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Listed under:  Science  >  Earth and space  >  Atmosphere  >  Climate  >  Climate change
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Making a difference: development for a better future

This series of project-based resources use real world contemporary contexts to highlight opportunities and challenges in international food and nutrition security, particularly in the Asia-Pacific region. Resources focus on international agricultural practices and Australia's role as a member of the global community. The ...

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Visualising climate change lesson

In this lesson, students explore different approaches to data representation, with the aim of engaging audiences with scientific data. They explore local temperature and rainfall datasets over time and represent trends in innovative ways. Students learn about different ways to visually represent climate change, looking ...

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Climate-resilient homes lesson

In this lesson, students explore how architects consider sustainability factors when designing innovative climate-resilient homes. Students then design their own climate-resilient home for a location of their choice. In their designs they are asked to consider many factors such as the climate of the location, orientation ...

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Designing urban carbon sinks lesson

In this lesson, students learn about the role of vegetation as carbon sinks, conduct field work to evaluate local carbon sinks and explore urban design issues. Students asses their own carbon footprints using the carbon footprint calculator, learn about carbon offset, carbon farming and carbon storage programs. Students ...

Online

Turtles: impact of climate change on Flatback turtle populations

The lesson follows an inquiry process in which students use a dataset to answer relevant questions about the turtle population. They consider how to analyse and display the data in order to effectively examine the impact of rising global temperatures on flatback turtle populations.

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Melting Ice and Rising Seas

This activity invites students to investigate how melting ice is a factor contributing to sea level rise. They explore whether the location of melting ice on Earth affects the way sea level rise occurs by making a model of seas, ice and continents. The activity includes a list of tools and materials required, what to do ...

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Uranium Minerals

This 7 minute video segment from Catalyst describes how a unique deposit of beautiful crystals containing a high quantity of uranium in a safe form has been found in country Victoria. It is hoped that it may provide clues for the long term storage of nuclear waste.

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Chemicals on the Great Barrier Reef

This program deals with a range of human impacts on the Great Barrier Reef. Herbicides from land runoff have been traced to algae and sea grasses in river mouths and coastal zones along the Great Barrier Reef. Effects include retardation of photosynthesis and growth of corals. Other pressures on the reef include high water ...

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Cloud seeding

This nine and a half minute video segment from Catalyst describes how researchers from Monash University have hard evidence that cloud seeding can produce good amounts of extra rainfall. Data collected over a long period of time has give hope to scientists and environmentalists who are trying to reduce the impacts of droughts ...

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Solar thermal electricity

This program gives an update on research into solar thermal electricity. Liddell Power Station in the Hunter Valley, NSW is a hybrid power station using solar energy to pre-heat water and so reduce the use of coal and the production of carbon dioxide. Some scientists claim that harnessing the solar heat in an area 50km ...

Interactive

Why is the ozone hole bigger in the less polluted southern hemisphere?

This article provides an excellent model of a scientific explanation. It addresses the question "if the atmosphere in the northern hemisphere is much more polluted than it is in the southern hemisphere, why is there an ozone hole in the south and not in the north?"

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Species on the move

This ABC In Depth feature article presents arguments about moving vulnerable species to cooler climates in advance of climate change is a controversial strategy, and whether it could be the best way of ensuring their survival.

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World's deltas subsiding, says study

This brief ABC News in Science article from 2009 describes how two-thirds of the world's major deltas, home to nearly half a billion people, are caught between sinking land and rising seas, according to a new study. A very good example of an explanatory text dealing with examples of the impacts of human activity including ...

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Foreign Correspondent: Prehistoric evidence

Beneath the Yucatán Peninsula in south-eastern Mexico exists a karst aquifer, the largest underground river system in the world. Discover its deep caverns, which have been perfectly preserved for thousands of years, complete with prehistoric remains.

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ABC News: Getting your facts straight about water use

We hear a lot about water use in Australia. What are the real statistics about water use? What is the breakdown of water use for different groups across Australia? Watch this clip to find out who uses water and how much, and consider the value of water and the 'return' on this use for the Australian economy. The figures ...

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Drought culprit

This 12 minute video segment from Catalyst is an excellent resource for students researching how oceans influence conditions on Earth's surface. It demonstrates the advantages and disadvantages of using models in science and how our understanding is open to revision as more information comes to light.

Interactive

Aim to sustain: A world of difference

Students explore what is happening at an individual, community and global level and plan actions they will take. These may range from taking a quiz to sharing knowledge about being 'green' at home, through to planning a conference session to deliver to other students. The resource includes videos, SMART notebooks, worksheets ...

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The price of peak fuel

This ABC In Depth feature article discusses the projections of how long will our energy resources will last given that our need for fossil fuels is insatiable, but coal, oil, gas and uranium reserves are finite and some may even be in decline. This article is comprehensive, but it is dated at 2008.

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Argo floats

This minute video segment from Catalyst decade ago describes the Australian initiative, Argo, that has become a major international collaborative project to look at the world's oceans and help understand processes at depth - monitoring the pulse of the global heat balance and giving us vital information on the ocean's role ...

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Coal Gas

This 12 minute video segment from Catalyst outlines how for decades, scientists have worked to develop technologies that can unlock the energy from coal while reducing the risks of digging it up and burning it. Now entirely new industries are booming as they tap into coal seams either too gassy or too deep to be mined by ...