Earth, Our Fragile Home: Waste, Methane and Climate Change

Our Earth, our fragile home, has been experiencing many changes in its climate and environment over the past century.  The evidence in these changes can been seen by studying the weather, oceans, and our ecosystems.  Since the 1800s, our temperature has increased by an average of more than 1.5 degrees Fahrenheit.  Although there are some natural causes for this change, humans have a huge impact on this problem.  We, as humans, are releasing tons and tons of Carbon Dioxide and Methane, which are the two major greenhouse gases, also know as GHG.  These greenhouse gases (GHG) are getting trapped in our Earth’s atmosphere with nowhere to go, in return causing the temperatures and weather patterns to change. This change to our society is usually referred to as global warming, the greenhouse effect, and climate change.  

Students will take two- three weeks around Earth Day to study the many aspects around this issue, in particular, what effects our waste has on climate change.  Students will practice using different instruments in order to collect and record data from the weather.  They will have to compare and contrast the weather recorded previously in history.  Once they see how much our daily weather has changed over 50 years, students will then look into the causes of our climate change, mainly focusing on what we do with our waste. By the end of this unit, students will have to work together to create possible solutions that they can incorporate to their everyday lives, in order to help our global situation.