Teaching Tips

• The dashboard is on the bottom half of this page - scroll down to it.
• Point out that students can click the parameters listed below into one of the 3 viewing slots above. Up/down arrows show which parameters are in the viewing slots.

About the Science

• This site tracks real-time data from around the climate system. Nine different parameters are presented to give a snapshot of both the variability and the trends over time.
• Graphs are presented in a manner that allows students to compare and contrast different climate variables such as El Niño, temperature, CO2, solar energy levels, on the same time scales.
• Comments from expert scientist: The resource contains graphs of teleconnection indices that can be easily moved to view index changes in time (1950 to present). This is a really great concept and could be very useful in classroom settings to show students the variability of climate oscillations. The resource is also appropriately labeled as climate variability so that anyone who knows the difference between climate variability and climate change could easily find the indices if that is what they are looking for.

About the Pedagogy

• Resource offers educators a creative way to compare climate variables and outcomes and read more about the changes scientists are observing.
• The 'learn more' links describe how the data is collected and what it means.
• The graphs on the 'learn more' pages are also interactive.
• The 'learn more' pages do not always have up-to-date explanations for the data. They are best used for background information.

• This resource engages students in using scientific data.
  See other data-rich activities

Technical Details/Ease of Use

• Online access only