Review Review: Seven Things to Know About Climate Change

SEVEN THINGS TO KNOW ABOUT CLIMATE CHANGE is an informative visualization for all ages.

Published by National Geographic, this easy-to-understand visualization focuses on seven key ideas related to climate change. Each fact contains text, data, and visuals to support its statement. In addition to the visual, a link is provided to the project’s climate hub with further information.

Librarians will find this website to be an effective way to introduce key concepts related to climate change. Ask each student to explore one of the seven facts in-depth and share that they find with their science class.

To visit the website, go to https://www.nationalgeographic.com/…/seven-things-to-know-…/.

Website Review: Surging Seas

SURGING SEAS is a fascinating website that provides sea level data, tools, and analysis.

Users can explore four areas including coastal flooding, mapping choices, a risk zone map, and a risk finder.

Coastal Floods provides an interactive showing natural and human-caused flooding in US cities between 1955 and 2014.

Mapping Choices provides maps, fly-overs, images, interactives, and reports comparing flood levels after increased in global temperatures.

The Rise Zone Map contains comparison tools that can be used to examine local sea level projections around the world and determine the risk of flooding.

The Risk Finder provides local information from selected states that can be used for analysis, forecasts, and predictions.

Librarians will find this compelling website to be an effective tool in teaching data literacy skills. The engaging content will actively engage learners in science while helping them explore data sets.

To visit the website, go to http://sealevel.climatecentral.org/.

Website Review: The World Under Water

The WORLD UNDER WATER website provides visualizations of what coastal regions will look like with rising sea levels.

The premise is simple. What’s the impact of rising sea levels? The website provides 360 views of a dozen well-known locations that may be impacted by rising sea levels at some point in the future. Viewers are invited to examine a preview of things to come.

Users are invited to enter an address or city to see what the area will look like in the future.

The Take Action area provides tools for calculating your emissions, offsetting your carbon footprint, and supporting a green project.

Librarians can use this website to jumpstart a discussion of climate change. Ask them to select a city and research the time it will take for sea levels to rise enough to impact the city shown in the visualization based on current estimates. Involve teams in comparing the projections from various websites they identify.

To learn more, go to http://www.worldunderwater.org.

Website Review: Climate Kids

CLIMATE KIDS from NASA’s Eyes on the Earth program features information and activities related to climate change.

The “Guided Tour of the Big Questions” provides an excellent overview to key concepts related to climate change. Then, users can explore eight areas of climate change including weather & climate, air, ocean, fresh water, carbon’s travels, energy, plants & animals, and technology.

The navigation bar connects users with areas where they can play games, make stuff, get information about the world, keep up to date, watch videos, and dream of a green career.

A Planet Health Report widget provides information on air, temperature, sea ice, and sea level.
The Climate Time Machine page looks at changes in the climate over the ages.

The website is colorful and engaging. Students will find it easy to read and use.

Librarians will find this to be a valuable tool for introducing students to important, accurate information about climate change. Pair this website with books about climate change. Work with the science teachers to weave in the website’s content into science activities.

The website’s teacher resources are outstanding too.

To visit the website, go to http://climatekids.nasa.gov/.

For those seeking more in-depth information, go to http://climate.nasa.gov/.