials of Environmental Science.

Differentiation & Implementation

Science classes can make climatograms (like the ones pictured at 0:49) showing local precipitation and temperature data for their area or perform labs and demonstrations shown in the video (solar radiation at different latitudes, temperature and condensation, etc.).
Earth science or chemistry classes can watch this video on how scientists collect climate change data from ice cores in Antarctica, and then use this resource to read more on the topic and assess students' understanding.
Biology classes can learn more about ocean acidification in this video and worksheet from ACE, and this experiment and activity from Biointeractive.
Other resources on this topic include this video on the history of climate science and this lesson on the basics of climate.

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All resources can be used for your educational purposes with proper attribution to the content provider.

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