Actvity Summary: Students will be able to analyze oxygen isotope data from ocean sediment cores to understand past climate events.
This lesson has students evaluating oxygen isotope data from different sediment cores and correlating fluctuations in the data with ice rafted debris (IRD) data and with known climate events. Prior to this lesson, students should be familiar the general concept of climate change, in addition to having some knowledge of ice ages and the expansion of glaciers.
This lesson has been revised and updated based on Inquiry into High-Resolution Ice Core and Marine Sediment Records.
author: Lindsay Mossa
- Standard A: Unifying concepts and processes in science
- Standard E: Earth and space science
- Patterns
- Analyzing and interpreting data
- ESS1. C The history of the planet Earth
- ESS2.B Plate tectonics and large-scale system interactions