Earth’s Climate system:
Classroom activities
The activities in this section will give students the opportunity to develop an understanding of Earth’s climate system. The list contains links, suggested grade levels, and short descriptions. For more detail, click on the title of each activity.
GRADES 5-8
- Students use different tooth fossils to study climate change in a story telling / socratic seminar format.
- Students use this activity to supplement the JR Time Machine video to learn how the JOIDES Resolution is used to investigate Earth’s history.
GRADES 5-12
- This suite of short activities opens a window to both the scientific motivation and impact of a coring expedition, using an Arctic Expedition as a case study.
Impact Craters and the k/T Boundary
- Students investigate meteorite impact craters and analyze evidence for the K/T boundary impact in particular.
Investigating Seafloor Sediments.
- Students investigate the question “What makes up the seafloor?” using equipment to analyze sediments and test hypotheses. They use the Science Flow Chart to reflect on their process.
Recognizing Patterns in Earth’s Climate History
- Students will make observations about marine sediments cores drilled by the JOIDES Resolution in various locations on Earth.
Grades 9-12, Undergraduate
- Model how gas hydrates work. This activity helps teachers foster a class-wide discussion to form a question and hypothesis and design an experiment to discover what methane hydrates are and how they relate to the gas laws.
Interpreting Antarctic Sediment Cores
- This set of investigations focuses on the use of sedimentary facies (lithologies interpreted to record particular depositional environments) to interpret paleoenvironmental and paleoclimatic changes in Neogene sediment cores from the Antarctic margin.
- This activity demonstrates the chemical formation of methane hydrates deep below the world’s oceans.
The Paleocene Eocene Thermal Maximum in Review
- Students investigate climate change through carbon dioxide and temperature data.
- This exercise set explores marine sediments using core photos and authentic datasets in an inquiry-based approach.
- Students will graph and analyze data from sediments collected off the coast of Santa Barbara, California to determine whether this information can be used to study historical climate change.
Recognizing Patterns in Earth’s Climate History
- Students will make observations about marine sediments cores drilled by the JOIDES Resolution in various locations on Earth.
UndergradUATE
Inquiry Into Ice Core and Marine Sediment Records
- High-resolution marine ice core and marine sediment records contain climate proxy data (e.g., sediment lithology, stable isotopes preserved in foraminifera tests.