NOAA Paleoclimatology/NCDC
This month Earthscape adds a series of educational features from NASA’s Earth Observatory to the collection. Of particular interest is an Introductory Course on Paleoclimatology and an Introduction to Climate Modeling.
Paleoclimatology is the study of past climate, for times prior to instrumental weather measurements. Paleoclimatologists use clues from natural "proxy" sources such as tree rings, ice cores, corals, and ocean and lake sediments to understand natural climate variability.
E-Seminar
The Slow-Motion Tsunami: How Climate Change Could Change the World 
Educational Resources
NOAA’s Paleoclimatology site offers an intro course and many other resources. The site provides an in-depth look at topics significant to climate change.
The Education and Outreach part of the NOAA Paleoclimatology site contains several links that explain how scientists collect climatic data from the past, before the days of the thermometer, barometer, rain gauge and other weather instruments. Resources include slide sets, external links, a Climate TimeLine Information Tool, and a page in Spanish.
Intended for grade levels: Middle (6-8) High (9-12)
Virtual Earth Trips, courtesy of Cornell University, and the Paleontological Research Institute. This exercise will allow you to discover the raw information of earth science in the same way professionals do - from field exploration.
Climatologist's Toolbox , courtesy of The Why Files, University of Wisconsin, is a fun accessible overview.
The Discovery of Global Warming - Climate Change
This site created by Spencer Weart with support from the American Institute of Physics and NSF is a hypertext history of how scientists came to (partly) understand what people are doing to cause climate change.
From the Earthscape Archives
Principles of Paleoclimatology: Perspectives in Paleobiology and Earth History e-book
Earthscape Course Content Atmosphere: Paleoclimates, Illustrated Lectures
Ice Cores: Windows to the Past Teachers Experiencing Antarctica and the Arctic
October Additions to Earthscape:
Learning
- Sensing Remote Volcanoes
- Paleoclimatology
- Modeling the Land Biosphere
- Tango in the Atmosphere: Ozone & Climate Change
- Smoke's Surprising Secret
- Savanna Smog
- Will Runaway Water Warm the World
- Polar Wind Data Blow New Life into Forecasts
- A New Idea in Air Quality Monitoring
- Little islands Big Wake
- Enhancing Research and Education through Partnerships
- Dwindling Arctic Ice
- A Delicate Balance: Signs of Change in the Tropic
- Cloudy with a Chance of Drizzle
- Clouds are Cooler than Smoke
- Arbiters of Energy
- From Wetland to Wasteland - The Destruction of the Hamoun Oasis
- Watching the World Go By
- Watching Plants Dance to the Rhythms of the Ocean
- Tracking a Volcano: Satellite Observations of Piton de la Fournaise Reunion Island
- A View from Above
- Urbanization's Aftermath
- Time on the Shelf
- Stealing Rain from the Rainforest
- Finding Fossils from Space
- Winds Connect Snow to Sea
- Snow Sleuths
- Sizing Up the Earth's Glaciers
- Silvus Borealis
- Seeing Leaves in a New Light
- Sedimental Reasons
- River Seasons
- When Rivers of Rock Flow
- Rise and Fall: Satellites Reveal Full Length of Tsunami-Generating Earthquake
- The Road to Recovery
- On Thin Ice
- New Light on Ice Motion
- The Mystery of the Missing Carbon
- Mosaic of Antarctica
- Melt-down, Melt-down, Melt-down, Melt-down
- Mayan Mysteries
- Looking for Lawns
- Location, Location, Location
- When Land Slides: New Imaging Methods to Monitor Slope Failure
- Land Matters
- Lake Victoria's Falling Waters
- Hurricane Floyd: Fearing the Worst
- Human Impact on the Mojave
- Growing Data
- Grasslands Initiative
- Global Garden Gets Greener
- At the Edge: Monitoring Glaciers to Watch Global Change
- Frozen Soils and the Climate System
- From Forest to Field - How Fire is Transforming the Amazon
- Forest on the Threshold
- The Human Footprint
- Hurricane Floyd's Lasting Legacy: Assessing the Storm's Impact on the Carolina Coast
- Floods: Using Satellites to Keep Our heads Above Water
- Fiery Temperament
- Fire and Ice
- Fire Emergency in Acre, Brazil
- High Water: Building A Global Flood Atlas
- Evolving in the Presence of Fire
- Escape from the Amazon
- Putting Earthquakes in their Place: A New Map of Global Tectonic Activity
- From the Dust Bowl to the Sahel
- When the Dust Settles
- The Dirt on Carbon
- Denali's Fault - Alaska Satellite Facility DAAC
- Defying Dry: Amazon Greener in Dry Season than Wet
- Deep Freeze and Sea Breeze: Changing Land and Weather in Florida
- Global Temperature Trends: Continued Warmth in 1999
- Collapse of the Kolka Glacier
- Uncovering Chameleons
- Rain Helps Carbon Sink
- Ancient Crystals Suggest Earlier Ocean
Research
Journals
The Journal of Geoscience Education
- Journal of Geoscience Education Volume 54, Number 3 (May 2006)
- Journal of Geoscience Education Volume 54, Number 2 (March 2006)