Education and
Public Engagement
at the Lunar and Planetary Institute
Explore! Ice Worlds

Flip-Flops or Boots?

Adapted from National Geographic's "Creative Climates" and Carleton College's Kids for Conservation "Spring 2007 Lesson 1: Introduction to Climate vs. Weather."

Overview

Children ages 9 to 13 undertake a long-term reading program to discover that, while weather is what helps you decide to wear flip-flops or boots on a given day, climate determines the ratio of the warm-weather shoe type over the cold within your closet. Children work in teams to research one of seven regions of the United States, collecting information about the climate, weather, crops, plants, and animals typical of the area. They share their findings on a regional map, and when assembled on the wall, the completed map of the United States indicates the key climate-related characteristics of each region. As a wrap-up, teams may put on a play or fashion show, create an exhibit for the library, or write a book showcasing their assigned region. The community can be invited to participate in a celebration showcasing regional foods and activities or in a photo contest.

This project is ideal for a summer reading program, but can be modified for shorter programs.

What's the Point?

Materials

For each of seven teams:

Parts I and II

Part III

For the group:

Part III

For the facilitator:

Preparation

Activity

Part I: Climate vs. Weather

1. Introduce the activity with a discussion of how the local weather and climate influences our daily lives.

Today's weather helped you decide what to wear.

Guide the discussion away from comfort and fashion and toward what is suitable for your local climate. For example, the children in northern regions or higher altitudes may only occasionally have the opportunity to wear warm-weather shoes such as sandals and flip-flops. Children in arid regions may not even own galoshes and those in warm, mild climates may not own snow boots.

Weather is what helped you decide what to wear today. Climate determines what you're likely to find in your closet.

Explain that while change is normal, it is not normal that it is happening so fast. Climate changes are now happening faster than over the last 10,000 years. The children may have heard a lot about climate change or global warming in the news and from adults. Reassure them that scientists have been talking about it as well, and are trying to decide what might be best to do about it. In general, the scientists agree that climate change is happening and our use of fossil fuels has a lot to do with it. There's a lot we can do about it, too! Turning the lights off when we leave a room, unplugging our computer when we are not using it, walking or carpooling instead of asking for a ride, and eating less meat and more vegetables are some changes we can make everyday to help reduce our impact on climate.

Facilitator's Note: Changes in Earth's orbit, in addition to less influential changes in the Sun's intensity, outgassing from volcanos and other sources, and changes in ocean currents, have resulted in cycles of cooling and warming. However, none of these periods saw such a drastic change in global average temperature over a short period of time as today.

Temperature Changes

Ancient gases and chemical signatures trapped in ice cores, tree rings, and other data provide evidence that the amount of carbon dioxide in Earth's atmosphere, and Earth's temperature, have fluctuated in a cyclical pattern through time. These cycles of cooling and warming are natural, and were caused, over the last 750,000 years, primarily by cyclic changes in Earth's orbit. During that time frame we have experienced alternating periods of warmth and periods of glaciations. However, at present, the levels of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere far exceed even the highest levels of the past half-million years. Our global temperature is increasing in response to this added greenhouse gas. Image courtesy of the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), Third Assessment Report, Climate Change 2001.


2. Divide the children into seven teams and assign each team to one of the following regions:

3. Explain that they will be using fiction and non-fiction books, the Internet, and other resources to take an imaginary journey to their assigned regions. What will the weather be like? What is the weather normally like — what's the climate? What foods grow there? What plants and animals live there? Once they have gathered information about their region, they will present their findings on their maps and display the results along with the other teams' maps.

4. Invite the children to decide what role each member will take on this journey. A team of five might each assume one of the following assignments, although additional team members could explore crops, plants, and animals.

Optional: Refer the children to newspapers or websites where they can gather daily temperature, precipitation, and extreme weather data over time.

Provide each explorer with the appropriate journal and ask the children to record their discoveries there and bring them to future programs. Invite the children to write their names and circle the name of their team's region in their journals. Announce when the follow-up activities (including Part III, the optional "Grand Finale" play, community celebration, or photo contest) will be held. If your library offers rewards for summer reading programs, describe how their regional explorations might apply.

5. Invite the children to take their imaginary journeys to their regions through fiction works. Provide titles they may choose (suggestions are included in the facilitator's guide). Develop target dates for when the reading should be finished.

Part II: Journey to the Regions of the United States

Let the teams begin their fact-finding! If the activity is being conducted over several sessions, check in with the groups periodically. What are they learning about their regions? Make sure the different team members are sharing with each other as all the "pieces" are connected. What is surprising to them? What are they finding challenging to investigate? Are the non-fiction books helpful for getting a flavor about the region? How does the author weave the region into the story?

Part III: Changes to Come

1. Distribute the regional maps and Region Features pages to the appropriate teams. Invite the children use their journals to create a wall display of their regions. Explain that the maps and Region Features will be hung together on the wall to create a unified map of the United States.

2. Ask the children to note which states they "visited" by labeling them on their maps.

3. Invite each weatherperson to describe the average weather, or climate of the region, to his/her teammates. The children then color or use craft materials to add appropriate textures to indicate the climate zones of team's regional map. For simplicity, use the following climate zones:

Optional: Use craft materials to represent the climate zones; for instance, sand paper could indicate arid areas and paper bags crumpled to mimic high terrain could indicate high elevations. Alternatively, they might include photographs of the climate zones.

4.Have the meteorologists, farmers, and park rangers note the various features of their region on their teams' Region Features pages. Remind the children to note the colors or textures on their Region Features so that others may understand what they indicate.

5. Invite each team to hang their map and legend on the wall so that all the regions fit together to form a large map of the United States.

6. Discuss weather and climate features on the map display everyone has created on the wall. Refer to the Facilitator's Regional Guide for a summary of the key features of each region.

7. Discuss the crops, plants, and animals representative of each region.

8. Share that our climate is changing. The average global temperature has increased about 1°F in the past 100 years. Scientists predict that the average temperature will continue to rise over the next 100 years, perhaps as much as 3°–10°F. Areas nearer the poles are more sensitive to warming than areas near the equator, and the Arctic is warming about twice as fast compared to the rest of Earth. It is normal for the temperature or precipitation to sometimes be a little different compared to the overall climate (as the children may have discovered while comparing their regions temperature and precipitation data with the overall regional climate). Weather changes all the time! Scientists are concerned because the overall climate is changing.

9. Show the Arctic map to the children and hang it on a wall.

10. Invite the teams to modify the United States and Arctic maps according to some changes that might occur as climate change progresses. Distribute one set of What If... Cards to each team. Invite the children to cut out the cards and answer the questions on the backs. Provide the Arctic region's cards to the team that finishes first and ask them to answer the questions on the backs and then hang the cards on the map. (Alternatively, answer the questions and hang the cards together as a group.) Invite the teams to tape the cards to their regional maps and the Arctic map.

Facilitator's Note: Environmental responses to climate change are complex and interrelated. These cards explore just some of the potential changes and consequences of global warming.


11. Optional: Pass out only the photograph side of the What If... Cards and ask the children to research the implications and fill them in on the backsides.

 12. As a group, discuss how the potential consequences of climate change may shape our future.

Grand Finale (optional)
Consider tying these concepts together with one of the following activities:

Conclusion

Invite the children to discover how simple changes in our everyday lives can positively affect our world in the activity Polar Bears Go with the Floes.