This NASA video animation illustrates the average surface temperature of the Earth, which has been increasing.
Students can use the colors on this map to track temperature variations around the world and see where the planet is heating up the most.
Teaching Tips
Positives
This resource enhances students' analytical and geographic skills.
Additional Prerequisites
There is a link to an animation in degrees Fahrenheit in the description below the video.
Differentiation
Students could investigate why the polar regions appear to be warming faster than other parts of the planet in science classes, linking to lessons about albedo, feedback loops, or melting ice.
Connect to art classes or art skills by having students pick a point in time to draw and color, with each student or group of students choosing a different point in time. Display them in order to show the progression of heating through time.
For older students, include more information from this other NASA resource about global temperatures, have students go through this online course about the many ways humans are affecting the planet, and then have them use this table of solutions to explore the many ways we can slow global warming to fight climate change.
Scientist Notes
This resource visualizes the average surface temperature of the globe, increasing since 1880 as a result of anthropogenic climate change. This resource is recommended for teaching.
Standards
Science and Engineering
ESS2: Earth’s Systems
4-ESS2-2 Analyze and interpret data from maps to describe patterns of Earth’s features.
MS-ESS2-6 Develop and use a model to describe how unequal heating and rotation of the Earth cause patterns of atmospheric and oceanic circulation that determine regional climates.
ESS3: Earth and Human Activity
MS-ESS3-5 Ask questions to clarify evidence of the factors that have caused the rise in global temperatures over the past century.
