Block 1: The Greenhouse Effect: How Earth Keeps Warm Enough
Two side-by-side images: 2015 Chennai floods (waist-high water in the streets) and 2019 Chennai 'Day Zero' (dry reservoirs).
Task: What is happening in this city? How can both floods and drought be increasing? What does this tell us about climate change?
Answer in your Field Notebook, dated.
I can describe two observable climate trends affecting Chennai today, pose at least 3 questions about Chennai's climate future, and identify which Chennai residents are likely most affected.
I can use a model to show how energy in vs. energy out sets Earth's climate.
"Use a model to describe how variations in the flow of energy into and out of Earth's systems result in changes in climate."
Where this runs:
- U4 B1: The Greenhouse Effect: How Earth Keeps Warm Enough ← you are here
- U4 B2: Earth's Energy Balance: The Math
- U4 B4: Human Acceleration of Carbon + The Warming Signal
- U4 B8: Tipping Points + Feedback Loops
Assessed:
Chennai Climate Brief: the science sections (K/U components)
On track looks like:
Your brief's physics section traces an energy flow, not just names 'greenhouse effect.'
What today is about
Unit launch. Posture: agency, not doom. Anchor: Chennai.
Climate is heavy content. This unit's posture, from minute one, is "this is a challenge we engage with". The bell ringer puts two images side-by-side: 2015 Chennai floods (waist-high water in the streets) and 2019 Chennai "Day Zero" (dry reservoirs). Both happen because the same warming amplifies extremes in both directions. The greenhouse effect is the physical mechanism behind both, and today's job is to build that mechanism in detail.
The natural greenhouse effect makes life on Earth possible. Without it, Earth's average surface temperature would be ~-18°C, like a frozen planet. The enhanced greenhouse effect (extra CO₂ and methane added since the industrial revolution) is what we're talking about when we say "climate change." Today builds the difference. By the exit ticket, you can explain in two sentences why a "global average +1°C" matters more for Chennai than for, say, Reykjavík.
This unit introduces the Climate Modeler, an AI partner grounded in climate data and models. It will show you how a claim was computed, and it is trained to tell you what its models can't know. Read its opening message before your first conversation.
Before you start the work
Start with the Interact: the day's anchor, worked in pairs. The Watch is projected first, and the Read is your reference for the diagram.
Today's work: choose one path
All four paths end with a labeled energy-balance diagram + a written 2-sentence claim about why Chennai amplification matters. The path you pick is about how you build the diagram.
Sketch #1, before anything is taught (5 min, alone, no words): how does Earth stay warm? Draw it. No discussion yet; seal it in your Field Notebook, dated. You'll meet it again at the end of class.
Open your Class Notebook and type today's entry header as Heading 2:
A: Jan 14 | U4 B1 | The Greenhouse Effect: How Earth Keeps Warm EnoughB: Jan 19 | U4 B1 | The Greenhouse Effect: How Earth Keeps Warm Enough
What you're submitting today
Two sentences. Specificity is the bar.
Two sentences. Why does a 1°C global average change matter more in Chennai than in temperate cities? Sentence one names the mechanism (monsoon dependence, sea-level proximity, urban heat island, heat-mortality vulnerability of outdoor workers; pick one). Sentence two names a specific Chennai resident-group most affected. "Climate change is bad" is not the move. "Outdoor construction workers face wet-bulb-temperature risk on days above 38°C, and Chennai's days above 38°C have roughly tripled since 1980" is the move.
Submit via Google Classroom (link posted in August)One question before you leave
Three to five minutes. Your answer is saved to your reflection journal, where you can read back everything you have written this year.
Surface your starting belief about climate so we can revisit it Block 12.
Today's reflection is in Google Classroom, under Reflection Journal.
Link posted in AugustSign in with your school account. Your teacher can see what you write here.