Learning Goals
Students will be able to formulate a focused Lake Erie climate question and design a geoscience-data investigation using methods and source-selection criteria that match the question.
Students will be able to analyze historical Lake Erie geoscience data and global climate-model projections to quantify climate trends and forecast regional impacts on Earth systems.
Students will be able to justify a claim about how a change to Lake Erie’s surface conditions produces feedbacks among the atmosphere, hydrosphere, geosphere, and biosphere.
Students will be able to develop quantitative carbon-cycle and computational Earth-system models that represent carbon transfers, changing energy flows, and human modifications affecting Lake Erie.
Students will be able to revise Lake Erie climate conclusions by evaluating contradictory evidence, uncertainty, limitations, peer feedback, and alternative explanations.
Products
Lake Erie Climate Investigation Notebook
Each student documents an investigable question, source-selection and methodology decisions, raw data or source notes, quantitative analyses, carbon and Earth-system model drafts, and an independent forecast. The notebook also records anomalies, uncertainty, feedback received, revisions, and a personal conclusion addressing the essential question.
Lake Erie Climate Futures Investigation Report and Public Briefing
Teams synthesize members’ evidence into a formal report and public briefing containing a methodology rationale, annotated visualizations, quantitative and computational models, an evidence-based regional forecast, and a feedback analysis. Each member contributes identifiable evidence, while the team explains conflicting findings, limitations, revisions, and follow-up questions to a community audience.
No rubric has been generated yet.