This online text describes El Niño and La Niña weather events and provides informative infographics, vocabulary terms, interactive questions, a summary, study guide, and overview.
The video highlights the connections between global warming and unusual weather patterns but also the debate around making those connections, including a video from 2008 that shows not everyone wanted to attribute changing weather patterns to global warming.
Teaching Tips
Positives
Students engage with clearly outlined information and can hover over vocabulary terms to see their definitions.
The video may spark debate or comments from students, which can get them participating in class.
Additional Prerequisites
Students should have a basic understanding of global warming.
Teachers and students will need to sign in to use some of the interactive features.
Note that the embedded video is from 2008. Advise your students to critically think about how things have changed since 2008.
Differentiation
The information can be gained in different ways to ensure understanding (videos, text, and text summaries).
When signed in, students have access to a toolbar where they can highlight, note-taking, view summaries, and additional resources about the chapter.
Consider extending this lesson by having students watch Doubt and The Cost of Carbon and then reevaluating the video from the text. Students can write reflection or response papers to these videos to complete the lesson.
Social studies classes can discuss risk analyses and cost-benefit analyses associated with acting on climate or continuing with "business as usual" to demonstrate that acting on climate is a win-win scenario that reduces risks.
Scientist Notes
The resource explains in detail the most common feature that causes short-term variability in climate (El Niño and La Niño). This is caused by interactions of atmospheric circulations, winds, and ocean currents. Thus, there is no contradiction in the resource. It is recommended for teaching.
Standards
Science and Engineering
ESS3: Earth and Human Activity
MS-ESS3-2 Analyze and interpret data on natural hazards to forecast future catastrophic events and inform the development of technologies to mitigate their effects.
MS-ESS3-3 Apply scientific principles to design a method for monitoring and minimizing a human impact on the environment.
English Language Arts
Reading (K-12)
R.6-8.4 Read various texts closely to determine what each text explicitly says and to make logical inferences; cite specific textual evidence to support conclusions drawn from the texts.
R.6-8.5 Provide an accurate summary of various texts; determine the central idea(s) or theme(s) and analyze its development throughout each text.
R.6-8.12 Read with sufficient accuracy and fluency to support comprehension.
Social Studies
Geography
Geography 1 (F1): Students understand the geography of the community, Maine, the United States, and various regions of the world, and geographic influences on life in the past, present, and future by using the geographic grid and a variety of types of maps, including digital sources, to locate and access relevant geographic information that reflects multiple perspectives.
