Aug 152013
What evidence do scientists really have to support global climate change? Students will explore long term datasets on the duration of ice cover for three different lakes (Gull Lake, Fair Lake, and Lake Mendota). They will examine patterns of variation at different time scales to see the importance of long-term data as well as the importance of having multiple sources of support for scientific hypotheses (in this case, global climate change).
At the conclusion of the lesson, students will be able to:
- Interpret data
- Make inferences from trends or patterns in data
- Make spatial and temporal comparisons of ecological systems
- Explain how lake ice cover has changed due to global climate change on three lakes
Resources:
- Lesson plan (.doc)
- Climate change presentation (.pdf)
- Student handout (.doc)
- Data files (simple, standard, teacher) (.xls)
- Access to computers with Microsoft Excel
Lesson Plan created by GK-12 fellows Sara Parr Syswerda and Sigrid Smith, 2006