Dear Colleagues:
The effects of weather and climate seems to be a big topic again this year. This week's updates from WGBH Education/PBS Learning Media includes a large number of videos and interactive activities on climate education that address many of the questions that come up. While pitched to the K-12 system, the information and activities seem appropriate for adults, too.
Teachers and students interested in the health topics might explore the brief, interactive Climate Change and Human Health learning activity. Each possible health hazard includes a "What can we do" section.
The interactive activity titled, Ancient Ice and Future Climate, suggests viewing a 5-minute video on how climate change models are developed by measuring the carbon dioxide and temperature (Using Ice Cores to Model Climate Changes) in ice cores. Developing models is one of the eight scientific practices used in the Next Generation Science Standards (and the self-paced science courses in the LINCS Learning Portal). Understanding and creating models is challenging for most of us so it's interesting to see the steps in this video. The video is accompanied by a brief essay and discussion questions, as is the overarching interactive "Future Climate" activity. Teachers and students preparing for high school equivalency exams might benefit from discussing how the overlapping graphs help build the climate change pattern in slides 2-4 of the interactive activity.
Cynthia Zafft
Health Literacy Moderator