Back to School with Earth@Home Climate
September 15, 2023
The school year is in full swing! Do you teach about climate change, or know someone who does? Earth@Home, the Paleontological Research Institution’s free website to help anyone learn about the Earth and its history, has recently expanded to include a climate change section to help you and your students. Below are some examples of what you can find.
The Teacher-Friendly Guideᵀᴹ to Climate Change
This guide is a content resource for teaching about climate change, and has been used by teachers nationwide. You’ll now find updated, enhanced, online versions of almost all the chapters from the original book.
The guide includes the basics of climate change science, social science concepts important for teaching climate change, U.S. regional information, and climate change solutions. The National Center for Science Education honored PRI with the 2019 Friend of the Planet award, saying that PRI “deserves special praise for The Teacher-Friendly Guide to Climate Change, the single best available resource for teachers on climate change."
Teach Climate Change
Here you’ll find classroom activities that serve as the lab manual for The Teacher-Friendly Guideᵀᴹ to Climate Change. Teaching toolkits, many of which have accompanying videos, are searchable by topic and grade level, and include an overview, NGSS standards, materials lists and instructions, handouts, and background information.
Quick Answers
Find quick answers to frequently asked questions about climate change, and fact sheets on climate change science and solutions.
Videos
PRI’s YouTube channel features playlists with videos on a variety of climate change and energy topics. The playlist “In the Greenhouse: Exploring Climate Change” contains videos of hands-on activities and demos for everyone interested in better understanding climate change science and solutions.
Exhibits
Here you’ll find an overview of PRI's climate change-themed exhibits, and links to online versions of the exhibits that visitors see at the Museum of the Earth and the Cayuga Nature Center in Ithaca, NY.
The Museum of the Earth’s exhibit Changing Climate: Our Future, Our Choice includes a Teacher’s Guide with K-12 activities and discussion questions for each section of the exhibit.
This exhibit also includes a section called Share Your Views on the News, with current climate and energy news and the opportunity to respond to a question about the news and to see other people’s responses. It’s a great way to start talking about climate change.
Other Resources
Find lots of other resources to help you learn and teach about climate change, including
climate change and energy blog posts
weather preparedness information from the National Weather Service
bioblitz information and data from our ongoing series of seasonal bioblitzes
an overview of climate change in Central New York
information on sugar maples and climate change
overviews of U.N. COP meetings
environmental data collected by PRI at our public venues
climate change haiku: short poems accompanied by images and brief information about climate change (could be a student project for English class)
