DIGS CLIMATE MODULE SPECIFICATION SHELL

Title: The Heat Is On: Understanding Local Climate Change
Summary of sequence of activities, concepts & & inquiry skills: This unit immerses students in a "case study" in which and they role-play being climatologists to whom the residents of Phoenix, Arizona turn for advice. The residents want to know if their climate is getting warmer and if so, whether there is anything that can be done at the local level to help solve the problem. To answer, the students plan research strategies, investigate historical trends in temperature to see if warming is occurring in Phoenix and if the warming is just local or happening in larger geographical areas within which Phoenix is located. Students also examine other data related directly or indirectly to human induced climate change (e.g., population, urban land mass, carbon emissions, and greenhouse-effect-related pollutants regulated by the Clean Air Act) to see if they notice parallel trends between the climate change in Phoenix and data on these anthropogenic factors. Lastly students prepare an appraisal of what is going on with the local climate and why, propose a policy to help cool the city, then a research plan to evaluate the effects of their recommendations. As they complete these tasks, the students come to appreciate the systemic relationships among air temperature, air pollutants, and urban heat island effects. The performance assessment engages student to apply inquiry strategies and use of datasets and visualizations to a similar problem in a different city, Chicago. Chicago also has issues with air pollution and urban heat island effects, but a less discernible pattern of change because its rate of population growth is far less than that in Phoenix.
Driving Question: What are the characteristics of natural and anthropogenic influences on urban microclimates?
Type(s) of data representation(s): Data tables, bar graphs, gridded geospatial maps, aerial images
Dataset(s). (1) Monthly minimum and maximum surface air temperatures in the focal cities from 1948-2003, plus parallel data from other locations and aggregate means (in extension activity); (2) Gridded (raster GIS) maps of carbon emissions throughout North America, with a close-up version focused on Arizona; (3) A data table of "State By State Carbon Dioxide Emissions from Fossil Fuel Combustion," (4) Annual data about U.S. "Criteria" Pollutants in the atmosphere over Phoenix from 1995 to 2005; (5) Data table showing decade-by-decade population increases in Phoenix from 1910 to 2000; (6) Data about Phoenix’s physical size in 1973 and 1992.
Focal variable(s) Monthly air temperature ranges, greenhouse gas emissions, atmospheric dimming catalysts, urban heat island effect catalysts

Pre-Unit Brainstorming Activities (optional)

Alignments
Unit tasks / Task description / Technology tools and visualization components (computer based productivity tools used to record responses are not included here) / NSES Inquiry / NSES Content / AAAS Content
A1-A6 / Brainstorm about climate change / Word table listing climate change features
Rate influences / Weather-climate distinction
B1 / Brainstorm research plan / none / Plan method

Unit Activities and Corresponding Assessment Activites (core)

Alignments[1]
Unit tasks / Assessment Tasks / Task description / Technology tools and visualization components (computer based productivity tools used to record responses are not included here) / NSES Inquiry / NSES Content / AAAS Content
A1-A4 / A1-5 / Create graphs and analyze local temperature trends / Excel spreadsheets of GHCN temperature data of the focal city / Use technologies to collect, organize, and display data
Critique explanations according to scientific understanding, weighing the evidence, and examining the logic
Review, summarize, and explain information and data
B1-B4 / B1-B2 / Analyze global distribution of temperature changes / GIS image of 30-year mean temperature differences / Review, summarize, and explain information and data
Plan method (in Unit only: item B4)
C1-C3 / C1 / Analyze geographical differences in levels of human-induced carbon emissions, and relationships between global carbon emissions and temperature changes / GIS image of 30-year mean temperature differences
My World GIS visualizations of carbon emissions from 1987 research study. / Review, summarize, and explain information and data
Critique explanations according to scientific understanding, weighing the evidence, and examining the logic (in Assessment only: item C1) / Human-induced changes to atmosphere (e.g., population growth, resource use)
C4-C12 / D2-D3 / Interpret and rate intensity of trends in different data sets over time that may show explain relationships between different anthropogenic influences on the environment and temperature- warming trends / Data tables showing annual statewide levels of carbon emissions
Data tables showing days per year EPA-regulated air pollutants exceeded standards
Data tables showing population by year
Aerial geographic images showing change in the focal city's physical size / Review, summarize, and explain information and data / Human-induced changes to atmosphere (e.g., population growth, resource use)
Radiation of heat
C13 / D6 / Detect and communicate relationships between urban heat island effects and the burning of fossil fuels / Graphs or other visualizations the student uses for evidence / Interactions within and among systems result in change
D1-D2 / D1 / Communicate analysis of what is happening to the climate in the city and why. / Graphs and other visualizations of data the student uses for evidence / Construct a reasoned argument
D3-4 / D4-D9, D11 / Propose policy and research plan / n/a / Formulate testable hypothesis
Logical connections between hypothesis and design
Plan method / Human-induced changes to atmosphere (e.g., population growth, resource use)
Radiation of heat
D5 / D10 / Think critically about the data and research / n/a / Critique explanations according to scientific understanding, weighing the evidence, and examining the logic / Scientific skepticism

Extension Activity (core)

Alignments
Extension Activity Tasks / Task description / Technology tools and visualization components (computer based productivity tools used to record responses are not included here) / NSES Inquiry / NSES Content / AAAS Content
1 & 4
(2 & 3 are merely article-summarizing tasks) / Learn about new information and research that builds introduces greater appreciation of the complexities of climatology / Excel spreadsheets of GHCN temperature data of the focal city other locations in its state, and aggregate means that cover larger geographical areas / Formulate explanations using logic and evidence

[1] Note: The specification shell is organized sequentially, activity-by-activity, not by alignments to the standards. For more precise item-by-item alignment information to the standards for both the unit and the assessment items, see the Climate Module Alignment Table.