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Summary: This is a youtube video from National Geographic. It provides a quick primer to global warming/climate change, and also offers some simple solutions at the end.

Usage: This video could be viewed by students as an easy-to-understand introduction to the unit topic of climate change. It uses simple language in the narration to explain what global warming is, and also includes accompanying animated graphics and real-world footage to help viewers understand the information. This video is useful because climate change can be a complicated topic, even for fifth graders, and this is a great tool to provide a clear and simple intro to the topic. Also great for those who learn well with audio and/or visual content. May be a good idea to suggest students stop before the offered solutions, so they can consider their own.

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Global Warming 101 | National Geographic

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"Three-quarters of Venice flooded by exceptional high tide" -Online News Article

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"Three-quarters of Venice flooded by exceptional high tide" -Online News Article

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Summary: A news article from the Guardian about recent flooding in Venice. Article includes first-hand video footage of flooding.

Usage: Provides a look at a very real current impact of climate change. Venice provides students with a great example of how many low-lying places are vulnerable to rising sea levels. The recent flooding was due simply to an unusually high tide, not strong storms, but was made worse by Venice's rising base waterline. Additionally, flooding is an increasingly recurring problem there (and elsewhere). This article can be read individually in class or at home, and can serve as a great jumping-off point for students  to consider (or the whole class in a collective discussion) how climate change is affecting people's lives presently, as well as what will happen (and how much worse it could get) if we do not act. May be a good way to transition to introducing the term "climate refugee." The embedded video footage is more impactful than imagining the situation through the words alone, so students should watch it after the article is read.

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Three-quarters of Venice flooded by exceptional high tide

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Strong winds push water into historic Italian lagoon city in worst flooding in a decade

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"The Magic School Bus and the Climate Challenge" Book

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"The Magic School Bus and the Climate Challenge" Book

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Summary: Children's book that teaches about climate change.

Usage: Global warming can be a depressing topic if not handled properly. The Magic School Bus is a popular book and TV franchise that might make the topic more approachable for some students. This particular book takes a deliberately more upbeat tone, while still educating kids about climate change. This text may not be advanced enough for many fifth graders (publisher says up to fifth grade, but can be used for as low as first grade), so it may be a better option to be read by students who are struggling readers, or just those who need a more simplified explanation of the unit topic (versus the National Geographic video, for example).

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The Magic School Bus and the Climate Challenge by Joanna Cole | Scholastic

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Global warming is a hot topic. So why not turn to the teacher kids like the most, Ms. Frizzle ... she can get down to the scientific facts in a fun and informat

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"A Year in the Life of Earth's CO2" -Video

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"A Year in the Life of Earth's CO2" -Video

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Summary: A narrated youtube video from NASA showing the emission and transit of carbon dioxide around the earth, throughout a year; the coloration is based on concentration.

Usage: One of the biggest issues when it comes to getting people to appreciate the scope of humanity's impact on the climate system is that we cannot see the problem. Carbon dioxide, for instance, is invisible, so we cannot see it being emitted and moving around in the atmosphere. For students to really understand, and mentally conceptualize, just what we are doing to the earth, they can watch this video. In it, they can see carbon dioxide being emitted, and transiting the planet, with the highest concentrations color-coded in red. Moreover, students will be able to see where it is coming from, like the United States, hopefully giving them a better sense of our personal responsibility for this problem. Also, the explanation from the NASA narrator helps reinforce facts about climate change, as well as helping students understand what they are seeing in the video map. The content is perhaps a bit more on the advanced side (e.g. discussions of global atmospheric circulation, ocean absorption of CO2, seasonal changes in levels of photosynthesis, and the gas carbon monoxide), so it may not be equally as helpful for all students, and some teacher elaboration may be needed for some, as well. For more advanced students, it may be a great challenge idea to have them watch the video muted, to see if they can explain (written or verbal) what is going on themselves, to assess just how advanced their understanding is.

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NASA | A Year in the Life of Earth's CO2

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"Remote Hawaiian Island Wiped Off The Map" -Online News Article

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"Remote Hawaiian Island Wiped Off The Map" -Online News Article

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Summary: Article about a recent hurricane (Hurricane Walaka) in the Pacific that, to researchers' surprise, destroyed an entire small island (East Island) in the Hawaiian chain, and an important wildlife breeding ground for vulnerable species in the process.

Usage: By reading this article, students will see that not all effects of climate change will be direct and obvious (especially today). So in the example of this event, while hurricanes happen, with warming waters due to climate change, they are likely to be far stronger in intensity than they would otherwise have been. Additionally, this article will give students the opportunity to understand that global warming has (and will have) many effects, and they can also combine to create devastating consequences. In this case, rising sea levels, in concert with a more intense storm, resulted in a one-two punch of devastation, plunging a whole island into the sea. With this information, students can then consider what this may mean for some countries, like Pacific island nations and their inhabitants (again, good place to introduce or return to the idea of "climate refugees"). Also, as with this particular article, what will happen to wildlife, especially endangered species, who lose their habitats and breeding grounds when they are washed away? Finally, another important takeaway for students to have from this piece (which may require some teacher-led discussion) is that the effects we have on our planet through global warming are not always direct or even predictable, which makes leaving climate change unchecked all the more dangerous and reckless.

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A powerful hurricane in the eastern Pacific washed away an 11-acre island in the French Frigate Shoals, part of a national monument in the remote northwestern Hawaiian Islands.

