Extreme weather events of 2010: slideshow

It's always worth mining a site that has tossed up one useful thing as it's likely to have others.  Along with the infographics I told you about a while ago, Good.is has slideshows, such as this one with excellent images and content on extreme weather events of 2010 - snow! drought! volcanoes! - and more.

Another one to share with your Science, Geography and Earth and Environment teachers. You could also suggest that students could do their own versions, sourcing their own images and content in this 12-slide format.

Cheers

Ruth

Image source is Flickr: Volcanic Eruption Eyjafjallajökull.  Click on the image to go to the photographer's photostream.  Creative Commons licensed.

Powering a lightbulb: Infographics

Are you looking for some dandy graphics to explain ideas to your students (or are your teaching colleagues looking to you to do this??)?

Good.is has some useful transparencies, including this one.  Site link.  Image only.
Share this with your Science, Geography, Maths etc teaching colleagues, then investigate what else you can find on the site to share among their infographics (some fairly US-centric, but not all).

Cheers

Ruth

Climate change games

Looking for some climate change games for a colleague doing climate change/greenhouse effect etc with Year 8, I came across a few likely looking prospects.  I haven't entirely played all these, but they looked promising.

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Electrocity

http://www.electrocity.co.nz/

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From New Zealand, this game of 150 turns (but you can take them FAST to grow your city) offers development options and choices - stay green? get big? and the players need to keep their choices supplied with electricity. Games can be saved, and there are viewable examples of other people's cities to see various possibilities. Lots of scope in this one - let kids loose, or maybe set some to grow a metropolis, others to set up an ecologically sustainable place (that is also still economically viable).  Students should pay attention to the hints tab...  I used this one with a class group, and it's now VERY popular at lunchtimes too - engaging/challenging enough for students to want to play it more to increase their scores and skill.

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Let's learn why the earth's climate is changing

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http://www.eschooltoday.com/climate_change_class.html

Although this one looks more aimed at primary school level audiences than secondary, it covers a bunch of issues visually and engagingly, and could be useful with younger/lower secondary classes.

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Stablization Wedges

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http://www.princeton.edu/wedges/Stabilization_Wedges_Game_w8_Oct07.pdf

This one is a board game rather than online, with a 16-page pdf giving you the playing pieces etc.  Having outlined a variety of strategies to level off global warming (eg. wind farms), players then need to select their choice of wedges.

There is a slideshow about the options here:

http://www.princeton.edu/~cmi/resources/CMI_Resources_new_files/CMI_Stab_Wedges_Movie.swf

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Climate Challenge

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http://www.bbc.co.uk/sn/hottopics/climatechange/climate_challenge/

From the BBC, this requires players over several turns to balance out politics and choices to see the impact of these on climate (and voters).  I'd recommend the tutorial on this one, so students understand what is required and how the game works.

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Among the sources from which I found these are a links page here and one here and the Wikipedia article on global warming games.  All of these offer a bunch more links and ideas on the greenhouse effect, climate change, global warming and so forth and so on.

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Cheers

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Ruth

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PS If you have any other recommendations along similar lines, do please add them in a comment, with the URL, so others can benefit.

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Environmental language

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Does the phrase 'energy efficiency' make you think of shivering in a poorly lit room?  Do other phrases from the environmental movement mitigate against its effectiveness?  Fascinating article in the New York Times: Seeking to save the planet: with a thesaurus by John M. Broder. 
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Worth bringing to the attention of English teachers as well as those teaching environmental issues.
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Cheers, Ruth
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Google Ocean

Some time ago, a scientist said to one of the Google Earth team, "You've done a great job with the dirt - but what about the water?"


The latest upgrade to Google Earth is Google Ocean. One feature is an historical one - eg. watch the effect on the coast of Hurricane Ike.

Another feature, Historical Imagery, provides the ability to scroll back through decades of satellite images and watch the spread of suburbia or erosion of coasts.


Click a function called Touring and you can create narrated, illustrated tours, on land or above and below the sea surface, describing and showing things like a hike or scuba excursion, or even a research cruise on a deep-diving submarine.

Read about the changes and possibilities in a New York Times article here.

Google Earth's page for educators is here.  Google Ocean is in Google Earth 5.0, so check your current version if the ocean options aren't there.

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