This textbook chapter presents a real case study involving the the logging of an old stand forest from three perspectives, that of the environmentalists, the wood products industry, and a politician. An associated writing activity engages students... (View More) in reviewing the different viewpoints, and writing a "letter to the editor" for or against the logging of old growth forest. This is chapter 3 in the unit, A New World View, which introduces global systems science, emphasizing the concepts of environmental diversity, Earth as a system, and sustainability. The resource includes a textbook chapter, integrated hands-on and inquiry activities, links to current news articles, and a suite of pre- and post-unit assessments. A teacher's guide supports classroom use. The resource is part of Global Systems Science (GSS), an interdisciplinary course for high school students that emphasizes how scientists from a wide variety of fields work together to understand significant problems of global impact. (View Less)

In this problem set, students calculate precisely how much carbon dioxide is in a gallon of gasoline. A student worksheet provides step-by-step instructions as students calculate the production of carbon dioxide. The investigation is supported the... (View More) textbook "Climate Change," part of "Global System Science," an interdisciplinary course for high school students that emphasizes how scientists from a wide variety of fields work together to understand significant problems of global impact. (View Less)

In this activity, students compare and analyze lapse rates (rate of decrease in atmospheric temperature with height) for two U.S. locations. It requires the use of atmospheric temperature data downloaded from the Internet into a student developed... (View More) Excel spreadsheet. A detailed instructional tutorial (with sample screen images) for importing data from the Internet and downloading it into Excel spreadsheets is included. This lesson uses student- and citizen science-friendly microsets of authentic NASA Earth system science data from the MY NASA DATA project. It also includes data analysis tools. (View Less)