Natural and Anthropogenic Climate Impacts as Evidenced in
This Web Seminar took place on May 2, 2012 from 6:30 p.m. to 8:00 p.m. Eastern Time.
The presenters were
Dr. Joseph McConnell,
faculty member at the Desert Research Institute (DRI) in Reno, Nevada, and
Ms. Linda Morris,
Education Program Manager for the NSF-funded Ice Drilling Program Office.
The PowerPoint, related resources from the NSTA Learning Center, and web links from
the presentation are now contained in the above resource collection. Clicking on
the collection link will place it in your Learning Center, My Library,
neatly organized under the My Resource Collections tab.
During this program, Dr. McConnell gave a brief overview of climate change as contributed
to by greenhouse gasses. He then discussed ice core samples taken from Antarctica
and what they reveal about elements in the atmosphere and how closely this data
is paralleled with economic and industrial changes around the world. Seminar participants
viewed data showing changes in carbon and lead over the last few thousand years
compared with major events in cultural history. Ms. Morris introduced participants
to the Climate Expeditions website and shared the ‘Polar Detectives’ activity in
which students can view data similar to that shared in this program and do related
exercises to increase their knowledge of climate change.
Forty-nine (49) participants were present at the live Web Seminar in addition to
the presenter and NSTA staff. Participating educators represented the states of
Arizona, California, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Kansas, Kentucky, Massachusetts,
Missouri, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Texas,
Washington, and Wisconsin. In addition, four participants joined the presentation
from locations outside the United States: Germany, Philippines, and Turkey.
Seminar participants received one of the NSTA SciGuides. A certificate
of attendance was deposited into participants' My PD Record and Certificates
area in the NSTA Learning Center for completing the evaluation form at the end of
Here are some comments provided by the participants at the end of the Web Seminar:
- “I loved the discussion of current ice core data and the inclusion of the graphs
in the PowerPoint! I am going to guide my students through an analysis of the graphs
so they can see the actual data with which scientists are using.”
- “Loved this seminar. Resources page will be helpful in the future.”
- “Global warming and the poles' receiving excess heat from the middle latitudes
are important topics for my students to understand.”
- “Wonderful content and resources.”
Thanks to the participants and the presenter for the learning opportunity, the interactions,
and a job well done!
For more information contact firstname.lastname@example.org
Underwritten by NSF