The Research Experience for Teachers Program /

Activity Title: “Climate Change and Sea Levels”

Introduction/Motivation:

The Oceans are changing. Many observations show that the ocean has been changing over the last several decades. One aspect of this is a warming ocean resulting in increase of ocean volume through thermal expansion. There has also been addition of water from glacier and ice sheets and changes in storage of water on or in the land (e.g. retention of water in man-made dams and extraction of water from aquifers). These together result in changes in sea level. This activity will allow students to explore the potential impact of the rising sea levels on coastal environments.

Materials List:

  • Google Earth (
  • Basic 2D image editor (MS Paint will work fine)
  • Access to a computer

Procedure:

Background:

You will work independently to develop a graphical simulation of rising sea levels based upon predictions for the next century. This simulation will allow you visualize the potential impact on coastal regions as the sea levels rise

Preparation:

Make sure that your computer has Google Earth installed on it as well as a simple 2D image editor (MS Paint will work fine for this exercise). Read through the following article detailing sea level rise prediction models to determine the best and worst case scenarios derived from these systems:

Lab Activity:

  1. Launch Google Earth on your computer.
  2. With Google Earth running, enter a coastal city that you are interested in exploring in the search bar along the top left corner to have Google Earth display that location.

Search dialogue within Google Earth

  1. Save an image of the area you are looking at as a before image for reference.

Save as image button in Google Earth

  1. Create a basic 2D image to serve as an overlay for the rising water layer. In MS Paint create a new image and resize the image to make sure that it is a perfect square.

Resizing an image in MS Paint

  1. With the image sized as a perfect square use the bucket tool to fill the whole image with a solid color. Any color would work, but we would recommend a bright color to help make the “water” more visible within Google Earth.

  1. Save the image as square.jpg.
  2. In Google Earth make sure that the active layers are:
  3. Borders and labels
  4. Roads
  5. 3D Buildings
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  1. Create a new Image Layer Overlay for Google Earth

Create new image layer

  1. Within the new image layer dialogue use the following:
  2. Name = Water Overlay
  3. Link = Browse to and select the square.jpg image from earlier
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  1. In the Location tab:
  2. N = 90° 0'0.00"N
  3. S = 90° 0'0.00"S
  4. E = 180° 0'0.00"E
  5. W = 180° 0'0.00"W
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  1. In the Altitude tab:
  2. Altitude = 1m
  3. Drop down = absolute
  4. Press the OK button
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  1. Take note of the difference in the water level by creating another image as in step 3 to serve as the after picture.
  2. Compare the two images and be prepared to answer the questions in the assessment.

  1. Repeat the simulation for a 2m increase in sea level by:
  2. Locate the Water Overlay
  3. Right click on Water Overlay
  4. Select Properties
  5. Modify the Altitude from 1m to 2m
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  1. Create an after image for the 2m rise in sea levels.

Sample images of Kitty Hawk, North Carolina:

Before / 1m rise / 2m rise

Assessment

Pre-Assessment

Students should prepare the following information from their data:

  1. What impact did the 1m rise in sea level have on the region you explored?
  2. What impact did the 2m rise in sea level have on the region you explored?

Results/Conclusions

Students should consider the values that they have gathered thus far:

  1. Was the impact to the region what you expected it to be? Why or why not?
  2. Based upon your results, is the potential rise in sea level a serious threat to coastal regions?
  3. What potential impact would this have on traffic and access to the region?
  4. What potential impact would this have on wildlife native to the region?

Reference(s):

Rising sea level predictions:

Sea level rise:

#DrownYourTown: