http://www.climatewizard.org/
University of Southern Mississippi University of Washington, Nature Conservancy
Learn more about Teaching Climate Literacy and Energy Awareness»
See how this Simulation/Interactive
supports the Next Generation Science Standards»Middle School: 1 Performance Expectation, 1 Disciplinary Core Idea, 3 Cross Cutting Concepts
High School: 1 Performance Expectation, 3 Disciplinary Core Ideas, 5 Cross Cutting Concepts
Topics
Grade Level
Climate Literacy
About Teaching Climate Literacy
5b 
5bOther materials addressing 5b
Other materials addressing 5c
About Teaching Climate Literacy
Other materials addressing Our understanding of climate
Other materials addressing 6c
Notes From Our Reviewers
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Teaching Tips | Science | Pedagogy |
Technical Details
Teaching Tips
- Teachers should click on the Case Study link in upper right to see how the Climate Wizard is being used by other organizations.
- Tool could be used in a social science class as well to explore how impacts of climate change could affect the economy.
About the Science
- Website allows users to view historic temperature and rainfall maps for all land surfaces (except Antarctica), view state-of-the-art future predictions of temperature and rainfall for the same areas, and view and download climate change maps for these areas in a few easy steps.
- Base climate projections are downscaled.
- Comments from expert scientist: There's an impressive amount of good data presented in a user-friendly way. The choices of analysis areas are also good as users will primarily be interested in the U.S. and the globe. With the appropriate educated guide this site could teach people interested in climate a huge amount.
Next Generation Science Standards See how this Simulation/Interactive supports:
Middle School
Performance Expectations: 1
MS-ESS3-5:Ask questions to clarify evidence of the factors that have caused the rise in global temperatures over the past century.
Disciplinary Core Ideas: 1
MS-ESS3.D1:Human activities, such as the release of greenhouse gases from burning fossil fuels, are major factors in the current rise in Earth’s mean surface temperature (global warming). Reducing the level of climate change and reducing human vulnerability to whatever climate changes do occur depend on the understanding of climate science, engineering capabilities, and other kinds of knowledge, such as understanding of human behavior and on applying that knowledge wisely in decisions and activities.
Cross Cutting Concepts: 3
MS-C2:Cause and effect
MS-C4:Systems and System Models
MS-C7.3:Stability might be disturbed either by sudden events or gradual changes that accumulate over time.
High School
Performance Expectations: 1
HS-ESS3-5: Analyze geoscience data and the results from global climate models to make an evidence-based forecast of the current rate of global or regional climate change and associated future impacts to Earth systems.
Disciplinary Core Ideas: 3
HS-ESS2.D :Weather and Climate
HS-ESS2.D3:Changes in the atmosphere due to human activity have increased carbon dioxide concentrations and thus affect climate.
HS-ESS3.D1:Though the magnitudes of human impacts are greater than they have ever been, so too are human abilities to model, predict, and manage current and future impacts.
Cross Cutting Concepts: 5
HS-C2:Cause and effect
HS-C4.3:Models (e.g., physical, mathematical, computer models) can be used to simulate systems and interactions—including energy, matter, and information flows—within and between systems at different scales.
HS-C4.4:Models can be used to predict the behavior of a system, but these predictions have limited precision and reliability due to the assumptions and approximations inherent in models.
HS-C7.2:Change and rates of change can be quantified and modeled over very short or very long periods of time. Some system changes are irreversible.
HS-C7.3:Feedback (negative or positive) can stabilize or destabilize a system.
