Unpacked Content
Scientific and Engineering Practices
Obtaining, Evaluating, and Communicating Information
Crosscutting Concepts
Systems and System Models
Knowledge
Students know:
- Examples of interactions that commonly occur between and among Earth's systems (e.g., the relationship between atmospheric CO2 and the production of photosynthetic biomass and ocean acidification).
- Predicted future environment changes are based on computational models.
- Examples of how human activity may affect Earth's systems.
Skills
Students are able to:
- Identify and describe the relevant components of each of the Earth systems represented in the given computational model, including system boundaries, initial conditions, inputs and outputs, and relationships that determine the interaction.
- Use the computational model of Earth systems to illustrate and describe relationships between at least two of Earth's systems, including how the relevant components in each individual Earth system can drive changes in another, interacting Earth system.
- Use evidence from the computational model to describe how human activity could affect the relationships between the Earth's system under consideration.
Understanding
Students understand that:
- Although regional climate changes will be complex and varied, current models predict that average global temperatures will continue to rise.
- The outcomes predicted by global climate models strongly depend on the amounts of human-generated greenhouse gases added to the atmosphere each year and by the ways in which these gases are absorbed by the ocean and biosphere.
- Computer simulations and other studies are yielding discoveries about how the ocean, atmosphere, and biosphere interact and are modified in response to human activities.
Vocabulary
- greenhouse gases
- climate change
- computational models
- emissions
- dynamic
- Kyoto Protocol
- biomass
- ocean acidification
- hydrosphere
- cryosphere
- geosphere
- atmosphere
- biosphere
- carbon footprint
