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What's the Difference Between Weather and Climate?
https://climatekids.nasa.gov/weather-climate/

Earth Science Communications Team, NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory; California Institute of Technology

This video, video transcript, and accompanying poster, go beyond a description of weather and climate to highlight how NASA tracks the changes in climate and why it matters. Students will leave the video with the important sense of why data (in this case, gathered by satellites) is helping all of us monitor sea level, clouds, and to know that the earth's climate is getting warmer.

Video length is 2:00 minutes

Learn more about Teaching Climate Literacy and Energy Awareness»


Notes From Our Reviewers The CLEAN collection is hand-picked and rigorously reviewed for scientific accuracy and classroom effectiveness. Read what our review team had to say about this resource below or learn more about how CLEAN reviews teaching materials
Teaching Tips | Science | Pedagogy | Technical Details

Teaching Tips

  • This video can be used to introduce these scientific concepts. It would work well being incorporated into a larger activity/lesson on weather vs. climate or climate change.
  • Students can be assigned different links to explore off of this page and then report back to their class or small group about what they learned.
  • Teachers can take the larger question: "Why is the data showing our planet is warming" and lead to a larger discussion of human's impact on greenhouse gas emissions in an age appropriate way.

About the Content

  • This video briefly introduces the difference between weather and climate, then it addresses that the climate is warming. It states that as an indication of climate change the sea level is rising.
  • They know this because NASA is observing sea level rise through the use of their satellites.
  • It also states that satellites monitoring changes in clouds can help understand changes in earth's climate.
  • Passed initial science review - expert science review pending.

About the Pedagogy

  • The video can stand alone.
  • There are multiple links on the same page in this NASA Climate Kids resource to help students and teachers integrate this information into a larger context.
  • There are several opportunities to stop the video and discuss the concepts in greater depth.
  • NASA Climate Kids supports the user through multiple entry points into climate education. This video incorporates plain language and uses simple cartoon visuals. It includes information about NASA and what NASA is doing for climate research.

Technical Details/Ease of Use

  • There is a poster that replicates the video that can be downloaded.
  • This video can stand on it's own to teach a single concept, but appropriately leads the user to a broader exploration of climate.

Related URLs These related sites were noted by our reviewers but have not been reviewed by CLEAN

This link leads students back to the larger questions of what is climate change.
Entered the Collection: August 2020 Last Reviewed: June 2020

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