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Mission Library

Extreme Conditions

Climate Change
Grades 4-12

The Mission

48 min

Storyline

Created in collaboration with the National 4-H Association

Facing quickly rising global temperatures on Vespus I, the crew must work quickly to save lives and find the cause of the sudden shift in temperature.

Upon arriving, Vespus I is in chaos. Analyzing all the active catastrophes, the crew will decide to evacuate the high...

3-Dimensional Science

Phenomenon

Human activity can have an impact on global climate change.

Science and Engineering Practices

Analyzing and Interpreting Data

  • Analyze and interpret data to provide evidence for phenomena.

Constructing Explanations and Designing Solutions

  • Construct a scientific explanation based on valid and reliable evidence obtained from sources (including the students' own experiments) and the assumption that theories and laws that describe the natural world operate today as they did in the past and will continue to do so in the future.

  • Apply scientific ideas, principles, and/or evidence to construct, revise and/or use and explanation for realworld phenomena, examples, or events.

  • Apply scientific reasoning to show why the data or evidence is adequate for the explanation or conclusion.

Obtaining, Evaluating, and Communicating Information

  • Critically read scientific texts adapted for classroom use to determine the central ideas and/or obtain scientific and/or technical information to describe patterns in and/or evidence about the natural and designed world(s).

Crosscutting Concepts

Cause and Effect

  • Students classify relationships as causal or correlational, and recognize that correlation does not necessarily imply causation. They use cause and effect relationships to predict phenomena in natural or designed systems. They also understand that phenomena may have more than one cause, and some cause and effect relationships in systems can only be described using probability.

Stability and Change

  • Students explain stability and change in natural or designed systems by examining changes over time, and considering forces at different scales, including the atomic scale. Students learn changes in one part of a system might cause large changes in another part, systems in dynamic equilibrium are stable due to a balance of feedback mechanisms, and stability might be disturbed by either sudden events or gradual changes that accumulate over time.

Disciplinary Core Ideas

ESS3.D: Global Climate Change

  • Human activities affect global warming. Decisions to reduce the impact of global warming depend on understanding climate science, engineering capabilities, and social dynamics.

Timeline

0:00

Mission Start and Briefing

2:12

Docking Port Navigation

8:19

Activating Engines

9:05

Arrival / Communicating with Planet

10:15

Investigation

16:50

Decision Point

19:09

Transporting Civilians

20:44

Investigation

27:19

Decision Point

29:36

Assembling wind turbine

30:26

Investigation

36:16

Decision Point

39:13

Firing defenses to block off gas pocket

40:13

End

Skills in Action

CollaborationCommunicationCritical ThinkingData LiteracyDecision-MakingDigital LiteracyInitiativeMetacognitionProblem SolvingResilience