Module 7

Essential Question: How is Earth's climate connected to its geological, biological and cultural systems?

Explain: Earths Climate is dictated by the geological and biological processes that have been taking place for last 4.5 billion years. It is a project in the making. Early in earths history the climate of earth was very inhospitable by our standards, cold and lifeless. But as biological processes started to create greenhouse gases, Earth became the water planet and it gradually warmed to a point that would support life. As life started to flourish around 550 million years ago the increase in earths biodiversity began to explode. Around 300 million years ago during the Carboniferous Period Earths biodiversity began laying down vast quantities of plant life that would later fossilize into today's fossil fuels.

So lets get one thing straight here. The natural greenhouse effect on our climate has been beneficial and earth has always been able to manage its climate fluctuations. But as stated in the TD resource ,Global Warming and the Greenhouse Effect, the last 2 centuries have a seen a 25 percent increase in carbon dioxide emissions. This 25 percent increase due to mans industrialization has caused an unnatural balance in our climate and has left scientists guessing what the result will be.

Culturally speaking climate has been linked to some of the biggest events in mans short history. From the crossing of the Bering sea land bridge to man's penetration of the ice free corridors of North America, climate was the limiting factor in early civilizations as well as their impetus. And now it is mans self induced carbon dioxide footprint on the earth that is triggering , perhaps, our next biggest event worth taking note of. Since the introduction of life, planet earth has done a fairly good job of budgeting its energy savings and expenditure's. But mans recent industrialization of the last 150 years has exploited earths energy savings (fossil fuels) and expedited it's energy expenditure's ( burning fossil fuels).

Extend:

Energy Flow in the Coral Reef Ecosystem

This TD resource was great from a biological perspective. It was a great clip to be used in Biology class that shows the flow of energy through a coral reef ecosystem.

Evidence for the Big Bang

The Nova series is fantastic! I showed this series to my physical science students last year and I must admit I learned a lot. This series is packed full of the latest cosmic research. Although I must admit I am a Biology guy, but the Origins series host Neil deGrasse Tyson is fascinating to listen to.A ConversationWith Neil deGrasse Tyson

Evaluate: I truly enjoyed this module. Being a Biology guy I liked the biological undertone that it had. Although there has been material thought the class that can be worked into a biology lesson, I felt this module provided more useful info for a biology class. I don't have my final project all planned out yet, but I am definitely getting some good ideas.