Approximately a half mile long and 400 feet wide, East Island was the second-largest islet in French Frigate Shoals ― an atoll some 550 miles northwest of Honolulu ― and a key habitat for the critically endangered Hawaiian monk seal, the threatened Hawaiian green sea turtle and several species of seabirds.

The island's dramatic vanishing act was first reported by Honolulu Civil Beat and confirmed by HuffPost. Satellite images distributed by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service show the spit of white sand almost entirely erased, scattered out onto the reef to the north. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

East Island was destroyed by storm surge from Hurricane Walaka, which roared through the northwestern Hawaiian Islands as a powerful Category 3 storm this month. Seven researchers, including three studying green sea turtles on East Island, were forced to evacuate from French Frigate Shoals before the storm.

Charles Littnan, the director of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's protected species division, told HuffPost it will likely take years to understand what the island's loss means for these imperiled species.

The biggest concern, he said, is the persistent loss of habitat, which has been identified as a significant threat to monk seals and green sea turtles. Nearby Trig Island was also lost beneath the surface this year, not because of a storm but from high wave activity.

"These small, sandy islets are going to really struggle to persist" in a warming world with rising seas, Littnan said. "This event is confronting us with what the future could look like."

French Frigate Shoals is the nesting ground for 96 percent of the Hawaiian green sea turtle population, and approximately half lay their eggs at East Island. Historically, it has been the "single most important" nesting site for the turtles, he said.

All nesting females had left by the time Walaka hit, so the storm likely had little if any impact on the adult population. But NOAA scientists estimate that 19 percent of this year's nests on East Island had not yet hatched and were swept away by the storm. And 20 percent of the turtle nests on nearby Tern Island, the largest island in the French Frigate Shoals, were lost.

The island was also a critical habitat for the federally protected Hawaii monk seal, one of the most endangered marine mammals on the planet. Roughly 80 percent of the population of just over 1,400 seals live in the northwestern Hawaiian Islands, a remote archipelago that is surrounded by the Papahanaumokuakea Marine National Monument.

In a typical year, 30 percent of monk seal pups are born at East Island. In 2018, 12 pups were born there, and NOAA said it believes that all but maybe one had been weaned before the storm hit.

Littnan said that monk seals are known to move into the water to ride out storms but that scientists won't know if there was significant mortality until they are able to return to the area to survey the population next year.

Athline Clark, NOAA's superintendent of Papahanaumokuakea, described the satellite images as "startling" and said that while the long-term implications are not clear, the island's loss will have significant effects on future nesting and pupping cycles.

Before disappearing, East and Trig islands accounted for 60 percent of the monk seal pups born at French Frigate Shoals, according to NOAA.

Chip Fletcher, an associate dean at the University of Hawaii's School of Ocean and Earth Science and Technology, told HuffPost that after an initial "holy shit" moment, he realized the island's disappearance makes sense.

"This is not surprising when you consider the bad luck of a hurricane going into that vicinity and sea level rise already sort of deemed the stressor in the background for these ecosystems," he said. "The probability of occurrences like this goes up with climate change."

This month the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, the leading United Nations consortium of researchers studying human-caused climate change, issued a dire warning about the threats the world now faces. Failing to overhaul the global economy and rein in carbon emissions would come with devastating, perhaps irreversible effects, the IPCC found.

The scientific community - including experts at NOAA - has long warned that anthropogenic climate change influences extreme weather events . The 2015 National Climate Assessment concluded that " hurricane intensity and rainfall are projected to increase as the climate continues to warm ."

Phil Klotzbach, a hurricane expert at Colorado State University, said the central Pacific is one area where a lot of models forecast that climate change will trigger more frequent and stronger hurricanes. He said Walaka rapidly intensified at an "impressive rate," from a tropical storm with 40 mph winds to a major hurricane with winds of 120 mph in just 30 hours.

After reaching Category 5 strength, it weakened as it made its way north toward the national monument.

" The complete loss of the island is very impressive," Klotzbach said after viewing the photos.

From satellite imagery and observations during a flyover of East Island and Tern Island, Littnan said, NOAA scientists expect that all the islets in French Frigate Shoals were completely washed over by the storm surge. It's unclear if any others experienced significant damage.

There's no telling if East Island will return. An islet named Whale-Skate Island, also once an important habitat for Hawaiian monk seals, vanished from French Frigate Shoals in the 1990s and has not reappeared.

Clark, Fletcher and Littnan said scientists are already exploring what, if anything, can be done to intervene to protect these vulnerable habitats and increase the resilience of the affected species. Those efforts could include pumping sand back above the ocean's surface to restore islets.

"We're going to have to look at really creative ways to help support these species to persist into the future," Littnan said.

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national oceanic and atmospheric administration

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Remote Hawaiian Island Wiped Off The Map

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A powerful hurricane in the eastern Pacific washed away an 11-acre island in the French Frigate Shoals, part of a national monument in the remote northwestern Hawaiian Islands.

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"Global Warming: An Introduction" -Video

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"Global Warming: An Introduction" -Video

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Older video that discusses the Paris-precursor Kyoto Protocol on carbon dioxide emissions, and how previous predictions of what climate change may do seem to match up with what we’re seeing now. Great segue into a discussion on human inaction on climate change, and what the reasons are behind it.