Tracking Global Climate Change:  Microfossil Record of the Planetary Heat Pump

Topics:  Global Climate Change, Energy Distribution, Mircofossils in the Ocean

Source:  The Atmospheric Radiation Measurement (ARM) Education and Outreach Program

Web address: http://www.ucmp.berkeley.edu/fosrec/Loubere.html

Grade Levels:  9-College

Learning Strategies:  Interactive activities, discussion, simple experiments

Frameworks Connections:

Science and Technology/Engineering

• Earth and Space Science, Grade 9 or 10

  1.Matter and Energy in the Earth System
  2.The Earth’s Sources of Energy
  3.Earth Processes and Cycles

• Biology, Grades 9-10

  6.Ecology

• Physics, Grade 9 or 10

  3.Heat and Heat Transfer

• Chemistry, Grade 10 or 11

  10.Thermochemistry

Cost:  Free

Description: This site offers information and interactive exercises on global climate change with a primary goal of integrating various scientific disciplines to examine how different aspects of our planet work together.  Within the exercises, students examine how energy is absorbed from the sun, how and why this energy is distributed over the earth's surface, what controls energy distribution, how to track the energy distributing process using the oceanic microfossil record, and what this microfossil record shows us about variation of heat distribution with time. 

Among the hands-on experiments are investigations of radiation, of how heat is stored, and of microfossils are in relation to the temperatures of the ocean. Some of the activities contain more in-depth information and setup time than others, and the author explains that it is necessary to use these activities together as a whole in order to reach their potential for scientific conclusions.