Understanding Global Change

The Earth is a dynamic system of many parts that interact to shape our climate and ecosystems. Explaining causes and effects of global change phenomena requires an interdisciplinary understanding of essential K-12 biology, chemistry, physics, and Earth science content that can be explored throughout curricula.

The Understanding Global Change (UGC) Project at the University of California, Berkeley, Museum of Paleontology, has created a suite of online and interactive resources to support teaching and learning about climate change and the Earth as a system. UGC materials are developed with support from scientists and classroom teachers, and integrate teaching practices that utilize modeling of phenomena to make student learning visible. These resources support the investigation of local and global actions that reduce human impacts on global climate and ecosystems.

Understanding Global Change resources available on CLEAN include:

  1. The UGC Earth System Infographic organizes the complexity of global change processes and phenomena.
  2. UGC Earth System Modeling Icons and Earth Scene for learners of all ages to construct explanatory models about interdisciplinary science connections and make thinking about global change phenomena visible.
  3. Examples of UGC high school (adaptable for middle school) instructional units with support from CLEAN, BSCS: Science Learning, and classroom teachers.
  4. The UGC Unit Planning Guide provides step-by-step guidance for designing new units or revising existing curricula to include UGC Earth system modeling tools.

More UGC resources will be available soon on the UC Berkeley Understanding Global Change Website.

Click the buttons below the slide to learn more about how to use these resources (download the PPT slides: CLEAN UGC Intro.pptx (PowerPoint 2007 (.pptx) 7.5MB Aug1 19)).

Slides used in the CLEAN & UGC Webinar can be found here.

Are you interested in designing and testing new resources with other educators? Please join our Understanding Global Change Community!







For more information:

Please contact Jessica Bean


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