Summary:
We’re going to dive in to climate change this week, a topic I know many of you are interested in exploring. You’ll find that it informs many of the other fields we’ll talk about in the next few weeks, as well.
Climate Change is a great topic for exploring skills related to modeling, data measurement and visualization, philosophy of science (what is uncertainty?) and more. Not only that, but the study of climate change brings in many different fields of science, both in the life sciences and the physical sciences. In this week, we’re going to take a look at some of the data that support the conclusion that the planet is warming and that humans are the cause of climate change. We will also think about how scientists can be sure that this conclusion is accurate.
We’ll start with some basics (the carbon cycle) and then move to the planetary scale of the climate and then we’ll finish with talking about stakeholders and who gets to make the choices about climate policy.
Learning Objectives:
- distinguish between scientific uncertainty and colloquial uncertainty
- understand how models work and why they are necessary
- investigate the data that support conclusions about climate change
Unit 4 Class 06 [day/date] Required Readings/Videos:
- Reading: Riebeek. 2011. The Carbon Cycle. NASA Earth Observatory. https://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Features/CarbonCycle/
- SF video: Climate Change
- Reading: Earle. 2019. Physical Geology. Here are the three sections you need to read hosted on a different website: 19.1 What makes the climate change? , 19.2 Anthropogenic Climate Change, and 19.3 Implications of Climate Change
Unit 4 Class 06 [day/date] OPTIONAL Reading
- OPTIONAL Reading: GFDL 2018 Climate Modeling
Unit 4 Class 06 (IN-PERSON, Wednesday, September 18) Assignments
- Self Assessment 06
- Class Work 06
- Science in the City Post #1 – BioBlitz reflection due [time/date] – see instructions here: [link to page Science in the City]
Unit 4 Class 06 [day/date] Self Assessment
[insert form]
Unit 4 Class 07 [day/date] Required Readings/Videos:
- SF video: Scientific Uncertainty
- Reading: Hansen et al 2012. PNAS. E2415-E2423.
- Reading: Johnson. 2020. I’m a black climate expert. Racism derails our efforts to save the planet. Washington Post. Gift Link.
Unit 4 Class 07 [day/date]OPTIONAL Reading
- OPTIONAL Reading: Treen et al. 2020. Online Misinformation About Climate Change.” Wiley Interdisciplinary Reviews: Climate change. Gift Link
Unit 4 Class 07 [day/date] Assignments
- Self Assessment 07
- Class Work 07
Unit 4 Class 07 [day/date] Self Assessment
[insert form]
