Climate Change Notes

Use these climate change notes to introduce greenhouse gases, the greenhouse effect, evidence for climate change, and the consequences of a warming planet.

⭐ Check out our comprehensive Climate Change Unit!⭐

NGSS MS-ESS3-5: Ask questions to clarify evidence of the factors that have caused the rise in global temperatures over the past century. Examples of factors include human activities (such as fossil fuel combustion, cement production, and agricultural activity) and natural processes (such as changes in incoming solar radiation or volcanic activity). Examples of evidence can include tables, graphs, and maps of global and regional temperatures, atmospheric levels of gases such as carbon dioxide and methane, and the rates of human activities. Emphasis is on the major role that human activities play in causing the rise in global temperatures.

NGSS HS-ESS3-5: Analyze geoscience data and the results from global climate models to make an evidence-based forecast of the current rate of global or regional climate change and associated future impacts to Earth’s systems. Examples of evidence, for both data and climate model outputs, are for climate changes (such as precipitation and temperature) and their associated impacts (such as on sea level, glacial ice volumes, or atmosphere and ocean composition). Assessment is limited to one example of a climate change and its associated impacts.

Teacher Notes:

• These climate change notes are fully editable.
• Includes both PowerPoint and Google Slides versions.
• Our Climate Change Unit is the best place to start if you’re teaching climate change!